Business Grade 4G LTE Broadband for Work at Home

By: John Shepler

All of a sudden, everybody is working from home… or at least trying to. One of the big challenges is trying to get enough high speed, low latency bandwidth into a remote business or home office instantly. The more isolated your location, the tougher it gets. Well, thanks to the wide coverage of 4G LTE cellular broadband and high performance modem/routers, you can get the bandwidth you need fast, at low cost and with no long term commitment. Does that sound interesting?

The Secret is Wireless
Forget having wires or, worse, fiber run to your location. That’s not going to happen fast and it might cost you a small fortune in construction fees plus a multi-year commitment. For a situation that may only last a few months to a year, it’s tough to take on a contract like that. Fortunately, you don’t have to.

Wireless broadband is now just about everywhere with any population at all. Can you get a decent cell phone signal? Then you are pretty much assured of having broadband Internet access. The cellular phone system started out as a replacement for voice-grade landlines, but has morphed into a broadband Internet service that also supports phone calls. The current widely deployed iteration is 4G LTE. Signals are strong and bandwidth is similar to many cable services. All you really need is a way to connect.

Instant Desktop Broadband
Here’s a little secret that I use to backup my own cable broadband. Your iPhone will act as a personal hotspot. Just turn that feature on, select that network name on your desktop WiFi and enter the password the phone gives you. Voila! Your desktop computer in on the Internet. No wires needed.

This works great for short term outages, but if you are going to use this service day after day, there is always the nasty issue of data limits. You may have 20 GB on your wireless plan, but typical monthly use is more like 250 GB. Your cellular plan won’t cut it for the long term. You need something designed for business.

Business Grade Wireless
Instead of a cell phone, you need something that looks more like a WiFi router but with 4G LTE driving it instead of DSL or Cable. These are made by companies like CradlePoint with service from business broadband providers like For2Fi.

A single box has a 4G LTE modem with antennas and a WiFi signal router. Some models include firewalls, Ethernet ports, and even Power over Ethernet (PoE). Unlike a cell phone, you can add an external antenna to boost the signal in areas with weak coverage.

Enterprise Grade Service
Would unlimited usage (subject to 300 GB acceptable use policy) at 20 to 50 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload with low latency and low packet loss work for you?

You will be able to do the usual web browsing and email, but also video conferencing, file collaboration, teams and unified communications as a service (UCaaS).

But what does this cost? It’s about what you’d pay for business grade cable broadband and likely less than a 1.5 Mbps T1 line (sometimes the only other solution in rural areas). That’s with no contract. You just pay as long as you use the service.

For businesses that are really on a budget, there is also a basic plan with 1, 5, and 10 GB plans at a bargain rate. If you go over the limit, you pay a fee per GB used.

Are you faced with having to suddenly support a scattered workforce with no time to install the usual connections and in locations that might not even support high speed wireline or fiber installations? Get up and running in days, not months with a flexible enterprise grade wireless broadband solution. Use the handy online form or call toll free 888-848-8749 now.

You Need a Black Cloud Software Defined Perimeter

By: John Shepler

Are you a trusting person? Too bad. That’s going to get you hacked. Respect and privacy are admirable things, but they are not guaranteed by today’s Internet. In addition to all the incredible employees, partners, suppliers and customers that you hold in high regard, there is a dark underbelly of professional criminals, hobbyist & mercenary hackers, mischief makers, psychotics, and nation states with agendas all trolling the same network. Some are looking for victims of opportunity. Others have you in mind as a target. Can your firewall and VPN fend them off?

The Virtual Hopefully Private Network Connection
The VPN or Virtual Private Network was designed to make the Internet act more like a private line or MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) network. Even if you have a T1, DS3, OC3 or Ethernet private line at the office, you have a big security hole when an employee out on a sales or repair call stops by the coffee shop and connects back using the free Wi-Fi provided by the store.

Free really means free and open. That guy in the corner staring at his laptop is watching your traffic. He either hacked the shop’s WiFi or created his own look-alike “free” WiFi network that you connected to instead of the real one. This is called “man in the middle” and it is what VPN was designed to protect against. The VPN creates an encrypted connection called a “tunnel” from your employee’s computer to your office server. That makes it pretty hard for someone to get in the middle of the conversation unless they have the private key… and they don’t.

VPN Weaknesses
Not all VPNs have a rugged 256 bit military-grade encryption. Some use protocols that are relatively easy to crack with available hacker tools. PPTP (Peer to Peer tunneling Protocol) is over 20 years old and is desirable because it is fast and easy to setup and use. It’s also more vulnerable than protocols with stronger encryption.

Not all VPN vendors are equally capable. Weak ones may have back doors in their servers or other weaknesses that make it easy to hack the VPN server in the cloud and get everybody’s data. You won’t know until you are hacked and can’t figure out how.

An overall weakness of VPN is that it just protects the tunnel into your company. If that is compromised one way or the other, your entire network and everything on it is wide open to explore and perhaps attack. it would be better if only a small part of the company assets were exposed instead of everything all at once.

The Software Defined Perimeter Black Cloud
The idea behind a Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) is that trust is minimized by allowing access to resources user by user on a need to know basis. The research was done by the U.S. Department Information Systems Agency (DISA) and has come to be known as a “Black Cloud.” The black designation means that the network infrastructure is hidden within the cloud. There are no visible DNS or IP addresses.

SDP authenticates each user and only gives them access to the resources you have approved for that particular user so they can do their jobs. The user or IoT device has no idea what else is on the network. They can’t see it. If they can’t see it, they can’t get access. Someone impersonating that user can’t either.

A system of SDP Hosts and Controllers communicate and verify the authorizations. The Controller has the job of connecting the Initiating and Accepting Host data channels through a Gateway, once authentication and authorization has been completed through the control channels.

The SDP is not only between clients and the data center. It is also deployed within the data center to partition the network to isolate high-value applications. Only a limited number of users with have access to the highly protected application or even know it exists.

Encryption and cloaking are key to SDP security. The usual network probing, such as port scanning, won’t work because nothing will show up in the scan. In a way, SDP is creating virtual networks on a user by user, session by session, basis. What goes on behind the curtain is a complete mystery.

The End of Networks As We Know Them?
The TCP/IP network that has served us so well for decades has to go underground to keep its relevance in today’s high threat environment. We can no longer do business without the Internet and there are just too many bad actors on the public Internet. Technology must evolve to provide the illusion of a simple open Internet but with none of the familiar network topology visible.

Has your company network been hacked or are you concerned about the business disruption this might cause? Right now would be a good time to see what advances have been made in network security, especially managed security solutions in the cloud.

The Ultimate Wireless Firewall: Networks That Don’t Connect

By: John Shepler

Network security has become a major concern of any business that connects to the Internet. There’s hardly a day goes by that we don’t seen another announcement of a company that has been breached. We may be seeing only the tip of that iceberg. The public reports tend to be about companies that have their customer information compromised, especially credit card numbers. Other businesses might discover intrusions that don’t affect their customers and may elect to remain mum simply to avoid the embarrassment and bad press.

