Category Archives: Wireless Connectivity

Travellers Wireless Solution … Access Point and Router

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While down here at Adobe MAX, we wanted to get some work done after dinner. We realized that we hadn’t brought ethernet cables, and chose to run to Fry’s in Las Vegas … we also had a Fry’s virgin with us, and it’s always fun to introduce a geek to the Fry’s experience.

While wandering through the wireless section at Fry’s, I chose to look for a new portable wireless access point that I could take on trips with me. I used to carry a Lucent RG-1000 with me everywhere that I went. It was an amazing box for the time … it provided Ethernet and Dial-up capabilities, and was a router with DHCP and NAT built in. I could go into any place with a phone line, and create a shared wireless network … uh … sharing a 56kbps dial-up link. Not the best speeds, but it worked.

Well, I have now found my modern replacement … and it’s very cool.  I’m impressed.  The Linksys WTR54GS is now going to be travelling with me.  This compact little unit appears to have two wireless radios, and two ethernet ports.  It is able to be a complete wireless router, with either wired or wireless connection to the Internet, and then both a ethernet and/or wireless access point functionality for clients.  Amazing.  So, for example, I had it connect as a wireless client bridge to the hotel wireless network, and then was able to connect to it’s wireless access point and have multiple machines share that single connection.  So it was an active wireless client, and wireless access point at the same time … complete with NAT, firewall, and even MAC Address cloning.

All of this in a compact little unit, with a retractable power connector, that fits into a small zippered carrying case.  And the price?  Fry’s had it for $79 …. I’m sure that you might find it cheaper elsewhere.  I’m sure that I’ll blog more about it if it continues to live up to the experience that I’ve had this week.

The edges of the Internet

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This year it has been fun to retest the edges of the Internet. 
What I mean is “How easy is it to get on the Internet from various
places?”

In May I took a trip to the Philippines (Philippines Videos)
and was blown away at how easy it was to get Internet access
everywhere.  There were cost-effective Internet Cafe’s all over
the place.  I was there from the 21st to the 31st, and travelled
from Manila to Baguio, to Iloilo and Bacolod, and back to Manila. 
Internet was everywhere.  Cheap and plentiful.

I’m posting this from the coast of Cuba, on the way to Labadee, Haiti.  I’m aboard the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas,
and yes … there is Internet.  In fact, I’m on Wifi sitting in a
lounge on the 14th deck looking out over the upper decks of the ship
toward the distant horizon.  Somewhere out there is Haiti. 
We’ll get there sometime tomorrow morning … I think.

Slowly but surely access to the Internet is reaching everywhere on
earth.  Everywhere.  It was interesting to see that even
cellular is reaching out … there is a Cingular cell onboard the ship
and so I have full strength cellular service and SMS text.

As technology continues to advance, wireless technologies improve, and
business models support it … the edges of the Internet are slowly
going away.  It is inevitable that when something like the
Interent permeates the entire planet … there are no longer any edges
… it simply becomes something that is.

Arriving in Manila

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We flew to Manila, from Los Angeles, on Sunday the 21st.  One of
the first things that was nice was the free wireless Internet provided
by the Asian carriers in the LA terminal.  Getting there early we
were able to get our seats (nice big aisle exit-rows!) and then hang
out and get work done.

The Philippines Airlines flight over left at ~10:00pm, so we flew into
the darkness, being chased by the sun.  The flight actually landed
at ~4:00am in Guam for refueling, and then continued its way to
Manila.  We approached the Philippines at daybreak, just before
sunrise.  As we crossed over the first edges of the Philippines,
it was a combination of islands and then the mountains of Luzon. 
The mountains turned into a large flat valley, and then the density of
grey structures began to grow.  Slowly, the grey started to
overwhelm the green and we had started to cross over the outer edges of
Manila.  As we continued to descend, the grey color took over …
it was impressive to see the sprawl of Manila below us.

We landed and got off of the plane, walked into the terminal and passed
through immigration … very uneventful.  We had both packed in
only carry-on, so we had no luggage to claim … instead we headed
right out into the hot and humid air to look for our car.

The first thing that hit me as the humidity wrapped all around me was
the smell of smoke.  Everywhere.  Like a fireplace nearby
kicking out the smoke of burning wood.  I had been told about this
… it was the smell of forests being burned in Indonesia.  Some
of my contacts here indicated that a month ago it was a constant haze
that was almost unbearable.  Even today in Iloilo I am greeted
each morning to the same smell as I leave my hotel room.

