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Future of Wi-Fi

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the gimme-broadband-on-the-bus dept.

An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek looks at the The high hurdles facing Wi-Fi. Sure it's got promise but if overcrowded spectrum isn't destined to crimp its growth, it'll need better technology and regulatory help from the FCC."

2 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. The FCC is going to screw us by krog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The writeup is right; the FCC will need to give Wi-Fi a chance before it catches on. And the FCC won't, because the money-rich and power-hungry wireless companies and other broadcasting firms always manage to win somehow. If the FCC were interested in crawling out from beneath the desk of Big Business, then Wi-Fi would already be in motion.

    --
    Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
  2. Security? by f00Dave · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Perhaps if the WiFi boxes sold to Joe Consumer didn't allow Just Anyone to use the gateway it wouldn't be a problem? Say, by silently rejecting non-approved MAC addresses, or by adding an HTTP 'login to use this proxy transparently for a few hours' layer on port 80 (to enable a limited-time session on that MAC).

    Those who don't want to sacrifice the ultimate in convenience (walk in to a friend's place and have their laptop be online, instantly), will have to accept that there are commensurate secutiry risks.

    Convenient or Secure: be it in WiFi or OS or even *gasp* Real Life, it's always a trade off....

    --
    .f00Dave