Who Can Afford Cyber Security?
The result of all this hacking and cyber warfare is that IT departments have gone on high alert. If they are going to stay connected on the Internet, they have no choice but to pay up for security appliances and cloud based network security. But what about small and medium size businesses? Can your typical doctor’s office or restaurant really afford to pay for cyber defense?

Common Sense Measures
Certainly, any independent professional or small business can take the basic common sense steps to keep casual snoops and hackers scanning for low hanging fruit out of their networks. Nearly every router also includes a firewall function and encryption for Wi-Fi access. Anyone who neglects to change the default login and password and enable the highest level of encryption their equipment will handle, is just too naieve for words.

Public Access Is Always Vulnerable
Even so, there are still those lingering doubts that the network is protected. When you unlock Wi-Fi access so that customers can use your hotspot, you run two risks. First, you open a vulnerability. The vast majority of your customers will only use the broadband access as a convenience. They’re not out to cause you trouble. But… there are characters with malicious software on their laptops who can sit themselves down and troll other customers or try to break into your network. Wi-Fi doesn’t stop at the door these days, so they may be parked outside or even sitting a block away.

Wired Only?
The safest solution is to only use wired access inside the business and avoid Wi-Fi altogether. That may really limit you and your employees by ruling out any portable and mobile devices. The next step up is to have a Wi-Fi router but lock it for employee use only. That leaves customers and guests frustrated, since they’d like to use their tablets while waiting.

Will a Firewall Work?
Is it sufficient to simply install a firewall between your business network and your public-facing Wi-Fi hotspot? The idea makes a lot of business owners nervous. It’s hard to tell, especially when you don’t have a full-time IT department watching everything, whether you are truly protected or not. Consequently, they opt for either locking down their wireless network or not having one at all.

The Two Network Solution
Here’s another approach. Install TWO networks instead of one. The first is your internal business network. This can be high performance Ethernet over Copper or Fiber Optic WAN bandwidth. It might not even connect to the Internet. Either way, connect only your own equipment to this network. If you have wireless access, lock it down. Then order a second Internet connection. This one is for your customers and does not need the performance characteristics of your primary network. A good choice for many small and medium businesses who deal with the public is cable broadband, just like they have at home.

Why Cable Broadband?
The beauty of cable broadband is that it is inexpensive, even for business locations. You get decent bandwidth levels of 10 to 100 Mbps and it's pretty reliable these days. There’s a bonus for businesses with customer waiting areas. You can bundle cable TV service with your broadband for little extra cost. You may want the TV service anyway. Why not add Internet broadband as an extra convenience?

Keep 'em Apart
Here’s what you don’t do. You NEVER connect your business network with your customer network. They remain completely separate. If you get them from different providers and keep the wires apart, there is no chance of an interconnection. If someone sits outside at night and steals your broadband signal or tries to break into the public wireless network, they won’t get far. It doesn't really connect to anything other than the Internet.

What About Your Primary Internet Access?
Most organizations do need some type of Internet access to acquire information, place orders and connect with their customers. If your main business network is not strictly internal to your company, you still need network security between your LAN and the Internet. If you have the expertise on-board, you may be able to install and manage your own firewalls. Most smaller and medium size companies will find it more cost effective to order managed security in the cloud. WAN bandwidth providers who offer this option have the necessary expertise in-house and available 24/7.

For Emergencies Only
I know. There’s a temptation to use that second network for business purposes if your primary network runs out of capacity or suffers an outage. Be very careful. In such an emergency, you may wish to disconnect the public Wi-Fi hotspot or lock it to prevent any but employee access.

Do you need point to point WAN bandwidth, primary dedicated Internet access or separate customer-facing hotspot bandwidth? How about managed security for your company? If so, find out what secure network solutions are available and appropriate for your size business.

When Asymmetrical Bandwidth Works Just Fine

Asymmetrical bandwidth has been pooh-poohed for business applications in favor of symmetrical bandwidth options. In some cases, you can wind up spending too much for the service you really need. In other cases, picking the wrong option will leave you frustrated and unproductive.

How do these symmetries work? Symmetrical bandwidth means that the upload and download speeds are exactly the same. You’ll see this identified as 3 x 3 Mbps Ethernet or 100 x 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet. The classic example of symmetrical bandwidth is the venerable T1 line. It offers a fixed 1.5 Mbps in the upload or transmit direction and 1.5 Mbps in the download or receive direction.

T1, DS3 and SONET are all symmetrical bandwidth services. The reason for this is historical. These are standards developed by the telephone companies to transport phone calls in bulk. The same bandwidth is needed for talk as well as listen on both ends. Ethernet over Fiber and Copper also tends to be symmetrical. It’s because these services were designed as replacements for T1, DS3 and SONET when used in business.

Asymmetrical bandwidth is characterized by differences in the upload and download speeds. This can be as much as an order of magnitude or 10x. You might order a service with 20 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload or 100 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload.

Asymmetrical bandwidth is dominant in consumer broadband services. These include DSL, Cable, 3G and 4G wireless, two-way satellite, WiFi hotspots and WiMAX. Why? It’s the nature of the Internet.

Most people browse the Web or download software and video while they are online. When you are doing these things, you are sending commands via your keyboard to the remotely located Web server. These commands are inherently low bandwidth and are based on text you type or links you click on. Neither of these has very many bytes of data involved. Downloads are another matter. Web pages, video clips and streams, music and other audio, software updates and large files are all bandwidth intensive because of their large file sizes. You want the maximum bandwidth available for downloads to minimize load times. You don’t need much bandwidth at all in the upload direction for the usual Web browsing.

What changes this picture? Any process that results in sending out large files as well as receiving them. Examples are remote backups, video conferencing, posting photos and movies online, and making large updates to Web servers. Most consumers do some of these things some of the time. Businesses are far more likely to be sending as much as they receive. But... not all.

If you are heavily involved in big data, cloud computing, enterprise VoIP, video production and distribution, medical image transmission or similar large file operations, you’ll want to opt for symmetrical bandwidth. Fast download speeds may not be so valuable when you wait forever to upload something or try to conduct an HD video conference.

Why pick asymmetrical bandwidth options? The primary reason is to save money. The asymmetrical services like Cable, DSL and 3G wireless are usually priced at a fraction of the cost for symmetrical services. This is generally due to more than symmetry. Asymmetrical services are most often shared rather than dedicated bandwidth. This reduces costs dramatically but means that your bandwidth will vary depending on what other users are doing. There are generally no service level agreements or performance guarantees on asymmetrical bandwidth services. That may be changing as business service providers begin offering dedicated asymmetrical bandwidth options.

What is the best bandwidth option for your business? Find out by comparing prices and features for a wide variety of asymmetrical and symmetrical bandwidth options on carriers serving your business location. Free consulting is also available to help you make the appropriate choice.

