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Upcoming Webinar: 802.11ac Technologies and Deployment Strategies

More – a lot more – on 802.11ac. I don’t think any previous WLAN technology has a more rapid market uptake. But even if you have no current plans for .11ac – well, read on…
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 11/26/13 - 11:36am.

OK, by now I think everyone is aware of my opinion that the time for 802.11ac is now, whether you're ready for a production deployment (many are), want to try out the technology to see what it can really do, or simply want to prevent the unauthorized use of .11ac via appropriate monitoring and assurance tools. No matter what your strategy here might be, though, 802.11ac isn't some future direction or curiosity - it's here, and, again, now. A strategy, then, is essential - and, again, today.

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Time to Retire the Serial Port

It’s almost 2014. Why are many vendors still requiring the use of a 1960s technology with modern communications equipment?
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 11/25/13 - 8:35am.

I was recently setting up a new piece of networking equipment, and, lo and behold, I needed to do that initial setup via a CLI on a serial port. Yes, I know that testosterone is recharged by such activities; real men configure routers and such with obscure commands over difficult-to-configure interfaces based on RS-232. I don't want to pick on any particular vendor here, because there are so many of them still insisting on this practice. But, c'mon, really? Start bits, stop bits, and baud rate? Parity? VT-100?

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Network World's 2013 Holiday Gift Guide - Something for Everyone

It takes weeks of (really fun) work, but our comprehensive list of the best gifts for geeks is now available.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 11/22/13 - 10:27am.

We've completed work on the 2013 edition of the annual Network World Holiday Gift Guide with one of the most diverse sets of great gifts ever. I'm pleased once again to have been part of Keith Shaw's team in testing and evaluating an astonishingly broad array of gift possibilities, for home and even for work.

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Upcoming Webinar: 802.11ac Security and Assurance

I can’t tell you how many people have called to discuss 802.11ac deployment scenarios over the past few months. An upcoming Webinar summarizes and explores the options here – and the big decisions that need to be made now no matter which path you take.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 11/21/13 - 11:03am.

The deployment of 802.11ac, I'm sure we can all agree, is more a question of when than if.

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A Farewell to Interop – and Hello to New Network World Events

After thirteen years, it’s time for me to say goodbye to Interop. And I’m excited to begin work on a new series of events with my friends at Network World.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 11/19/13 - 6:16pm.

I have been involved as a speaker at every US Interop event (some of those were known as Networld+Interop) since 2001, and a member of the Advisory Board since 2003 - anyway, thirteen years in all. Interop in many ways is the successor to Comdex, where I had similar roles from 1994 through 2004, the year that marked the end of the line for that series of conferrences. And now the time has now come to say goodbye to Interop as well - they're bringing the management of the Mobility track inside, which I in fact think is an excellent idea.

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Samsung and Tizen: Will It Happen?

I contend that Samsung needs to move to Tizen as a key element of establishing its own mobile – and beyond – ecosystem. This ain’t no slam dunk, and it’s path fraught with peril – but Samsung must do this or something like it regardless.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 11/13/13 - 8:16am.

I recent engaged in a point/counterpoint debate with my friend and colleague Michael Finneran on the subject of whether Samsung will eventually drop or at least augment Android with . You can read the full debate (the link above) yourself, which makes all of the points I think are worth making.

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802.11ad: Progress at Last

I had high hopes for 802.11ad two years ago – and with Cisco now in the game, it looks like my faith has not been misplaced.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 11/07/13 - 10:38am.

Almost two years ago, I wrote in these pages of my fondness for 60-GHz. radio, and my belief that .11ad would eventually play a major role in wireless LANs and not just outdoor point-to-point links, HDMI cable replacement, and short-range docking solutions.

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The Obamacare Web Debacle: A Cautionary Note for the Cloud

If cloud projects are really this risky and expensive, then the very future of mobility (and perhaps all of IT) is in doubt.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 11/04/13 - 8:29am.

I've been following all of the outrageous news, or hyperbole, depending upon your personal politics, regarding the Website that is a key element of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, a/k/a Obamacare. And, as I've noted before and irrespective of the politics central to this specific example, if software projects like this one are really this expensive and really this risky, then the future of mobility itself is in doubt.

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802.11ac in the Residence – It’s More About the Range Than the Rate

While Netgear’s latest .11ac product blurs the boundary between enterprise-class features and residential-class value with amazing technology at a bargain price, it’s fair to ask if residential users, quite unlike their enterprise counterparts, really need 1.3 Gbps.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 10/23/13 - 4:14pm.

The announcement of the Netgear R7000 802.11ac router that I recently mentioned led to an interesting conversation with Netgear staff about what's really going on with 802.11ac in the residence.

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Hacking Dick Cheney: A Cautionary Tale

The medical-device wireless-hacking issue made 60 Minutes last night. This is a problem that needs to be addressed now.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 10/21/13 - 4:48pm.

