WifiNigel

With all of the excitement around 802.11ac that is currently unfolding, I was very interested to hear about the support for 11ac by the recently released  Saumsung Galaxy S4. Having a quick scan of the reviews across the web about the new handset, I was intrigued to see claims that it supports 802.11ac, allowing speeds up to 1.3Gbps! Feeling a little sceptical that it would support anything close to those speeds, I did a bit of digging to see what I could find. My first port of call was a product tear-down over at  TechInsights.com . They revealed that the WiFi chip in the S4 is the  Broadcom  BCM4335 A quick look around the Broadcom site soon revealed the product page for the BCM4335, with an overview of the chipset specification. In summary, it supports: Single stream IEEE 802.11ac solution with  data rates up to 433.3 Mbps Full IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n legacy compatibility with enhanced performance Supports 20, 40, and 80 MHz channels with optional SGI (256 QAM modulation

 In a  recent post , I was voicing my concerns around the existing default security method employed by cloud-wireless solutions to 'protect' administrative access to their service. In summary, I proposed that some type of multi-factor authentication should be the default method of access for administrators (both customer and vendor) of cloud wireless services. The current default of a "username and password" is too weak when considering the damage that can be inflicted on an organization by unauthorized access to any cloud-managed network. I heard from one of the  guys at Meraki , letting me know that they already have multi-factor authentication.  I already knew that they have an SMS OTP method, but I didn't really think that it was a particularly good solution. For instance, what about if you're out of cell-phone range or suffer one of those annoying delays in receipt of an SMS message? However, after taking another look, they also now show support f

I've been thinking about writing this article for a while and today I came across some articles and Tweets which finally spurred me in to action (see references at the end of this article). In this article I discuss the CWNP program, with particular emphasis on the CWTS certification, for those wishing to learn about WiFi networking. I meet a lot of people in my line of work (IT professionals in the main) who would like to improve  their   knowledge  of WiFi networking, or would perhaps even like to shift their area of expertise to become focused in this area. However, the question often arises: "how do I get  into  WiFi networking".  If you're an IT professional who already has one or two areas of expertise (maybe you're already a security, routing or perhaps voice specialist?) perhaps you would like to understand WiFi networking, as it will doubtless touch your core area of focus during your day-to-day networking life. Or, perhaps you'd just like to