4G Wireless Broadband Options

Wireless broadband is on an upward path to take over many of the applications that have long been the domain of wireline technologies. Wireless has the convenience of portability and mobility. What’s held back deployment and more powerful applications is the limited availability and speed of wireless connections. The move to 4G wireless looks to be a potential solution.

4G or fourth generation wireless doesn’t have a strict definition, but it is roughly stated as the bandwidth typical of Cable broadband or Ethernet over Copper business connections. With this level of transmission speed and a city-wide reach, 4G wireless can take over service for desktop as well as mobile devices.

One might throw WiFi into the 4G category. The bandwidth for a, b, g, and n WiFi technologies fall into the right bandwidth category. However, WiFi is a short distance system. It works well within and nearby particular locations, such as homes, offices, restaurants, hotels, airports and even park benches. But you can’t get in your car and drive away with a WiFi connection. It will disappear as soon as you leave the parking lot. In a way, WiFi is more of a PAN or Personal Area Network like Bluetooth.

The higher power wireless technologies, including 2G & 3G are associated with cellular phone service. These are based on using networks of fixed transmitters and receivers arranged as cells with signals that fill-in the coverage between towers. The trick of turning this system into a metropolitan or wide area network is to coordinate the handoff of an existing wireless connection as the user moves from cell to cell.

The most popular wireless technology right now is 3G. It offers bandwidths similar to T1 lines and basic DSL of around 1.5 Mbps on average in metropolitan areas. You may get two or more times this speed if you happen to be near a tower with few users. This is more than adequate for many mobile uses, such as Web browsing, email and viewing video clips on smartphone screens.

Beyond limited speed, 3G also suffers from limited bandwidth availability. It shares channels with cellular telephone on the same towers. Those channels were originally sized to support expected voice traffic. They’ve been overwhelmed by the higher bandwidth requirements of Internet data traffic. That’s why carriers are so insistent on bandwidth caps.

There are a couple of different approaches to 4G wireless. The one taken by the cell phone companies is to view 4G as an upgrade to their 3G systems. There are two differing cellular system that co-exist. One is a US-centric system called CDMA that is used by Verizon, Sprint and others. The other is a more global standard called GSM that is used by AT&T and T-Mobile.

Right now, AT&T and T-Mobile have upgraded their 3G networks to a faster version of the same thing called HSPA+ that delivers up to 6 to 8 Mbps. Verizon has moved to a 4G technology called LTE that offers downloads of 5 to 12 Mbps. Sprint has gone with another 4G technology called WiMAX that delivers downloads in the 3 to 6 Mbps speed range.

As wireless continues to evolve, 4G is expected to move into two camps. LTE is the technology most discussed as a truly universal standard. WiMAX deployment actually predated LTE and has installations worldwide. Both LTE and WiMAX have technical upgrade paths that can boost download speeds to over 100 Mbps and even 1000 Mbps. This is competitive with many fiber services and ensures that 4G wireless will be with us for a long time.

One thing we’re also seeing with 4G wireless is the use of lower frequency bands that can more easily penetrate buildings. These bands came from the re-deployment of those channels from UHF TV as part of a federal auction. Clear offers 4G fixed and mobile wireless service with a telephone option over WiMAX in over 80 cities nationwide. Right now, this service offers unlimited broadband service.

MiFi Points The Way to Wireless Transition

Verizon Wireless just made an amazing announcement. They will be selling the Apple iPad in their stores. But aren’t Apple and AT&T exclusive partners? Indeed. So, why is Verizon selling a product that won’t work on their network? ...Or will it?

Yes, it will. How Verizon accomplished this clever feat of engineering points the way to the future of wireless broadband. Actually, not the future future. Just the immediate future. Call it the era of wireless transition.

Wireless technology has pretty much developed along two lines. One is the telecom carriers, including AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. There are other players in the cellular wireless game, but they are simply private branded versions of the big four within the US. What characterizes the major carriers is that their offerings are proprietary. What works on AT&T won’t work on Verizon Wireless, and vice versa.

The other wireless path is an industry standard known a WiFi. It comes in flavors such as a, b, g, and n. But unlike telecom carrier services there is enough commonality and backwards compatibility that pretty much any WiFi device will work on pretty much any wireless router, hotspot or access point.

What Verizon has cleverly done is marry the two lines. They can’t get into the iPad through the front door, so the come in the back door. How? Very simple. They use an interface device to convert cellular to WiFi. That device is the MiFi. The Verizon MiFi is a little box about the size of a pack of cards. Inside is a cellular radio, a WiFi radio, a battery and some circuitry to make it all work. All you do is push a button to turn it on and the converter works automatically. It allows up to 5 wireless devices to gain access to the Verizon 3G wireless network as if they were Verizon-enabled to begin with.

The Verizon iPad will consist of an Apple iPad and a Verizon MiFi bundled together. They are separate pieces of equipment, but the MiFi will slip into your pocket or bag so it isn’t intrusive. At first blush, it may seem like having to carry around two pieces of equipment instead of just one is a big disadvantage for Verizon compared to AT&T. But Verizon may get the last laugh after all. The MiFi provides 3G connectivity for your iPad, but it also provides 3G connectivity for your other devices that don’t have their own 3G service built-in. That includes your laptop computer, netbook, games, and even your Apple iPod. If you had to buy separate 3G service for each device, you’d go broke. But one MiFi can serve whatever gadgets need connectivity, as long as they are WiFi enabled.

Verizon isn’t the only one with a MiFi. Novatel, maker of the MiFi, offers an unlocked version for GSM carriers AT&T and T-Mobile. There’s a MiFi specifically for Virgin Mobile. Sprint goes one further with their Sierra Wireless Overdrive 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot. It works on both the Sprint 3G Mobile Broadband network and its 4G WiMAX network. CLEAR offers a similar 3G/4G converter called Clear Spot.

Even these converters are transitional technology. Smartphones, starting with the Droid X by Motorola and Samsung Epic, have the cellular to WiFi hotspot capability built-in. This is likely to become a standard feature on smartphone designs, as WiFi and Bluetooth are the industry standard wireless technologies. WiFi has the greater transmission range.

Down the road a few years, the tide of wireless seems to be going in the direction of standardizing on LTE as a 4G standard. Cellular phone may give way to VoIP over LTE. At that point it will be hard to tell the difference between a mobile phone, a smartphone and a digital device like a tablet computer. Perhaps a single smart radio chip will provide universal wireless connectivity. Just pick your carrier and sign up for a service plan after you buy the device. The wireless transition era will be complete.

4G Wireless Expands Across The Nation

If you’ve been frustrated by the lack of low cost broadband at your home or business, help is on the way. In fact it may have already arrived.

