Critic Glenn Fleishman has some great coverage from the 802 Planet Expo in Boston this week with coverage of the WPA Session and lots more.
Glenn has a Q&A about McDonald’s hotspots and an interview with Phil Belanger, Vivato’s PR guy.
“Vivato’s switches are starting to be produced in quantity now, and they’re looking into the next generation, which the new funding makes easier — they already had a good war chest before this larger infusion.The new device is a Wi-Fi bridge/router which relies quite a bit on work done at Musenki, a company run by Jim Thompson, an engineer who is locked in a lab in Spokane as they push forward on new products and development. The new box will cost under $500 and ship this fall. It will feature two wireless cards: both running 802.11b or one running b and one g. One card is devoted to backhaul. They are omnidirectional.
The utility of this new device, which could be a standalone piece of equipment, is that it can communicate directly with the full switch to fill in areas that are hidden (such as the angles around a skyscraper). The router has the same software as the switch excluding VPN termination and rogue AP detection. The management console is the same, and you can manage up to 3 switches and 10 routers from one management console.
Vivato put one of their antennas in South Boston near the conference at the World Trade Center, and Phil can see service from one angle of the place. Better yet, his hotel, a couple miles away, has great Vivato service — it’s an open network, so I expect many folks are getting free Vivato right now all over the coverage area along the bay!”
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