Wireless News

iPass Opens Access to McDonald’s

Wayport operates McDonald's Wi-Fi service in a unique arrangement: iPass will now resell access to its mobile corporate customers to the 7,500 unwired McDonald's locations in the U.S. that Wayport services. iPass offers typically metered access to Wi-Fi, dial-up, and other broadband that contrasts with subscription-based, per-user services. Wayport's unique deal at McDonald's is that, at least until now, they have sold access to the entire chain on a fixed monthly fee basis as part of their Wi-Fi World arrangement announced in May 2004. In most aggregation and resale agreements, payments are made on a per-session basis from the

Wireless News

Security Round-Up: Dell Updates Broadcom Drivers, NetGear Exploit Released

Dell has released a 52 MB patch for its affected drivers: The company lists a wide array of adapters including Dell Wireless 1350, 1370, 1390, 1450, and 1500, and the TrueMobile 1300 and 1400 series of mini-PCI and PC Cards. That's one huge download to replace what's apparently not a ton of code. But it must include all the associated software that runs the system, too, as well as every patch for every device.

Full story on Wi-Fi Networking News

Wireless News

Aussies win WiFi patent suit

A federal court in Tyler, Texas has ruled that a patent owned by an agency of the Australian government is valid and covers the core technology found in current wireless devices.

In February, 2005 the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ("CSIRO") filed suit against Buffalo Technology, a Japanese manufacturer and Buffalo USA, its Austin, Texas-based subsidiary. The action alleged that Buffalo's 802.11a and 802.11g wireless devices infringe claims of United States Patent 5,487,069 ("the '069 patent"). The patent issued in September, 1996 and claims priority to an Australian filing in November, 1991.

Wireless News

PCTEL Receives Critical Roaming Patent

PCTEL announced today that its fundamental patent covering roaming across different types of wireless networks has been granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). 

PCTEL had previously announced that the USPTO had communicated its intention to grant the patent. Official notification was provided on November 7, 2006.