CLEAR, the innovator of 4G Wireless broadband using the WiMAX standard, is now available in more cities. These include:

Washington DC Metro
Grand Rapids, Michigan
St. Louis, Missouri
Rochester, New York
Syracuse, New York
Eugene, Oregon
Merced, Oregon
Salt Lake City, Utah
Richmond, Virginia
Tri-Cities, Washington
Visalia, Washington
Yakima, Washington

What’s all the excitement about 4G? It’s not only the next step up from 3G wireless, but a service that actually takes the place of wireline broadband in many cases. You get high bandwidths of 3 Mbps to 6 Mbps download with occasional bursts up to 10 Mbps. Unlike WiFi, WiMAX 4G has the power to cover an entire city and even provide desktop computing bandwidth. You get what looks like a DSL or Cable modem, except there is no broadband wire to connect. The signal comes through the air.

Also unlike DSL or Cable, you can have an extra modem that plugs into your laptop computer for broadband on the go. Forget trying to find hotspots when you need them. Just wake up your computer and you’ve got broadband Internet wherever you are. That’s the beauty of wireless. Best of all, you can have both fixed and mobile service on the same account if you want to.

This has got to cost, right? Would you be surprised to know that prices start at $30 a month for unlimited broadband? Perhaps even surprised and delighted?

I thought so. Well, don’t wait a minute longer. Check and see if you can get 4G wireless at your home or business location, or both. If you can, you’ve got an unbeatable combination of fixed and mobile service for a lot less than your other options... if you can even find them at all.

What’s the Difference Between WiMAX and WiFi

The names sound similar. There’s WiMAX and WiFi. Does the MAX mean that WiMAX is just a more powerful version of WiFi? In a way, you could think of WiMAX as a broadband service that creates a giant hotspot. In fact, a hotspot that covers an entire city and can be used inside buildings and cars. But WiMAX is actually more like 3G cellular broadband than the ubiquitous WiFi routers or hotspots. Have a look at this video to see what WiMAX is all about.



WiMAX is a powerful wireless standard that is being deployed all over the world to provide wireless broadband service for both fixed and mobile computers. In more and more cities in the US, WiMAX is being installed on those old analog TV channels that were sold in last year’s spectrum auction. No, your old tube TV won’t pick it up and give you broadband. You’ll have to subscribe to CLEAR WiMAX 4G wireless broadband service. It’s fast, reasonably priced and lets you use the same account for both desktop and laptop PCs.

MiFi Hotspot Comes to Sprint

Wait! What's that slim silver box? Is that a cigarette case in your pocket? If so, how retro is that?

No? It's actually a WiFi hotspot? How avant-garde is THAT?

The silver case is actually the new Novatel MiFi 2200 Personal HotSpot for Sprint PC wireless service. A WiFi hotspot? Yes, indeed. OK, so where do you plug it in and where's the RJ-45 network connection?

You don't plug it in. It's wireless and portable. There's no power cube, no network cable, no stubby rubber antenna. All you see is a silver case that could be concealed in your palm or shirt pocket. There's a button on the front to activate it and LED indicators so you know the operational and battery status. But make no mistake about it, this is really a WiFi hotspot that performs as well or better than the ones you find in the coffee shop.

What's inside that slim silver case is a cellular transceiver that connects to the Sprint PCS data network. It runs the EVDO Rev 0 and Rev A mobile broadband protocols, with fallback to the slower 1xRTT if necessary. Peak download speed is 3. 1 Mbps. That's a LOT faster than what I've been seeing on the free restaurant WiFi services.

The other component inside the box is a WiFi transceiver that works with just about any Wi-Fi enabled device from laptop computer to gaming console to digital photo frame. Like any good hotspot this one reaches out 10 meters or 30 feet. You may not care about a 30 foot radius if you've got it in your shirt pocket, but your eager friends will. That's because this hotspot will support up to 5 simultaneous users. Be kind and share with family and friends. Or hog it to yourself. Security includes WPA2-PSK, WEB and SPI Firewall. That should keep the unworthy wretches from slowing down your connection and using up your 5 GB monthly bandwidth quota. Wretches, meaning those people who use to speak to you before you started bogarting your broadband.

Oh, there's one other important component inside your MiFi 2200. It's the 1150 mAh Li-ion battery. Like a cell phone or digital camera, this battery is both small and potent. You'll get up to 4 hours of continual usage for a single Wi-Fi client. Standby time is up to 40 hours. How do you recharge it? With the included wall charger or through a USB cable connected to your computer. That could be the same computer that makes use of the cellular broadband service provided by the MiFi. It's a symbiotic relationship.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

Ghost Routers In The Sky

Look! Up in the Air! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Wi-Fi.

The age of the flying hotspot is upon us. After some tentative starts, it now looks like the entire air fleet is embracing wireless Internet service for its customers. American Airlines recently announced it is joining the fray by installing WiFi access on more than 300 planes. Delta, Northwest and Virgin already have similar services in the works.

You knew it had to be this way eventually. We're an addictive nation. We may be shunning old vices like tobacco, trans fats, gas guzzling SUVs and even plastic bags. But electronic fixes are the new high. No teenager would be caught cell-less. No adult is going to be forced to take more than short trips without logging on to the Internet. The hotel industry caught on to this insatiable demand a decade ago. Restaurants caught on this decade.

Now it's time for the airlines. We may not need in-flight meals or drinks or movies or pillows. We don't care if we're crammed in like lobsters headed to that final sauna. You can make us sit in those cramped little seats for three hours before we take off. But there better be Internet service, or else.

The airlines are no fools. They're not going to be giving away WiFi access, after all. Have that $10 bill ready for the short hops. More for longer flights. American is going to offer a lower cost service for smartphones and PDAs, so the text addicted can keep on tweetin'. But don't get the idea you can flap your yap on a cell phone. You can only let your fingers do the talking. Quiet clicking will be acceptable to your fellow travelers, unlike some buffoon talking much too loudly and sharing way too much personal information.

There are two competing systems for in-flight Internet service. One uses cellular towers along the flight path. The other uses satellites. Aircell's Gogo system is cellular based, but you don't pick up the signal directly from the cell towers. Instead, the airplane receives the transmissions and feeds an onboard WiFi hotspot supporting 802.11 a/b/g wireless communications. That makes it compatible with everything but non-WiFi enabled cell phones.

Boeing's Connexion pioneered the use of satellite to plane links to provide service over water where there are long stretches of the briny deep with no land and no cellular towers. Service was discontinued in 2006 due to lack of sufficient demand.

A mere three years later, the demand has materialized. Perhaps it's due to our ever more connected world where both our business and personal lives require near-constant connection with the Internet. Perhaps air travel has finally become miserable enough that only our only escape is down the online rabbit hole into an alternate reality. But so many airlines are busily testing and deploying wireless routers on their planes that it looks like WiFi in the air is here to stay.

The big question is how long airlines will be able to collect those access fees for the same broadband service that hotels and restaurants are giving away free. We'll know the answer when people start picking their flights based on who is going to give them free WiFi.

