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by Network World Fusion Staff

NetGear’s multistandard WLAN card, plus other news

Opinion
Mar 11, 20032 mins
MobileNetwork SecuritySmall and Medium Business

* Mobile news from NetGear, Samsung, and @Road and Nextel

Editor’s note: Keith is traveling this week but he will be back in your in-box next week with your feedback to his recent newsletter about free wireless LAN phone calls. Until then, we bring you some breaking mobile news from within the Web pages of Network World Fusion.

*WLAN card for all seasons

Can’t decide which dot-eleven wireless LAN standard is right for you? Well, NetGear supports all three in its latest network interface card. Plus, the company is planning an upgrade later this year to its own “turbo” mode.

The WAG5111 is a PC Card adapter that has two radios: a 2.4-GHz radio for IEEE 802.11b and the not-yet-ratified 802.11g nets, and a 5-GHz radio for 802.11a. The lower frequency supports data rates of 11M bit/sec for 11b and 54M bit/sec for 11g, while the higher frequency runs at the 11a data rate of 54M bit/sec, and offers eight non-overlapping channels compared to three for the lower-frequency standards.

For more information about the card go to: https://www.netgear.com/pressroom/press_releasesdetail.asp?id=135

*Samsung’s optical disk drive is light to the touch

Samsung has developed an optical disk drive for notebook computers that is 25% thinner than existing drives, and also lighter and more efficient, according to the company. The drive is 9.5 millimeters high compared to 12.7 millimeters in most current notebook computer drives. It weighs in at 145 grams – about 35% lighter than most current drives and also features a power-saving mode. The drive is available now to notebook PC makers.

*Pinpointing the whereabouts of your mobile workers

@Road has teamed with Nextel to enable enterprises to track their mobile employees to within a few feet using GPS in cell phones. The service is based on @Road’s Mobile Resource Management (MRM) system, which until now was only available for embedded GPS devices, generally in vehicles. The mobile phone service, called Pocket Edition 1.0, will enable managers to track their employees’ movements even if they often work on their feet or park at a site and walk around. The companies say benefits include billing validation and more efficient dispatching of skilled workers.

For more about @Road, go to: https://www.atroad.com/main.html