Option GlobeSurfer X•1 router: “a new product that transforms any USB wireless modem into an instant Internet-connected WiFi network capable of supporting multiple users.” Too bad I can’t figure out where to buy it.

Also too bad that I can’t simply do this with a jail-broked iPhone. I mean, doesn’t an iPhone have everything it needs built-in: a cell-phone modem, WiFi hardware, and enough unixy goodness to support NAT and routing?

Now that I’ve moved I’ve finally set up my Fonera. I had hoped to offer a story about the process, but it was so simple I can’t really say much more than “I plugged it in, I registered it, it worked.”

The Fonera is a tiny little router/WiFi access point that looks worlds better than the average Linksys/Netgear/Belkin job, but the real sweetness is in what it does that they don’t do.

(Fon = the company, Fonero = users, Fonera = the WiFi router.)

Back in Warren I was happy to leave my WiFi open, I thought of it as my civic duty to leave it open for all in range — especially to test the stereotype that some nefarious stranger would be outside in a car sapping my signal. But here in the big city (*cough*), I did start to think that some sort of click-wrapper forcing users to agree to abide by relevant laws wouldn’t be a bad idea.

And though the public signal from my Fonera isn’t free to use (unless you’re a Fon user yourself), it’s still cheap ($2/day) and convenient.

The sweet thing is that the Fonera broadcasts both public and private channels, and I get a WPA encrypted connection for my personal use (note: WPA is thin protection, always use SSH or SSL). And, of course, anybody I share my WPA password with can get on for free as well.

Summary:

• A sweet router/AP
• Free roaming on the Fon network
• Click-wrap protection for your public signal
• A good feeling that I’m expanding the geography of available (though not really free) wireless coverage

What’s especially interesting in this, and something corporate types everywhere should pay attention to, is that Fon is getting suckers like me to build network infrastructure. Starbucks and T-Mobile had to do lots of talking and invest lots of money to get just 5000 locations, but Fon has already given away a batch of 10,000 routers, is selling more, and has 44,000 users (though I can’t tell if that’s users with hotspots, or all users including Aliens).

Fon advisory board member David Weineberger:

The aim is to provide enough incentives, and make it easy enough technically, that thousands of people will start providing Fon hotspots. Bottom up we can have a global network, usable for free by those who choose to share access for free and for an affordable fee by others.

It also doesn’t hurt that the company is now targeting the Starbucks/T-Mobile partnership that’s defined mass-market coffee shop WiFi since the dawn of ages.

In this context, it’s worth remembering what the FCC says about WiFi: landlords can’t regulate or limit radio emissions, only the FCC can (not that it hasn’t been argued).

Extras: The router software is supposedly based on the F/OSS DD-WRT, and Glenn Fleishman has way more details.

Fon, Fonera, Fonero, connectivity, crowdsourcing, grass roots networking, mass, network, wifi, wireless

After vacillating for a while (and waiting for it to become available), I finally purchased one of the Verizon / Novatel V640 Express Card EVDO adapters that everybody’s talking about for my MacBook Pro.

GearLog promised it would be easy — simply install drivers, plug in card — but they were wrong. Truth was that I didn’t even have to install the drivers. Mac OS X asked me if I wanted to “activate” the card when I plugged it in, then automatically went about configuring everything. Everything was done in short order, and moments after clicking connect I was online with wireless PPP and pinging the world. I don’t know how much of this can be credited to any configuration the folks at Booster Antenna (from whom I bought the card and service) may have done and how much is do to good plug-n-play in OS X. I can, however, say the price and service were excellent.

The 1xRTT speeds I’ve seen so far are fast enough to listen to 128K MP3 streams (though not without occasional hiccups), and the Speedtest reports consistently 125K or better downloads, with uploads that were never far behind and sometimes faster. In most of my use it actually feels faster than the numbers suggest, though scrolling in Google maps is noticeably slower than I’m used to (as are any other similarly graphic-heavy activities). I’ve not even tried surfing the likes of YouTube.

CDMA, evdo, express card, mobile carrier wireless networking, mobile office, mobile wireless, networking, Novatel V640, novatel v640, Novatel Wireless, V640, v640, Verizon, verizon, verizon evdo, Verizon V640, verizon v640, Verizon Wireless, wireless, wireless network, wireless wide area networking, WWAN, wwan, wwan adapter, WWAN card

As I was contemplating making angry calls to my hosting provider last week when they shut down MaisonBisson for a couple days, it occurred to me that I would rather make those calls via SkypeOut or some similar service that didn’t reveal my home phone number. After all, I wouldn’t want an angry sysop to take revenge by having a spare modem call me up every 27 minutes between the hours of midnight and seven AM.

I’m ashamed to admit that it was at that moment that I decided to buy a Bluetooth headset. Trust me, I’d been thinking about it for a while and I had other, good uses in mind, but that was the moment.

My Logitech Mobile Freedom Bluetooth Headset arrived Saturday, but I only tried to pair a few moments ago.

You can probably imagine my shock when the OS X Bluetooth Setup Assistant told me my hardware didn’t support headsets. As it turns out, I hadn’t bothered to install the Bluetooth firmware update, released all the way back in November 2004. The big clue arrived in this MacDevCenter article about Bluetooth headsets and OS X.

But with the Bluetooth update installed, I quickly paired the headset with my 15“ aluminum PowerBook and was able to configure iChat to use it. None of my logged-in buddies were audio chat enabled, though, so I ambled over to Gizmo Project, a VOIP app similar to Skype. I was making calls in no time, and the recorded conversations reveal good sound quality from both ends of the call.

Then, with a change in the OS X System Preferences app, I was routing all audio output to the headset and listening to iTunes. Audio quality with music sounded like 22 KHz, but I didn’t buy this monophonic headset to listen to music.

tags: bluetooth, bluetooth firmware update, bluetooth headset, bluetooth headsets, gizmo project, gizmoproject, ichat, logitech, logitech mobile freedom, mac os x, mobile, skype, wireless

In case you’re looking: Metaphyzx’s Mac OS Wireless Adapter Compatibility List.

tags: apple, card compatibility, compatibility, compatibility list, list, mac, mac os, mac os x, macintosh, network adapter, wifi, wifi adapter, wifi cardbus card, wifi pc card, wifi pci card, wifi pcmcia card, wireless, wireless adapter, wireless adapter compatibility