My boss, Aaron Howard, has started a new blog about networking, called Core Flow, which will focus on the implementation of the new Enterasys K-Series switch that will service students living in our residence halls starting this fall, as well as other networking, such as the Juniper/Trapeze wireless gear we use on campus.
The Governator has signed a bill that'll force tech companies to warn consumers about securing their wireless routers. That's both good news and bad news. It's good that more people will be securing their personal information, but on the other hand, I've certainly piggy-backed off those clueless users when I've been somewhere and needed to check my e-mail.
If you thought having 802.11a, b, and g to choose from was too much, get ready for your wireless future:
In July 2005, the FCC opened up the use of the 3.65-3.7 GHz band for public use, previously reserved for fixed satellite service networks. The 802.11y working group will develop a standard to use this band for 802.11 wireless networking while introducing a standards-based mechanism to avoid interfering with existing use of this spectrum. Benefit: More frequency space means more available channels, which is nice since 2.4 GHz is pretty crowded (one of my students recently found 960+ 802.11b/g AP's in downtown LA in 20 minutes of walking around the hotel). A standardized interference avoidance mechanism will also streamline the adoption of new frequencies in the future.
With the addition of 802.11y as a physical layer option for wireless networks, we'll likely see some new combination cards within the next few years to support this frequency. With the addition of 802.11n for MIMO, 802.11e for European 5 GHz networks and 802.11j cards for Japanese 4.9 GHz networks, we'll end up with 802.11a/b/e/g/j/n/y cards. Awesome!
Proxim, the maker of the wireless gear that I use here on campus, has apparently declared bankruptcy and sold themselves:
Beleaguered wireless equipment provider Proxim (Quote, Chart), stung last year by losing a $22.75 million dollar lawsuit to Symbol, announced this weekend that it would "sell substantially all assets" to Moseley Associates of Santa Barbara, Calif., for $21 million to become a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Hmm, sounds like it might be time to demo that Meru equipment I've been eyeing...
I've encountered my first frustrating Mac OS X 10.4 bug. This bug is driving me nuts at home, where I have three base stations covering my house. When I roam between them, I suddenly lose my connection and have to reestablish it. This better be fixed in 10.4.1 or I may be going back to OS X 10.3 until such time as it is, as it really sucks to be in the middle of an instant message conversation or file transfer and suddenly wind up disconnected. I can also try going back to just one wireless AP to cover my house, but I've had problems getting a solid connection throughout the whole house on one AP before.
