Monday, April 19th, 2010
Basim Jaber, Sr. Sales Engineer
While waiting for my flight at DFW today, one guy with a PC turns (to his coworker, I presume?) and says “Are you able to get connected to the free network?” The other guy confirmed he couldn’t.
I think to myself… “Free? I just connected to T-Mobile….I didn’t know DFW was free!” So I click on my Window 7 native wireless client and sure enough, there it is. In addition to “tmobile”, there was another SSID entry called “Free Public Wi-Fi”, but it was listed as “Ad-Hoc” (i.e. “computer-to-computer” vs “computer-to-AccessPoint”, for those of you who don’t know what “AdHoc Wi-Fi” means).
Turns out this was a bug in Windows that they fixed, but many people with un-patched systems are still having this issue.
Turns out that if you connect to this, it “infects” your system…. though it’s “viral”, it’s not a “virus”. It’s just a harmless annoyance in Windows that causes people a lot of grief when they try to get connected to the Internet, because it’s not a true hot spot.
However, had those users been using iPass’ Open Mobile, we don’t even show the Ad-Hoc networks in the client (just about all native and 3rd-party Wi-Fi connection managers show Ad-Hoc networks by default). Another layer of security sure can’t hurt.
Free Wi-Fi that isn’t secure – Tales of the Traveler >>
Monday, April 12th, 2010
Basim Jaber, Sr. Sales Engineer
During one of my many trips, I came across a familiar scenario. Familiar, because I’m constantly seeing people in airports and other mobile locations, getting work done with their device of choice. However, I think that IT can forget what it’s like to be a user. When a user opens their laptop, all they can think about is getting to the application – where they are going to get work done.
I’m sitting at Portland, waiting for my flight. I’m on their free Wi-Fi with Open Mobile busily working away. A business traveler sits down a couple of seats away from me and proceeds to scratch his head about why his PC can’t see any Wi-Fi networks. I see him continually click on the Detect Network app. I see him turn the laptop over and look at the bottom and the front edge. Then he pulls out his cell phone and calls his help desk. He tells them what’s going on.
Next thing he does, he looks on the right edge of his PC and flicks a tiny little switch…..the one labeled “Wireless”. Suddenly, his laptop finds an available network connection, he can see “flypdx” and connects. He is now connected after a little frustration and delay.
This reminded me that:
a) Yes, there are still users out there do not know how to enable wireless on their PC…hardware switch or otherwise. Maybe they remember a screen that a friend showed them once. But without help, they are lost.
b) If they can’t figure out how to even find a network, how can IT be sure that they are finding or using the networks that you want them to use?
c) If they could get connected more quickly, they could be at work more quickly; keeping the business moving and letting the Help Desk handle the harder calls.
With Open Mobile, I was able to open my laptop and get connected – with no clicks, the best network is selected and my VPN is started up!
Are your corporate-approved networks easy to find? Tales of a Traveler >>
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Basim Jaber, Sr. Sales Engineer
I will occasionally be posting on best practices or “tales from the field on Enterprise Mobility.”
Here are some iPass 3G mobile broadband deployment tips to ensure a consistent and rapid deployment.
- We ship all 3G mobile broadband devices that we resell already activated. You, as the IT Administrator, merely need to provide the 3G mobile broadband devices to the end users.
- Customer administrators with access to the our Mobile Broadband Portal can log into the portal and associate a user’s full name and department with each 3G mobile broadband device ESN (ESN = Equipment Serial Number). That way, when we provide the month-end billing, you can see each mobile broadband device, user’s name, department, and the usage on each device. Device management is much easier when the end user’s name and department is paired with the mobile broadband ESN.
- Within the Open Mobile portal, you can also configure network policies. For example, favor Wi-Fi or favor previously connected networks and not favor 3G mobile broadband. This will ensure the 3G mobile broadband device is not constantly connected and potentially causing the end user’s data usage to meet or exceed the 5GB fair-use policy. Since our 3G mobile broadband devices do not support international roaming, you have straight cost-containment and no surprise data roaming charges.
- For example, if an iPass 3G mobile broadband users travels to Mexico or Canada, the user’s iPass Network A or iPass Network B mobile broadband device will not connect. The user’s next data connection choice is Wi-Fi which is already included in the iPass Enterprise Pro price plan.
- Most 3G mobile broadband device vendors (OEMs = Original Equipment Manufacturers) are now providing a “driver-only” install packages which is a MSI file that lends well to a rapid deployment. iPass’ Open Mobile client is also a MSI file, meaning that you can push out the Open Mobile client and the 3G mobile broadband device driver together in a silent deployment to targeted users. Once the end users received the MSI files, they run the MSI install, plug in their mobile broadband device and let Open Mobile make the data connection. The OEM’s connection manager application (e.g. Sierra Wireless Watcher or Novatel Wireless MobiLink) is no longer needed for connecting to a 3G mobile broadband data network.
Enterprise Mobility – 3G Mobile Broadband Deployment tips >>
