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Wireless LAN Equipment Shipments Up

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the no-surprise-here dept.

MrBounce writes "Worldwide shipments of wireless local-area network equipment increased by 120 percent in 2002 from a year ago. So who are the current market leaders in this field?"

13 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Security? by Jucius+Maximus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    So what percent of them have WEP disabled and SSID-broadcast enabled by default? Can I now wardrive to find 120% more open APs? Ironically, Microsoft branded routers are some of the few that do have WEP enabled out of the box.

    But these shipment numbers made sense. I bought both a wireless router and AirPort card for my iBook this year.

    1. Re:Security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
      This usually results in "security" which can be cracked by a persistent teenager in a car in under about 20 minutes.

      The rumor about bad WEP security keeps saying it's weaker. I've read the research papers and others about WEP and your statement isn't even close to true.

      I've also done my own war driving and I've had yet to see more than a couple weak keys. You need a good number on one network to break WEP.

      I wish this rumor would stop, WEP pretty good for low traffic networks. You just need to change your key every once and a while to make the odds of enough weak keys so close to zero it doesn't matter.

    2. Re:Security? by thegameiam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But why? the added overhead and trouble involved in WEP and no-broadcast SSID would make a casual user think that it's "safe" and therefore would be more likely to transmit private data over the network than having it wide-open will.

      When a user signs on, all they have to do is install a card, and they're up. They understand that snoopers are out there, and that they will try to swipe their data.

      Do you really think that WEP would add anything at all? c'mon, really?

      Regarding Godel, he was a mathmatician who showed how any formal system must be either incomplete or inconsistent. Thus the A and Not-A comment. My assertion is that you can either secure the wireless portion or not. "securing" the wireless portion makes users think that they're getting something, which is not the case.

      -David Barak

      --
      Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!
  2. In other news..... by acidrain69 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Production of 2003 Volkswagon Beetles is up infinity% from last year! Incredible!

    Wireless is new. Since it didn't flop, of course they are going to manufacture more. Who cares if there was twice as much manufactured as last year? WHY IS THIS NEWSWORTHY??

    --
    -- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
    1. Re:In other news..... by GreyPoopon · · Score: 4, Insightful
      WHY IS THIS NEWSWORTHY??

      Because in an economy where technology has been struggling until recently, it's nice to see increased demand and spending for something, even if it was widely expected. Plus, seeing Linksys rise to the top was a bit interesting, as well as the blurb on Cisco buying Linksys. Also, I appreciated the list of other "top" vendors, as it gives me some to compare in the coming months. And finally, everybody was complaining about the hourly SCO updates. /. editors had to put something else in. :-)

      --

      GreyPoopon
      --
      Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?

  3. Interference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A fellow grad student and I got talking about this at our university's wireless lab ...

    Most current wireless scheme assume sparse usage concentrations. As more and more people start using these devices, interference will increase markedly and reduce performance for all. Just think what would happen if every single person in your appartment or neighbourhood had a wireless network setup? We would see a 15-50% degradation in wireless bandwidth!

    Not to mention other devices operating in the 2.4Ghz unregulated spectrum like microwave ovens and those damn cordless phones!

  4. In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    In other news:

    - shipment of carburetors is down
    - shipment of 2400 baud modems is down
    - shipment of black and white televisions is down

    Duh!

    It is technology. It moves *forward*.

  5. Re:In related news.... by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 2, Insightful
    In related news, Pringles shipments were up by %110.

    Whomever unfairly moderated this Offtopic clearly doesn't understand wireless, yagi antennas, and/or humor.

    Of course, the original poster doesn't understand postfix notation either.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  6. Not too hard to believe ... by SuperDuG · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I know a two years ago that wireless was "too slow" and had "too many bottlenecks" and was "too insecure".

    Well in the last few years two out of the three major issues with wireless have been fixed. Plus now there's more widespread applications for wireless technology is amazing. Cause everything to communicate without drilling holes and running wires and it's all portable.

    Wireless (especially 802.11b) is in major universities, businesses, and homes all across america. It's "the new craze" get broadband and a wireless router along with a laptop and surf the net while outside, in your room, or wherever.

    For what people need networking for wireless usually is it 9 times out of 10 and it is far more acceptable and eye appealing than drilling holes and running wire everywhere. Plus it's cool to have a laptop with no wires surfin the net, still has a cool "wow" factor.

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
  7. This is better suited for fark.com by Agent+Deepshit · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Under the 'Cool' tag.

    Or in a press release.

  8. Re:Cost vs. Quality by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Linksys is at the top of the heap...there are plenty of companies that make better products

    My Linksys 802.11b router does everything I need it to do, cheaply and reliably. What more can one ask for in a non-cricical home system?

    focus more of quality rather than cost...after all, if they did, we wouldn't have to deal with Wal-Mart

    Since Wal-Mart doesn't manufacture what it sells, uses their buying power to get lower prices on the same items, and doesn't force you to shop there, I don't understand your rant.

    This message sent out through a Linksys router.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  9. Fast IR? by phorm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe what you might want in this case is a "Fast IR" port/hub. I haven't seen anything much like this on PC's, but many brands of laptop have "Fast IR" (4Mbps) ports. I'm not sure what the latency on this is, but I'd imagine it might be better than WiFi. You can also build your own wireless serial adaptor, I used to have instructions for this but they are now lost.

    The trick would be connecting >2 persons via IR, which I guess would require an IR-hub of some sort - but I'm not sure where one could get something that. Maybe some enterprising /. geek could think of that.

  10. Re:Leave it open and use a VPN by thegameiam · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Exactly. The overhead you spend on IPSec is probably about what you'd spend on WEP, and the difference is that IPSec actually works... :)

    -David Barak

    --
    Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!