AT&T HSUPA Aircards Have the Edge Over EDGE

AT&T, like the other major wireless carriers, has been on a determined program to upgrade its cellular data capabilities. Broadband is the service in demand for everything from Web browsing to streaming mobile video. Wireless is the broadband service in demand. Everyone wants to be connected to the Internet 24/7 wherever they happen to be. AT&T is only too happy to scratch that itch.

If you've been dutifully plodding along with your wireline broadband connection at work and/or home and get by with a basic cell phone for staying in touch verbally, then you may have missed the latest initiatives in the mobile broadband revolution. Even if you venture out with your trusty laptop to enjoy a hot cup of joe and relax with your favorite websites at a nearby WiFi hotspot, you may not be getting all the mobility you could have.

WiFi hotspots have been the rage for years, with free WiFi now expected in restaurants and hotels. What's really helped establish this technology is standardized interfaces built into nearly every laptop, notebook and netbook computer. Many smartphones are also WiFi enabled. WiFi has given everyone the idea that the Internet needn't be a tether to your desk. But WiFi has some real limitations.

This is what the much heralded WiMAX is supposed to address. Think of WiMAX as a WiFi hotspot that covers a town. Sounds pretty good, right? But WiMAX has been in development for years and is only now starting its years and years of nation-wide buildout.

In the meantime, the established mobile communications providers - the cell phone carriers - have been thinking that they've already established their turf and have the transmitting towers in place to provide near-universal wireless coverage. The one thing they've been lacking is a really fast Internet service to go along with their mobile telephone service.

This is the system that AT&T has been building out. It's been done in stages with connectivity similar to a dial-up ISP being launched first. Next came true broadband with a service called EDGE or Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution. EDGE gives you bandwidth similar to entry level DSL services at around 384 Kbps. That's not bad for email or general Web surfing, but most users are now spoiled with higher speeds and bandwidth-intensive applications like streaming video.

To gain more bandwidth, AT&T has been upgrading to a faster technology called HSPA or High Speed Packet Access. HSPA comes in two flavors. HSDPA is High Speed Downlink Packet Access. It is focused on a large download bandwidth of of up to 3.6 Mbps with a relatively small upload bandwidth. HSUPA offers a true broadband upload channel with download speeds up to 2 Mbps. I say "up to" because the performance you experience will vary with signal strength and how many other users are trying to access the network at the same time you are connected.

How do you get connected to the AT&T 3G BroadbandConnect and Nationwide EDGE networks? You'll need a wireless modem, such as the Option Quicksilver USB Modem, that plugs into a USB connector on your mobile computer. This particular aircard, as wireless modems are called, works with both types of networks. The Nationwide EDGE network is available in 13,000 cities. The faster 3G BroadbandConnect network based on HSPA (including HSUPA and HSDPA technologies) is now available in 260 U.S. metro areas.

The Quicksilver modem works with both PCs and Macs and is available free with your Wireless Data Plan order. The plan runs $60 a month and includes 5 GB of data per month. That's way more than most people will use on a mobile computer.

Sierra Wireless also offers a USB modem called the Sierra Wireless Mercury USB Modem for AT&T. It is also available free of charge with a data plan service order. The Sierra Wireless modem includes a built-in GPS receiver that can be used with location based services and a microSD slot for expandable memory.

If you prefer an aircard that plugs into a PCMCIA slot on your laptop, there are several to choose from. A free one is the Option GT Ultra PCMCIA PC/Mac Card which has a retractable butterfly antenna. Others available for a small cost include the Sierra Wireless AC881 PC/Mac PCMCIA Card, and the Option GT Ultra ExpressCard PC/Mac Card that fits into the ExpressCard/34 (mm) slots on some computers. Pick the card and interface that works best with your computers.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone Gets Vocal

You've been thinking about a smartphone upgrade for your next cell phone, but which one? Can't decide if you want a touchscreen phone like the Apple iPhone, the BlackBerry Bold, or the Samsung Delve? Or perhaps you'd really rather have a hidden full QWERTY keyboard for those heavy texting times. How about a trackball for navigation like the BlackBerry Pearl? Then there's the matter of connectivity. You'd really like 3G, but you know it isn't always available. Sure would be nice to have WiFi capability to surf the Web fast when you need that broadband capability.

How can you decide what to buy when you want it all? Well, why not get it all with the HTC-built G1 for T-Mobile? Yes, this is the famous "Android Phone" that marked Google's entry into the mobile wireless field. It runs on the T-Mobile network for quad band cellphone service. Plus it has an excellent array of data capabilities. Within the T-Mobile G3 network footprint, the G1 uses HSDPA for up to 7.2 Mbps download speeds. Outside the range of those towers, it defaults to the T-Mobile EDGE network for up to 120 Kbps download speed. That's still good enough for email, text messaging and casual Web browsing. Want even faster speed? The G1 has built-in WiFi b/g capability for broadband performance up to 24 Mbps through you wireless router or at a WiFi hotspot.

But how about the user interface? Once again, the T-Mobile G1 has it all. With the phone closed in its normal configuration, you can use the 3.2 inch color touchscreen, just like you would on those other advanced smartphones. But slide out the hidden keyboard and you have a small computer form factor with a full QWERTY keyboard just below the large landscape mode display. There's even a little trackball off to the side in landscape mode or below the display in the portrait mode. Don't worry about how to switch modes. The G1's accelerometer knows how you are holding the phone and will adjust the display accordingly.

The Google Android operating system running on a 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor provides easy access to Google applications such as Google, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Calendar and Google Talk. Now there's a software upgrade that will be pushed over the air to G1 users to add Google's Voice Search application. It gives text search results to voice queries and can tap into the A-GPS capability in the phone to help you find the nearest gas station, restaurant or other area of interest. That's coming in the next couple of weeks.

The G1 can easily be called a multimedia phone. It sports a 3.2 Megapixel auto-focus camera/camcorder, an MP3 player, expandable memory up to 8 GB, multimedia messaging, and support for streaming video and music.

Does this PDA smartphone look like just the one you've been wanting? If so, check the 3G coverage available in your area, learn more and order your T-Mobile G1 w/Google in Bronze or G1 Black with T-Mobile wireless service. You'll get a special discount price by ordering online plus free shipping. Order a shared minutes "family" plan and get TWO G1s on the same service.

Have a different phone in mind or just want to see all of what's available? Compare cellphones, smartphones and aircards now.

XOHM, XOHM's Got The Range

Sprint's XOHM (say zome, like home) wireless broadband service is off and running in Baltimore. This is the start of the long anticipated deployment of WiMAX as the next generation of high speed Internet service. If Sprint is able to realize its 4G dream, WiFi hotspots may become a thing of the past. DSL? Cable? Who wants to be tethered by a wire when you can roam wirelessly, gloriously, free?

