Most of the news coming out of the wireless LAN industry this summer has been of the product enhancement variety, but this week's debut of start-up Bountiful WiFi is an exception.

The year-old company's first product is an 802.11b/g router that the company says can deliver two to four times the range of conventional devices. The Bountiful Router combines an access point with a four-port Ethernet switch; a WAN port; and a battery of security options, including Wi-Fi Protected Access with 802.1X and RADIUS authentication.

One key differentiator is an FCC-certified 2.4-GHz 802.11b/g radio running at 840 milliwatts. That compares with a maximum of 80 milliwatts for many rival products. Secondly, the radio, based on an Atheros chipset, uses a group of algorithms, software code and discrete radio frequency filtering components to create a clean, consistent and powerful signal.

A conventional 802.11b/g access point is generally considered to have a range of about 300 feet, though the data rate might be 1M bit/sec at that distance. Bountiful's router can reach 1,200 feet, according to company founder and CEO David Egbert. Citing "unscientific tests," he says the router has maintained an 802.11g data rate of 48M bit/sec at 600 feet.

The Bountiful Router costs $625.

Symbol, Cisco and more

In other wireless news, Symbol Technologies has released a 54M bit/sec 802.11g bridge that can be plugged into by Ethernet devices that can't be fitted with a WLAN adapter, such as point-of-sale terminals, medical equipment, time clocks, scales and printers. The new CB3000 Client Bridge then becomes, in effect, a wireless network interface card, making a connection to the nearest access point.

The CB3000 can support up to 16 Ethernet devices through a separate hub, which would plug into the bridge's port.

An earlier model, released in 2001, used only an 11M bit/sec 802.11b radio, supported up to eight clients, and lacked the newer security standards.

The price of the CB3000 is $285.

Separately, Cisco announced it is now shipping a new high-end wireless LAN controller, the Cisco 4400. It's the first WLAN controller jointly developed by engineers from Cisco and its recent acquisition, Airespace.

The model 4402 has two Gigabit Ethernet ports and works with 12, 25 or 50 lightweight access points. The 4402 controller starts at $9,995, for up to 12 Cisco 1000 Series access points.