Author Archive
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
We have talked a bit on the iPass blog regarding advancements we have made on the different client platforms out there, whether it is discussing our new Open Mobile for iOS client, the new look and feel of our Open Mobile for Macintosh client, or the granular policy controls we’ve enhanced recently for our Open Mobile for Windows client.
Today I’d like to draw attention to some of the great enhancements we’ve rolled into the Open Mobile Portal.
We don’t talk about the Portal that often, and we should talk about it more! The Portal has a tendency to just keep rolling out great releases a couple times per quarter that often get caught up with the different Open Mobile client releases. Behind every great ‘Control’ type feature in the Open Mobile client is the ability to configure it in the Portal.
Lost in all of this is the fact that the Open Mobile Portal is evolving into a great reporting tool for gaining insight into how mobility is being used across all mobile employees. Many people still think of iPass as helping users to connect to an iPass network, but did you know that in the Open Mobile Portal that we can show all of your Mobile Broadband data usage for those employees you have given a Mobile Broadband data card?
We recently enhanced our Mobile Broadband data usage report to differentiate between roaming and non-roaming users and to easily switch between a graphical view and a per user listing of Mobile Broadband data users.
You can see who are your heaviest users — those bumping up against usage limits as well as incurring heavy roaming fees — along with seeing those who are not using the cards you give out, so you can consider reassigning those cards to someone else. Historically, the Open Mobile Portal reports focused on the number of connections people make by type of connection, but another recent enhancements allows you to look at usage in megabytes, not just for Mobile Broadband as discussed above but for Wi-Fi, Ethernet and even dial users. You can then see who your heaviest users are in terms of usage across all access types.
As more of your organizations traffic moves outside of the corporate network- remote users accessing cloud applications is a perfect example, it is important to maintain visibility on who is making those connections, on what type of device they are connecting and the type of connections they are making. This is important for tracking productivity and costs of your increasingly mobile set of employees.
The nice thing is that the Open Mobile Portal is evolving along with your organization, providing the exact information you need to keep tabs on mobility across your organization. With the Open Mobile Portal rolling out releases several times per quarter, there is a lot more on the horizon that I can’t wait to talk about.
Are there other features that you want more details on? Leave me a comment, or Tweet back to iPass (@ipass).
Open Mobile Portal Reporting Enhancements >>
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
If you follow iPass you have probably seen the news about the recent Open Mobile for iOS release, and the latest Mobile Workforce Report trends.
These are great examples of iPass listening to our customers and staying on top of the latest mobility trends. With all of the Smartphone and Tablet hype out there, I’d like to draw attention to some of the other areas that iPass has been working on. Did you know that in the last three months we have provided two great updates to our Open Mobile client for Macintosh?
I know that for many of our customers, seeing a user with an IT provided, or IT “blessed” Macintosh laptop is an increasingly common sight. The Open Mobile client for Macintosh provides our enterprise customers and partners with hassle-free connectivity for those Mac users, making getting onto the internet or corporate network simple and consistent- regardless if you are at work, at home, or on the go.
The Open Mobile client for Macintosh v1.1 release (available April 2011) provided a new look and feel, more in line with common designs used on the Macintosh. Additionally, Open Mobile for Macintosh added support for the free iPass OpenAccess network, meaning you can now use the Open Mobile client for Macintosh to automatically log into Wi-Fi hotspots that incur no usage fees, and also at the same time bypass those annoying ‘Terms and Condition’ pages common at many of those free networks.
The ‘Smart Network Selection’ capabilities used by Open Mobile for Windows to determine how available Wi-Fi and Mobile Broadband networks are displayed to users (e.g. the ability to specify if networks are displayed based on things like ‘signal strength’, or ‘previously used’, or ‘prefer Wi-Fi over Mobile Broadband) is also now available for the Open Mobile client for Macintosh.
The Open Mobile client for Macintosh v1.2 release (available June 2011) provided our customers with the ability to customize the look and feel of the Open Mobile client so that it matches their corporate standards. It also added in several great UI features, providing administrator defined support for displaying RSS feeds and launching applications directly from the Open Mobile client.
And something that is very popular with our Open Mobile for Windows users — Open Mobile for Macintosh now offers VPN support, allowing administrators to specify VPN policies that will auto-launch the VPN when using Open Mobile, as well as monitor and tear down VPN connections.
When you add all of this together, you see some great new capabilities being added in for Open Mobile for Macintosh. This is reflective of the types of requests we get from our customers – both the administrators who manage Open Mobile for their organization, and the growing number of Mac users who also use our product.
Open Mobile for Macintosh Update >>
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
Recently we just concluded a series of blog posts detailing our latest Open Mobile for Windows release.
I also want to draw attention to iPass Open Mobile for Macintosh that was released earlier this month. This is a great release for all of our Mac users out there, as now the Open Mobile client for Macintosh features a totally redesigned user interface, as well as, supporting new connection options – such as connecting to our free OpenAccess network or supporting Mobile Broadband connections.
We’ve provided some additional information on the new features and capabilities that can be found in the Open Mobile client for Macintosh v1.1 below, and there is plenty more which you can learn about in the release notes or by talking to your iPass contact.