The dream is built on a new wireless technology that has been standardized for worldwide application in both fixed and mobile applications. WiMAX or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, offers coverage measured in dozens of miles and bandwidth that could extend to dozens of Mbps. Sprint's deployment offers 2-4 Mbps download and 0.5 to 1.5 Mbps upload. That's comparable to the majority of DSL, Cable broadband and even professional grade T1 and Ethernet connections.

WiMAX is often thought of as the big brother to WiFi. It's not a bad comparison if you are thinking in terms of laptop computers using wireless adaptors for broadband Internet access. WiFi's limitation is that it has a footprint pretty much limited to a single building. Drive away from the restaurant, home, or business office and your signal disappears. The best you can do is find another "hotspot" where you can resume operations.

WiMAX is meant to cover a town or major area of a city. It uses higher power signals on licensed frequencies. In Sprint's case it is their exclusive 2.5 GHz spectrum. The higher power levels of WiMAX transmissions allow their wireless signals to penetrate buildings and vehicles. OFDMA or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Multiple Access modulation is resilient to service dropouts due to interference. MIMO or Multiple Input Multiple Output antenna technology also helps to improve system performance in the presence of multipath distortion that occurs when signals bounce off buildings in metro areas.

Sprint offers an XOHM base station modem for home or small office use. It looks a little like a high tech coffee brewer in shiny black. This device is self-contained with built-in antennas and Ethernet jack output. For mobile use, they have WiMAX aircards for PCMCIA slots or USB.

The direct competitor for WiMAX is 3G cellular broadband. Sprint also provides that service as EV-DO. You can order EV-DO service and air cards for nationwide access in most medium and major cities. Verizon offers a competing EV-DO service and AT&T has its own HSDPA broadband service, popularized by the Apple iPhone 3G.

XOHM is on its way to Chicago and Washington DC, with systems planned for Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia. Nationwide deployment should roll out in the years ahead, economics permitting. Who knows, in the future there may well be XOHM where the buffalo roam.

Internet to Soothe the Savage Flyer

What's more fun that snagging the last seat on the 5 o'clock flight across the country? Why, it's you being the filling in a sandwich cookie of three disgruntled fliers, cheek to jowl, with nothing to do for five or six hours but progressively increase your blood pressure. Suddenly it occurs to you that "coach" is only one letter removed from "roach," perhaps an apt description of your seatmates. If only you could get online to distract yourself by answering email or finding a game to play. But that's impossible. There's no Internet superhighway in the sky. Or is there?

Relief may be at hand, intrepid road warrior. According to a recent story in the Washington Post, major airlines are readying a rollout of onboard WiFi Internet access, starting later this year. A flying free WiFi hotspot? Wow!

Ixnay on the eefray. You don't really expect a courtesy service in an industry where courtesy fell out of the sky years ago, do you? Oh, no. What the air carriers are cooking up is pay as you go Internet access. You pay and the plane may even go... eventually. But you won't care as much as you do now. You'll be browsing the latest headlines and stock prices. Or perhaps blogging on the joy of flying.

Whatever you do online, the airlines know two things. After taking away free soft drinks, blankets, pillows, meals, little bags of peanuts and luggage checking, they better come up with some way to relieve the mounting stress of the flying public before everybody pops a valve. By being clever, they can do this and make a bundle selling the same Internet service you expect for free in a sandwich shop.

Paid Internet service is a double win for airlines that can get their planes outfitted as quickly as possible. Hungry, bored, agitated, stressed out, burned out travelers will gladly pay through the nose for an onboard Internet fix. The soothing effect begins as fast as your laptop can connect. As a way of numbing potentially hostile fliers, the Internet is far superior to alcoholic beverages. Alcohol depresses your inhibitions, which may all that is keeping you from letting them know what you really think of their operation. But logged-in and tuned-out, you'll be a model customer. Internet for a fee would appear to be the perfect add-on service.

The magic that will make this all work is a ground based network of radio towers and in-plane hotspots provided by Aircell. Aircell won an FCC spectrum auction in 2006 to acquire an exclusive license for air-to-ground broadband communications. The uplink and downlink from tower to aircraft is very similar to cellular technology. The system transmits and receives in the upper portion of the 800 MHz band using the EV-DO protocol, similar to Verizon and Sprint cellular broadband service.

On the aircraft, avionics hardware converts the uplink/downlink data stream to a 802.11a/b/g WiFi hotspot that blankets the passenger cabin. This wireless broadband should be accessible by nearly all laptop computers and many cellphones. If your gadget can connect to a WiFi hotspot and you have a $10 bill in your pocket, you can join the mile-high browser club. That's the expected price of service on Delta for flights of 3 hours or less: $9.95. For longer flights the price will be a few dollars more.

In addition to Delta, who else is revving up for airborne broadband? American Airlines and Virgin America are also getting their fleets Internet-ready as fast as they can. Jet Blue already has limited online services. At some point, fairly soon, we'll probably reach a tipping point where wireless Internet access will be as ubiquitous as it has become in hotels. Business travelers will start shunning airplanes that aren't connected as if they still had two wings and no meal service. Well, two wings anyway.

Chumby Kicks the Clock Radio to the Curb

Is an alarm clock a hideous way to get ripped out of a peaceful slumber? How about a clock radio? Oh, yeah, nothing fit to listen to. OK, then. How about a high tech way to get your day started? Imagine some streaming music from your favorite Internet radio channel. Glance over and see what's coming for you on the weather radar. Check the market report to make sure you haven't gone bust before you even get started. See how those auctions you been watching are coming along. Get the latest news and sports headlines. Or just grab the thing and play a game. What thing? Why, Chumby, of course.

What's a Chumby? It's a wireless Internet device with audio amps and loudspeakers, a large touch sensitive video screen, and motion sensors. It looks like a really nice clock radio, but it puts clock radios to shame. Alarm clocks? You're kidding, right? Those things went obsolete right after Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge went out of business. Oh, you still work for Scrooge? In that case, I suggest you use
Chumby to keep you posted of the latest job openings. Get it set up before those ghosts come back.

The Jobster, Linked-In Network and Monster USA IT are all job search widgets that run on the Chumby. They're just a few of hundreds of widgets you can get for things like video clips of The Early Show, Letterman's Monologues, CBS NASCAR Sports Clips, VH1 Mobile Video, and YouTube Videos. Who can possibly start the day without seeing that skateboarding dog?

Other widgets let you keep an eye on the stock market, today's weather forecast and local radar screen, Olympic headlines, baseball scores or surf reports from around the world. Wouldn't want to get caught buried in the server room when surf's up, now would you?

As you probably have guessed, a device like this is really too good to be used only as a substitute for your tired old clock radio. You'll want to pick it up and put it on your desk wherever you happen to be. That's fine as long as you have access to a decent WiFi signal that's not encrypted with some exotic enterprise security. The Chumby is designed for wireless routers that support 802.11b/g with typical home-type security such as WEP, WPA personal or WPA2 personal.

