WM 5.0 wi-fi SP5

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lapimate

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Topic # 5212 9-Oct-2005 22:12

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?

chiefie

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Reply # 21232 10-Oct-2005 09:23

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.

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jhc123

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Reply # 21252 10-Oct-2005 19:02

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

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Reply # 21273 10-Oct-2005 21:42

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

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Reply # 21283 10-Oct-2005 22:00

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. "