I've mentioned this before, but what's going to happen when people start dying because the implanted wireless devices that are keeping them alive are hacked? The time has come, just as is the case in any other dimension of wireless activity and applications, for security to be taken seriously.

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Mobile Unified Communications – Part 5: Conclusions

Wrapping up The Great Mobile Unified Communications Test – lessons learned, and a few strategies for next time.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 10/18/13 - 9:19am.

So, needless to say, despite the death-march exhaustion inherent in such an aggressive agenda, I had a great time exploring mobile unified communications (start with Part 1, here) in the Baltic region. Talking on the phone with exceptional quality at about US$.06 an hour made me the envy of more than few who asked what I was doing.

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What Should Apple Do Now?

Submitted by Craig Mathias on Wed, 10/16/13 - 9:12am.

My last posting on Apple prompted a question from a reader that deserves more than a quick note on Disqus. While I briefly covered what Apple Inc. might do a few months ago, let's take a more detailed, consultant's-eye view of this question - one that is, after all, of more than passing or academic interest to many if not most of us.

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Mobile Unified Communications – Part 4: Cultural Notes

This is the part where it usually says, “trust me; there’s wireless in here somewhere”. This time there isn’t. The following is a bit of a self-indulgent travelogue, but I think you will enjoy it regardless.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 10/10/13 - 8:29am.

So, again, I undertook the mobile unified communications tour (start with Part 1 here) in an effort to see if truly global Wi-Fi-based communications could substitute for expensive cellular roaming or the other alternatives I discussed in Part 1 of this series. The answer is decidedly mixed, giving the final grade a distinct "maybe"; more on this in the next and final entry in this series.

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802.11ac – (Many) More Arguments for Sooner, Not Later

802.11ac was all over Interop New York, and every major vendor is now in the gigabit-wireless game. 2014 is consequently shaping up to be a blowout year for the industry, with what may very well be the last big Wi-Fi standard.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 10/07/13 - 7:58am.

Interop New York was buzzing with news on 802.11ac last week. Just for starters:

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Mobile Unified Communications – Part 3: The Experience

Here are the results of the Mobile Unified Communications testing project.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 09/30/13 - 1:54pm.

Assuming you've read Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, and you really need to before proceeding here, the following is what we discovered during the MUC testing project.

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Webinar This Week: Desktop Virtualization in Healthcare

This Thursday, I’m speaking in a Webinar on desktop virtualization in healthcare. We’re going to look at how one of the key enabling technologies for IT mobility will specifically benefit healthcare applications and operations.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Mon, 09/23/13 - 3:38pm.

I'm a huge believer, as I've noted before, is the power of desktop virtualization to transform how we look at mobility from an enterprise IT perspective. Desktop virtualization is an easy way to mobilize existing applications (with minimal cost in terms of time, dollars, and risk) and to provision future applications as well - why write a lot of custom apps for specific combinations of handsets and mobile operating systems when the write once/run anywhere approach is both alive and so easy to deploy?

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Adventures in Mobile Unified Communications – Part 2: Technology

Continuing our discussion of low-cost, Wi-Fi-based mobile communications, here are the details on the solution I used.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Thu, 09/19/13 - 10:42am.

Last time, I discussed the motivations for this project - low-cost voice communication via Wi-Fi from anywhere - or, well, almost anywhere. This time, here's a look at the software and services involved.

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Fluke’s AirMagnet Spectrum ES: Inexpensive Spectral Analysis for Cellular Services

Already a leader in Wi-Fi spectral analysis, Fluke Networks has announced a powerful, low-cost spectrum analyzer for cellular that will prove invaluable in solving a broad range of coverage and performance issues.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 09/17/13 - 3:28pm.

My #1 wish-list item back in the '90s was a low-cost WLAN-oriented spectral analysis tool, interference and propagation being the challenges that they are in the unlicensed bands.

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The iPhone 5S and 5C: Yes, Apple is Losing It

Is anyone at Apple still trying at all? You can’t lead the industry with non-announcements like this one.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Fri, 09/13/13 - 5:47pm.

I've held off for a few days to let this one stew a bit - I really want to be fair to Apple here, and I really think the following is nothing but fair. I wasn't really that disappointed with the iPhone 5S/5C announcements, because my expectations were pretty low already.

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Adventures in Mobile Unified Communications – Part 1: Background

I traveled the Baltic Sea during the second half of August, in part testing a simple but very powerful (and remarkably cost-effective) approach to mobile unified communications.
Submitted by Craig Mathias on Tue, 09/10/13 - 7:43am.

For those of us who travel internationally extensively, and who more than depend on a wide variety of communications and networking capabilities, perhaps the best-known (and certainly most convenient) solution is international roaming on cellular networks. With the rise of LTE (with backwards compatibility to the GSM family of technologies, of course) as the universal access here, such is easy - turn on your phone, and talk, text and surf away.

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