Geekzone: technology news, blogs, forums
Guest
Welcome Guest.
You haven't logged in yet. If you don't have an account you can register now.


lapimate

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

#5212 9-Oct-2005 22:12
Send private message

The i-mate SP5 http://www.imate.com/DETAILS_SP5.htm appears to have the excrable obsolescent insecure (WEP) 802.11b.

Is anyone aware of other (forthcoming) similar weight WM 5.0 Smartphone devices which will have 802.11g with WPA or WPA2? Motorola?

Create new topic
chiefie
I iz your trusted friend
5877 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod
Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #21232 10-Oct-2005 09:23
Send private message

err most of the mobile devices are at 802.11b because "g" will use more power and will not be economical for the mobile devices' battery.




Internet is my backyard...

 

«Geekzone blog: Tech 'n Chips Takeaway» «Personal blog: And then...»

 

Please read the Geekzone's FUG

 




jhc123
28 posts

Geek


  #21252 10-Oct-2005 19:02
Send private message

I agree with Chiefie- 802.11g is far too much drain on the power of a portable device.
I'd also point out that a connection faster than 11MBs/sec seems a little bit pointless on a device with only 64MB of RAM and a small screen size (maybe someone will quote this back to me in a few years along with William Gate's "640KB is enough memory for anyone" statement)

You mentioned WEP but you should be aware that 802.11b and WPA are not mutually exclusive. WPA is an upgrade for WEP and you can quite happily use WPA with almost all 802.11b devices. All the recent devices have support out of the box (although they tend to default to WEP still) and I'd bet that the SP5 is included in this.

For example I'm happily running an Imate PDA2k (HTC BlueAngel) in WPA-PSK mode on my home wireless network. Drop me a line if you need help doing this.

Besides, I wouldn't get too carried away about the Wireless security for a home network. If you're doing anything you don't want sniffed then it should also be via a VPN or SSL/TLS web session, not in plain text over a network of any kind. I was running my home network "open" for quite a while with no security concerns- just using MAC filtering to stop others borrowing my internet pipe. I only changed over to WPA just to see if I could get all my devices to play the WPA game and haven't got around to changing it back yet. Might end up upgrading it to WPA2 or adding an 802.1x auth server, again- just to see if it can be done, not because I'm worried about the security.

John

jhc123
28 posts

Geek


  #21273 10-Oct-2005 21:42
Send private message

OK, I knew that quote about no point in 802.11g would come back to haunt me- just didn't think it would be this soon! Check out the I-Mate KJam if you really have a need for speed. http://www.imate.com/DETAILS_KJAM.htm

A bit bigger than the SP5 but it does have 802.11b/g and is promising 802.11i via downloadable ROM update shortly.

John



lapimate

352 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted
Lifetime subscriber

  #21283 10-Oct-2005 22:00
Send private message

jhc123:
...
You mentioned WEP but you should be aware that 802.11b and WPA are not mutually exclusive. WPA is an upgrade for WEP and you can quite happily use WPA with almost all 802.11b devices. All the recent devices have support out of the box [lapimate emphasis] (although they tend to default to WEP still) and I'd bet that the SP5 is included in this.
...
John


Goodoh! Thanks, sure hope it does indeed apply to SP5. I see:
http://www.wi-fi.org/OpenSection/FAQ.asp?TID=2#WECA
"Will my product automatically be tested for WPA?
As of 8/31/2003, all 802.11b and 802.11g applications will automatically incorporate WPA testing into the certification tests. 802.11a will automatically incorporate WPA for all product applicants received after 9/31/2003. "


Create new topic





News and reviews »

Air New Zealand Starts AI adoption with OpenAI
Posted 24-Jul-2025 16:00


eero Pro 7 Review
Posted 23-Jul-2025 12:07


BeeStation Plus Review
Posted 21-Jul-2025 14:21


eero Unveils New Wi-Fi 7 Products in New Zealand
Posted 21-Jul-2025 00:01


WiZ Introduces HDMI Sync Box and other Light Devices
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:32


RedShield Enhances DDoS and Bot Attack Protection
Posted 20-Jul-2025 17:26


Seagate Ships 30TB Drives
Posted 17-Jul-2025 11:24


Oclean AirPump A10 Water Flosser Review
Posted 13-Jul-2025 11:05


Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Raising the Bar for Smartphones
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Brings New Edge-To-Edge FlexWindow
Posted 10-Jul-2025 02:01


Epson Launches New AM-C550Z WorkForce Enterprise printer
Posted 9-Jul-2025 18:22


Samsung Releases Smart Monitor M9
Posted 9-Jul-2025 17:46


Nearly Half of Older Kiwis Still Write their Passwords on Paper
Posted 9-Jul-2025 08:42


D-Link 4G+ Cat6 Wi-Fi 6 DWR-933M Mobile Hotspot Review
Posted 1-Jul-2025 11:34


Oppo A5 Series Launches With New Levels of Durability
Posted 30-Jun-2025 10:15









Geekzone Live »

Try automatic live updates from Geekzone directly in your browser, without refreshing the page, with Geekzone Live now.



Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.