I’ll write more later … have to catch the high speed boat to Bacolod!

Blogging from Iloilo, Philippines

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I’ve been telling myself each day this week that I was going to post
… and I’m only getting to it right now. I’m sitting in the
Amigo Terrace Hotel in Iloilo, Philippines … and after completing a
whole ton of work, I’m now ready to post. I’m in the lobby
restaurant … on wireless.

I’ll probably break this into a whole set of posts … there is too
much to write about. It’s been a very cool trip so far, and a lot
has changed since the last time I travelled in this region. I’ve
never been to the Philippines before, but when I was with Novell I
visited a number of Asian countries … Singapore, Sri Lanka, Pakistan,
India, Nepal, Thailand … all amazing places. But these trips
were in the early 1990’s and predated the penetration of the
Internet. What a huge difference. I’m floored. The
Internet is everywhere.

So where exactly am I right now? I’m at the hotel here in Iloilo. I’ve been here a few days after visiting Manila … we stayed in Makati … then visited Baguio City. Tomorrow we’ll be heading over to Bacolod for the day … then another day back here in Iloilo, before heading back to Manila and home.

I’ll write more … it’s been eye opening. An amazing trip.

Microsoft Origami – first thoughts

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Well … it’s been fun watching the media uproar, and the debates over
the hype about the Microsoft Origami device. I has also been fun
to see the product announced and in the press.
It was fun since we at Agilix Labs had one here at our facility for quite
some time prior to the leaks. We’ve been tweaking our GoBinder
code to ensure that our Tablet PC applications work on this new device.

So what do I think about the UMPC/Origami device? I actually like
it! Yes, like many people are saying, this is a mini-Tablet PC
type of device. There is nothing earth shattering about it that I
know of right now, but I do want to buy one for my three year old
son. He has been using my HP Tablet PC for quite a while now, and
is becoming very adept at navigating the user interface, and easily
switching from mouse to stylus. I have really been thinking about
what I buy him to use … or do I give him my old laptop as I
upgrade? What about a PlayStation Portable? Oh … what about the $100 Laptop Project?

My laptop is too large for my son. The PSP? It’s still
$250.00 and doesn’t have half of the capabilities nor features.
The $100 Laptop? Way too limited in my opinion in that it lacks
the breadth of application support … and isn’t yet available. A Tablet PC? No … too expensive today.

In my opinion the key is going to be the price point of these new
Origami devices. When I can buy a device like this for the ~$600+
I have a hard time considering anything else. It runs a standard
operating system (and might even support Linux!) and brings the full
breadth of application support. It’ll run games, and provide
Internet connectivity. It’ll have Bluetooth and integrate with
cell phones.

I’m not saying that this product is going to kill the $100 Laptop
Project … that will always have it’s place. But in more
affluent societies where some extra money can be spent it seems to me
that the Origami is addressing a real market. This is the place
between the PDA/PSP types of devices, and the laptop/Tablet PCs.

So I’ll probably buy one for my son. Will I buy one? I
think that I might buy one for myself … just to experiment as a
platform for new applications. Religion aside, when Microsoft and
Intel (and Samsung, and ASUS, and …) get behind something they are
going to create a new market. I do believe that for software
developers, there is going to be a whole new generation of applications
for this platform.

Human Extensions

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This is a great article, however I don’t know that it goes far
enough!  Seldom do we really think about the wide range of “tools”
that we depend on … that have become an extension of our own
humanity.  In this day and age, an automobile is now a necessary
extension … enabling us to collaborate with others.  And even wired
telephones … this form of communications is what allowed for the
creation of global virtual communities in the first place.  Well
… after the telegraph.  And smoke signals.  It is not only
here in America, but all over the globe that humans are developing
whole new capabilities based on these “gadgets” … these Human
Extensions …

Americans ‘Need’ Their Gadgets.
Whether it’s a personal computer, an iPod or TiVo, Americans are
growing increasingly dependent on personal technology. Not everyone
thinks this is healthy. [Wired News]

Use cell phones … live longer …

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A the CTO Breakfast the other day I was talking about breif paper that
I wrote at Novell positing that “If you evolve to have a cell phone you
will live longer than those without a cell phone.”  It was sort of
a spoof of a paper, however my overall theory is that those who use
technology can gain from it.

