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The Wireless HotSpot has arrived and some discussion is in order. There is a growing phenomenon in networking circles today called the Wireless HotSpot and most of you are going to want to know about it if you don't already. A HotSpot is just a wireless access point where you can get public access to wireless broadband. Usually they are in populated places like universities or coffee shops.
Those of you who already do know about HotSpots may have some lingering questions. Most of us will also be poorly served by a Google search on the topic, since most of the written work about it on the Web is aimed at engineers and tech junkies. (I should also mention that searching Google for HotSpot is likely to fill the list of results with porn links, too. That's probably not the sort of helpful information you're after, is it?)
The growth of Wireless HotSpots implies that three things are happening right now!
- The technology is finally usable by most people
- Operating systems are offering broad support for it
- The costs of the technology have become bearable
Wireless HotSpots are new but they depend on not-so-new ideas to operate. You've probably heard of IEEE 802.11x (Where x can be an incredible array of alphabetic characters, each representing a slightly different version of the 802.11 specification with slightly different capabilities) and you may have heard of Apple's Airport (IEEE 802.11 compatible wireless adapters for the Macintosh).
You may have even built your own home network using some variation on my articles in previous issues (See the series, “Set up a Home Network” at: http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=5 )
Somewhere along the line, you may have added a wireless router to your home network and now you or your spouse are sporting laptops, roaming the house, cable free, and using the Internet from the most unlikely places within your home.
So what if you had the same freedom away from home? Do you have a two-hour layover at the airport and want to check your email? What about using the Internet with your own computer at your favorite lunch spot or the library or the coffee shop or…? The mind staggers!
Thanks to the Wireless HotSpot, that kind of Internet access is not just a dream anymore. The same wireless technology you're using in your home is increasingly available at all those places and more. So what do you need to know when you arrive at those places and want to connect? Are you a business owner and you're losing customers to the guy down the street who already offers HotSpot service?
For the HotSpot User
You wanted it, you got it…but it may not be quite what you expected so keep these points in mind:
Not all HotSpots offer free service. Some providers want to offer access on a plan that will remind you of pay-by-the-minute cellular service. That's fine but be sure you know the terms of the service, whether your unused minutes are banked and whether those minutes are only usable in the location where you originally signed up.
Security. Ultimately, your personal computer's security is your responsibility. This is true no matter what kind of HotSpot you visit. However, some leave a lot to be desired. Don't be fooled into thinking that just because a HotSpot provider is using WEP (Wireless Equivalency Protocol, a form of data encryption used on wireless networks) that you are protected. Odds are extremely good that you and every other customer in the place were given the same WEP key, making the encryption essentially useless. Yes, the guy next to you may be able to take your data. WEP in a HotSpot simply doesn't make a lot of sense.
Use Personal Firewall software on your computer. Have an up to date anti-virus package running with the latest virus signatures loaded.
Look for information on the HotSpot you're using that indicates that your connection is “Layer 2 Isolated” or VLANed. These two terms don't mean that your wireless signals are protected as your laptop sends data off to the HotSpot router. It does mean, however, that the guy next to you can't easily create a straight connection to your computer and start browsing the hard disk.
Be wary of anyone who promises that your HotSpot connection is absolutely secure. That person is uninformed and you will have to take measures into your own hands to safeguard your data appropriately. Let me state it again; that joker doesn't know what he's talking about!
Use SSL for sensitive data. If you use the HotSpot service and are doing things like shopping or banking online, be sure that the website you are connected to is using SSL when you send your password or credit card information to that website. You should be doing this regardless of where you are connected to the Internet anyway but it's even more important in a public place. You can tell you're using SSL fairly easily. First, the URL in your browser's address bar should indicate HTTPS:// instead of HTTP:// . Second, most secure sites indicate they are using SSL by the presence of the SSL certificate issuer's logo. For instance, many sites use SLL certificates issued by Verisign and will have the Verisign logo on their pages.
For the Business Owner
Right now, business owners who want to offer wireless HotSpots to their customers are the most frustrated party in all this HotSpot hoopla. You can't get T-Mobile to offer service in your shop because you don't have 368 gazillion locations to hook up. You don't want to know a lot about this technology; you want to run your business! You're aggravated because you've got employees wasting time surfing the web on the DSL connection you brought into your bar for your Point Of Sale system and, besides, you'd rather get more service out of that fast connection anyway, right?
Well, here's what you need in order to get this going for your business and finally trump that cigar store across the street who has been dragging away at your steady customers.
Don't go to Best Buy or Circuit City to buy a broadband router. Don't get me wrong. They'll have good equipment there. However, that equipment won't allow you to control built-in advertising to your HotSpot customers. You won't be able to limit access times to those customers and you won't be able to effectively isolate your customers from each other or even from your internal business systems!
You do have an option, though. I like this one so much that I've decided to do some work for these folks because they're on to the right idea. Take a look at: http://www.layer1wireless.com
and see if you don't agree that this is the better way to go.
First, their packages offer some peace of mind to the customers. When they ask if your HotSpot is Layer 2 isolated, you'll be able to answer with a yes. Next, you're in control of pricing and connection times. The system offers a way for you to advertise to the customer in a tasteful way and the package is easily run by your staff with almost no training. Because of the way Layer1Wireless has designed their packages, you can also share that broadband connection you're paying for with your customers and have your internal business systems safely isolated from attack.
And here's the best part: You can offer the service to your customers free! Charging for HotSpot access is a losing business model. It costs money to run a service where you have to charge a customer's credit card and then guarantee they get service for that money. If you've hooked up with a service, they are likely to be hitting you with surcharges for each customer that connects. And they are certainly going to want to be the ones in charge of accounting for the customer volume. This simply costs too much to operate affordably.
Your customers, on the other hand, have discovered that Joe Schmuckatelli's Deli just down the street is offering palatable, reasonably priced food AND free Internet access. So guess where they're headed for lunch today…and tomorrow?
Wireless HotSpots are popping up everywhere
You, the consumer, can use these locations easily with your current wireless hardware but you must be aware that not all HotSpots are created equally. Practice basic safe computing by taking responsibility for your own system security. Use Personal Firewalls. Keep your anti-virus software up to date and don't pass unencrypted data like Credit Card numbers and passwords ‘in the clear' when using HotSpot services. Do ask before you use and make sure the HotSpot does offer Layer 2 Isolation or VLAN connections to its customers.
For the business owner, all is not lost. You can share your existing data lines with your customers at a reasonable cost, meet their basic security needs and do so as successfully as the guy whose new HotSpot took your customers away in the first place!
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