Alas, you'll just have to keep the Chumby for your own personal use in the bedroom, living room or home office. Maybe take it in the bathroom while you're getting ready. OK, not if you're inclined to panic when your tech shares takes a dive. Jerking a razor when the stock ticker goes south can result in one nasty cut.

Anyway, Chumby is the coolest way to get a wakeup call short of five star hotel service. You can customize the clock and alarm functions and it will both play and charge your USB connected iPod. The 3.5 inch color display is big enough to see without fumbling around for your glasses or putting the contacts in. If it looks blurry, just pull it closer. If it still looks blurry, you better hope that the clock function on your coffee maker works as well as Chumby's.

You're intrigued, right? It's truly well past the time to kick that old alarm clock or clock radio to the curb and embrace THIS century's technology with Chumby.

I Know Where You Took Your Pictures Last Summer

Eye-Fi, the WiFi Memory Card, has a new trick up its electronic sleeve. Now it knows where you've been taking pictures and it's telling!

The latest version of the innovative camera memory that uploads electronic photos to your computer or photo Website is called the Eye-Fi Explore. What the Explore version adds to the basic Eye-Fi card is location tagging. Geotags or geographic location labels are automatically added to your pictures as you take them. Eerie, eh?

You might wonder how they managed to cram a GPS receiver as well as a WiFi transceiver and 2 Gigabyte memory into that little SD card. Well, don't strain your brain. They didn't actually do that. Instead, they're using a poor-man's GPS that calculates positions based on known WiFi hotspot locations nationwide. It's impressive. Over 70% of the U.S. population locations are mapped. In Europe it's limited to the top 50 metro areas, with up to 70% in the U.K, Germany, and France.

Speaking of WiFi hotspots, the purchase price of the Eye-Fi Explorer comes with access to 10,000 Wayport Wi-Fi hotspots across the US for a year. After that you're on your own to renew. And you need these hotspots, why? Remember the basic premise of the Eye-Fi is that you don't have to make your way home and wrestle with USB cables to get the pictures out of your camera. They literally fly out of the Eye-Fi card and through the ether to the Internet or your home network.

The deal that Eye-Fi has with WiFi provider Wayport is that the Explore card comes already set up to use the hotspots. No setting up an account, logging-in or toting around a laptop computer required. You walk into a Wayport location, such as an airport, hotel or restaurant, and while you're going about your business the pictures you just took get uploaded. If you forget to put a quarter in the parking meter out front and go dashing out the door, Eye-Fi will simply remember where it was and finish the upload at the next Wayport.

It's like having a little valet inside your camera, taking care of the tedious chore of getting your prized snapshots to someplace they'll be useful. As a devout USB cable wrestler, I can see where you could get addicted to a service like that. Oh, and no need to scratch your head trying to remember where you saw that awesome sculpture or met that special someone. The geolocating feature tags each photo with the spot, or reasonably close.

Think that this technology might make your life easier? Then have a look at the Eye-Fi Explore Wireless 2 GB Secure Digital Card (EYE-FI-2EX)

I Shall Call It Cellular Mini-Me

The stampede from landline to mobile telephone service is only increasing as 3G networks build out to include suburbs and smaller towns, as well as total metro coverage. The BlackBerry is standard business wear. The iPhone is starting people to question whether they really need to be lugging around a laptop computer, since there's a full service Safari browser included. Wireless is oh, so liberating compared to being chained to a desk. You're free to chat, browse, or watch videos to your heart's content, all on the go. That is, until you open a door and go inside.

The indoor dead zone is the bane of wireless transmission. The higher the radio frequency, the shorter the wavelength and the easier it is for things like walls to stop signals cold. Actually, these impediments only attenuate or reduce them in power. But the effect is the same. Now you have a solid signal, now you don't. Satellite TV signals, which are at even higher frequencies than cellular, are easily blocked by even tree leaves or a good rainstorm.

One solution is to move to a lower frequency band. But there isn't much unused spectrum available and there already is a huge investment in the current cell tower network. AT&T and Verizon did snap up the 700 MHz TV channels that were recently auctioned. These frequencies have longer wavelengths and can penetrate buildings better. But even if these are pressed into service, what do you do with the hundreds of millions of phones and thousands of cellular base stations now in service?

Another solution is to increase transmission power to make signals go further. That won't work on the phone side because you really want less power, not more, to increase battery life. Well, how about just putting up more cell sites? Put one on every corner disguised as a street light. Hide them in the trees. Bring them inside and put them in the ceiling.

Wait! That's an idea. Why not bring the cell tower inside the building where the problem is? Not a full size one, of course. Just big enough to cover the dead zone. That's exactly what carriers have done in some cases. They'll install a small base station and antennas inside an office building and connect it to their network. Voila! Indoor cellular coverage. It's called a picocell to indicate its smaller size and coverage area.

Picocells could be the answer to all of our wireless coverage problem if they just weren't so expensive and labor intensive to install. If cellular towers could just create a miniature clone of themselves that resembled a WiFi router with a similar price and ease of installation...

Enter the femtocell. It's the Mini-Me of cell towers... sort of. Sprint is currently testing a femtocell called Airave in Indianapolis and Denver. If they like the results, there may be femtocells everywhere soon. Femtocells? Picocells? Where do they get these names?

Femto and pico are like micro and nano, only smaller. A pico something is one-thousandth of a nano. A femto is even smaller. It's a thousandth of a pico or a quadrillionth of the full deal. If you need to go even smaller, your next stops are atto, zepto and yocto. They'll probably implant yoctocells in your brain some day. Then you'll never get away from the yoc, yoc, yoctoing on the cell phone.

For now, the femtocell may come to your rescue in maintaining ubiquitous wireless communications. Sprint's Airave is more like WiFi router than you might think. It looks the part. Plus it connects to your broadband service through your existing router or Cable/DSL router.

Why the broadband connection? It's for backhaul. That's the connection to and from the phone company. The femtocell doesn't actually coordinate with the bigger cell towers. It's a stand alone device. You can't just keep talking as you walk through your front door. You have to hang-up and call back using the femtocell. Your Sprint cell phone communicates back and forth with the femtocell just like your notebook computer communicates with a WiFi router. The femtocell communicates back and forth with Sprint over your broadband service, just like you communicate with the Internet using a WiFi router.

This is more than just an analogy. Your calls go over the Internet similar to VoIP services. In a way, you have a combination of cellular and VoIP technology with all their advantages and limitations. The limitation on Internet for backhaul service is that call quality can be affected by network congestion on your broadband service and you lose service when you or your ISP loses power.

If you are going to have your calls go over the Internet, why not just skip the femtocell and use WiFi directly? That's what dual mode phones offer. T-Mobile is testing a service called HotSpot@Home that uses your wireless router instead of a femtocell. The key to this is a dual-mode cell phone that offers WiFi connections as one of the modes.