I just got this today in an eWeek mail blast … again showing these
same benefits … cell phones extending the life of medical
patients.  Ok, slight variation … “If your doctor evolves to use
a cell phone …”

1. News: More Cell Phone Use, Less Medical Error, Study Shows

The use of
cell phones by medical personnel lowered the
overall error rate, due to
adequate communication; because
of changes in technology, there’s less risk
of interference
with hospital equipment.
http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-3161-16-87-154837-369777-0-0-0-1

Blastyx hits the net

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The other day I spent some time with Phil Burns and the guys from Blastyx. We had fun creating a quick video about some of my wireless business (80211.net)
and installation. I am still doing a lot of wireless R&D on
the side … outside of my day job at Agilix Labs. Blastyx is doing
some very cool work, and they have some very interesting ideas on where
to take next generation marketing. You can go and check out the
video … it’s the “Wireless Mountain Man” video …

Next generation electronic companies

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My father worked for Westinghouse Electric Corporation for over 30
years.  While growing up I was introduced to the broad range of
products created and produced by Westinghouse … from appliances, to
power generation, to nuclear power plants, to military radar.  To
me is was amazing the breadth of products and markets that Westinghouse
participated in … from consumer products to advanced military weapons.

This article reminded me of this same scenario with a slight
twist.  The folks at iRobot are not only the producers of the
Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, but also some very advanced military
robots.  If you haven’t yet listened to the talk by Helen Greiner
– co-founder and chairman of iRobot – she gave a great presentation at Accelerating Change 2004.  It’s very cool to see a company like this involved in such a wide range of applied technologies.

iRobot unveils sniper detector. The robot maker equips its PackBot combat device with gear to help soldiers find enemy marksmen. [CNET News.com]

Microsoft Research and Mesh Networking

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I have been following the work that Microsoft is doing in their Windows Peer To Peer Networking. 
This is actually some very impressive technology that allows for a
distributed set of users to create peer-to-peer groups for exchanging
data and information.  I’m working on some applications (actually
plug-ins for GoBinder) that are going to exploit this
technology.  Microsoft has put together a Peer To Peer SDK allowing you to perform name-to-IP name resolution (PNRP
– a serverless DNS technology), along with graphing and grouping APIs
for the transfer of data between the peers.  It’s all very
impressive stuff … and is in all Windows XP SP2 machines … and will
be in all Vista machines.  The bottom line … this is going to
drastically alter how ad-hoc groups of users on Windows machines will
be able to locate each other, communicate, and collaborate.

Today, I found yet another amazing technology out of Microsoft Research. 
For years I have been tracking the “wireless mesh networking”
space.  This is where each node in a wireless network is a
repeater/relay for any other node that is within range.  With true
mesh technologies I can communicate with other users, even if they are
beyond the reach of my wireless signal, if there are one or more nodes
between us that are part of the “mesh” network.  Mesh networks are
the next big thing … even the cellular carriers are talking about
adding emergency mesh capabilities into cell phones.

What I found today is that Microsoft Research
has code available today that will allow you to experiment with some
pretty advanced mesh networking using your Windows XP machine! 
The Microsoft Research Networking Research Group has released their Mesh Networking software, and even an Mesh Networking Academic Resource Toolkit. 
I’ve started to go through the documentation, and so far this is a very
impressive solution.  They have embraced and extended some of the
standards that are currently being developed:

We implement ad-hoc routing and link quality measurement in a module that we
call the Mesh Connectivity Layer (MCL). Architecturally, MCL is a loadable
Microsoft Windows driver. It implements a virtual network adapter, so that to
the rest of the system the ad-hoc network appears as an additional (virtual)
network link. MCL routes using a modified version of DSR (an IETF protocol) that
we call Link Quality Source Routing (LQSR). We have modified DSR extensively to
improve its behavior, most significantly to support link quality metrics.

The MCL driver implements an interposition layer between layer 2 (the link
layer) and layer 3 (the network layer). To higher layer software, MCL appears to
be just another Ethernet link, albeit a virtual link. To lower layer software,
MCL appears to be just another protocol running over the physical link.

I am really impressed to see this work this far along.  I have
been waiting for years to see mesh networking hit the masses … and
this is now getting close.  I’m now going to upgrade some of my
wearable computers to Windows XP just to experiment with this!