You could also use a wireless VoIP telephone handset and a service such as Skype to mimic femtocell service as a way to make inexpensive phone calls. But you'll have no coverage on the go. Once WiMAX or other wireless outdoor broadband coverage is available everywhere, wireless VoIP may give traditional cellular a run for its money. That is, unless the major cellular carriers, who now own the spectrum likely to be deployed for mobile broadband, decide to jump on this bandwagon themselves and all wireless phone services go IP instead of GSM or CDMA.

WiFi in a Memory Card

How many SD memory cards have you seen that sport an FCC ID on the front? This one does because it's more than a mere 2 GB digital memory card. It's also a WiFi transceiver. Configure it with your computer using the included USB adaptor, then pop the card into your digital camera. Now take all the pictures you want and they'll automatically upload to your computer or the online photo sharing or social networking site of your choice when you get within range of your home network. Poof, they're out of the camera and uploaded before you even know it.

The Eye-Fi Wireless Memory Card solves the age-old problem of photography: Pictures that never come out of the camera. I say age-old, because I've discovered undeveloped rolls of film in cameras buried in the closet decades later. Digital photography is worse. It's easy to take snapshots. It's hard to dig out that special USB cord and plug your camera into the computer. Most cameras have lots of memory and none of them bug you to do anything with the pictures you take. Pretty soon, there you are out in the middle of nowhere with a nearly full memory card and no option but to delete older photos to take new ones. Oh, yeah, those pictures would sure look good on Flickr. But it's soooo much work to get them there.

Now you have no excuses for not doing something with the pictures you take. The Eye-Fi card takes care of all the tedium involved in formating and uploading photos to photo sites. That includes printing sites such as Costco.com, Kodak Gallery, Snapfish and Wal-Mart. You don't have to print them, but they'll be there whenever you want to.

So how does it work? The Eye-Fi actually contains a WiFi networking chip within the confines of a standard SD memory card measuring 32mm x 24mm x 2.1mm and weighing a mere tenth of an ounce. Many cameras accept this standard size memory card. It gets its power from the camera. There's also 2.0 GB of memory onboard, so it's a real memory card too.

The Wireless networking specs are impressive for something that looks like a little orange wafer. The range is over 90 feet outdoors and 45 feet indoors. Both 802.11b and 802.11g networks are supported, as are 802.11n networks that are backwards compatible. Security is built-in and includes support for Static WEP 40/104/128, WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK configured networks. Keep you networked locked down and still be able to upload photos any time you want.

The other piece of magic is the Eye-Fi software. It runs on both PCs and Macs, and works with IE, Firefox and Safari browsers. You'll need your computer on and running the Eye-Fi Manager software when you want to transfer photos from your camera to your computer. The card remains inside the camera. The transfer is wireless. You just tell the software what folder to put your photos in and it takes care of the rest.

But that's only half the story. The other way to transfer photos is directly to the Internet. Your computer doesn't need to be on for this activity. You just need a working WiFi network. Your camera talks directly to your router and sends the pictures to the Eye-Fi server, where they are then formated and sent on to one of many sharing and printing Websites of your choosing. Logging in, passwords, and resizing are all handled automatically. Want to get those pix on Facebook as quickly as possible? Once you've set it up, all you need to do is get your camera within range of your network and up they go. Or send them to your TypePad blog for instant photojournalism.

Does Wireless photo transfer sound like it would be a time and effort saver for you? Learn more and get your Eye-Fi Card, Wireless 2 GB SD Memory Card now.

Is WiMAX Worth the Wait?

WiMAX, the new wireless broadband communications standard, has been eagerly anticipated for several years. We've watched with anticipation as the concept turned into standards, equipment certification began, and initial pilot projects were launched. WiMAX is still coming, but will it still be as exciting when it gets here?

WiMAX is the acronym for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It's a truly international standard that will be useful in applications as diverse as cellular backhaul, mobile Internet, business broadband, and perhaps even a WiFi replacement. WiMAX has power and range as well as bandwidth. WiFi hotspots have proliferated and become very popular for accessing the Internet while on the go. But WiFi coverage is measured in feet. WiMAX coverage is measured in miles.

So, does that mean we're about to send all of our DSL and cable modems, WiFi access points, and cell phones to the recycling bin? Not much chance of that. These technologies are pretty well entrenched. What's more, other wireline and wireless solutions are building out to offer competition for the forecasted WiMAX tsunami.

Cellular broadband is the most aggressive in upgrading tower sites to increase upload and download speeds. Just as the CDMA networks, notably Verizon, Sprint and Alltel, begin to cover most heavily populated areas with EV-DO, an upgrade to EV-DO Rev A is launched.

EV-DO offers speeds similar to what you expect from DSL broadband. Burst speeds are up to 2.4 Mbps download, although 700 Kbps is probably more a typical speed in crowded urban areas. Upload is a mere 153 Kbps burst with 50 Kbps probably more typical. Bandwidth is sufficient to support aircards and built-in access for notebook computers. It's also been an enabler for streaming video and music downloads on cell phones.

EV-DO Rev A increases the bandwidth to a 3.1 Mbps download burst, which should incrementally improve real world performance. The big improvement is in upload speed to 1.8 Mbps. With Rev A, applications such as VoIP and video transmission become practical for mobile users.

What's more, there is a Rev B upgrade in the works for EV-DO. It further increases downlink speeds by 3x to a burst rate of 9.3 Mbps using a technique called DO Multi-carrier to bond 3 channels. Peak rates up to 14.7 Mbps are possible by allocating more station bandwidth to EV-DO transmissions.

A competing technology, known at LTE or Long Term Evolution, is in development. Download speeds are up to 100 Mbps with 20 msec latency. While it may be at least a couple of years before LTE is deployed to cellular base stations, it's clear that cellular-based broadband has the potential to compete with other wireless technologies including WiMAX.

WiMAX got everyone excited with a prediction of 70 Mbps bandwidth over as much as 30 miles coverage. The range as well as the potential link speed is what sets WiMAX apart. But a network of cellular broadband stations could do pretty much the same job. In fact, WiMAX might see its greatest application in providing backhaul services for those competing cellular stations.

As of this writing WiMAX deployment is off to a slow start. The real impediment is the billions of dollars that need to be invested in transmitting infrastructure to operate a nationwide network. Sprint and Clearwire have been in discussions to combine forces in using their existing bandwidth to blanket the country. The current 700 MHz spectrum auctions could also release choice frequencies for WiMAX use.

Pre-WiMAX implementations are already providing wireless business links in some major cities. Covad is offering what they describe as "T1-class wireless broadband" in 200 California cities, plus Las Vegas and suburban Chicago. Bandwidths from 1.5 Mbps to 100 Mbps are offered as available. Wireless bandwidth is especially valuable to businesses not already lit for fiber optic service but needing to expand their WAN connections.

Is your company looking for the optimum bandwidth services to support your digital telephony and data transmission needs? If so, check out a suite of options that include wireless, wireline, fiber optic and satellite delivery.