Open Mobile for Macintosh Release Highlights:
- Redesigned User Interface: Open Mobile for Macintosh now features a totally new user experience, moving to more of an application-based user interface
- Smart Network Selection: The network selection criteria found in the Open Mobile Portal that is currently used by the Open Mobile for Windows to determine how networks are displayed to users will now also extend to the Open Mobile for Macintosh
- OpenAccess Support: The free OpenAccess Wi-Fi network is now supported.
- Auto-Connect Support: Open Mobile for Macintosh can now auto-connect to available Mobile Broadband/3G, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, networks. This includes Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections that are not established through the Open Mobile client (inherited connections).
- Mobile Broadband Support: Open Mobile for Macintosh now supports Mobile Broadband connections, and will have the ability to auto-connect to the Mobile Broadband network when Open Mobile detects that a Mobile Broadband card has been inserted. Additionally, administrators can specify via policy if Mobile Broadband users have permission to roam or not. (Select set of Mobile Broadband devices supported with this release)
- Improved Mobile Insight Reporting: Open Mobile for Macintosh now reports additional details on Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Mobile Broadband connections to the Open Mobile Portal, presenting more metrics to administrators regarding mobility usage from Macintosh users.
iPass Open Mobile for Macintosh >>
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
This is part 4 in our series profiling the latest iPass Open Mobile for Windows update. In this blog entry, we are going to take a closer look at the new BlackBerry Tethering support now available with Open Mobile for Windows.
One trend that we’ve seen from our customers is a general desire to leverage a mobile broadband data subscription on multiple devices, mainly to be more efficient with the amount of data subscriptions you subscribe to on a monthly basis. One increasingly popular method to accomplish this is through smartphone tethering.
The challenge with tethered connections is ensuring the Open Mobile recognizes the tethered device as a legitimate connection option and then also applies the right connection policies and provides the right level of insight into that connection for reporting purposes. This can be even more challenging because all smartphones exhibit different behavior when tethered. While Open Mobile worked with several different smartphones for tethered connections, one important platform what was missing up to now was support for tethered connections to Blackberry smartphones.
The Open Mobile for Windows now supports connections via a tethered BlackBerry smartphone device. How does it work? It really is quite simple for the user.
The user connects their BlackBerry device to their Windows laptop, and Open Mobile will then show the BlackBerry device as an available 3G connection. Depending on the auto-connect policy, Open Mobile will either automatically establish the connection when the BlackBerry device is tethered, or the user will select the ‘Connect’ option from the Open Mobile client. It really is that easy. All Connect/Disconnect, VPN Launch and Post-Connect policies are supported. All usage statistics will appear as 3G statistics with the Mobile Insight reports.
There are a few items that administrators should be aware of when considering this feature for your users:
- The BlackBerry Desktop software must be installed on the user’s Windows device
- The BlackBerry device itself must be on a carrier plan that supports tethering- this is usually an add-on service that must be enabled
- The 3G roaming policies available via the Open Mobile portal do not apply for tethered connections
- Also note that voice connections will not work while the BlackBerry device is tethered
This is a great new feature that is part of the Open Mobile Client for Windows 1.4.1 release. Support for tethered BlackBerry devices provides our customers with a great option for consolidating mobile data requirements from multiple devices to a single device, potentially reducing costs and adding efficiencies for your organization.
Did you know? Open Mobile already supports connections from a tethered iPhone or a Android Smartphone? As described above, the tethered device does need to be on a data plan that supports tethering.
For the previous posts:
Blackberry Tethering >>
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing
This is part 3 of 4 in our series, profiling the iPass Open Mobile for Windows release, including the iPass Open Mobile client v.1.4.1. Part 1 covered highlights, and Part 2 reviewed 3G roaming controls.
Today, we are going to take a closer look at the new “Prefer, Prohibit and Rename” network selection policies implemented in the iPass Open Mobile for Windows 1.4.1 release.
With the iPass Open Mobile Platform, we wanted to provide our customers with a mechanism to really control what type of network connection users can make; where control is based on policies established by administrators via the Open Mobile Portal. How an administrator sets this policy really happens through several different configuration options:
1) Available Networks: First administrators can control what type of networks are presented to users as options. Can the user connect to Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Mobile Broadband networks? These options include both iPass-defined or corporate-defined connection options.
2) Connection Policies: Next, administrators can set policies that determine the selection priority that is used when there are multiple connection options for the user. These options include choices such as ‘Favor Wi-Fi over Mobile Broadband’ to reduce costs, ‘Favor signal strength’ to optimize the user experience. Administrators can also set whether Open Mobile will automatically connect to an available network or if the user must take deliberate action. For example, you may prefer that Open Mobile auto-connect to Wi-Fi networks, but not Mobile Broadband networks since you may not have an unlimited data plan.
3) Mobile Broadband Roaming Policies: Finally, administrators can set much more explicit policies around roaming – since this can be a significant source of unplanned mobility costs for the organization. This includes the ability to set explicit usage limits or disable roaming completely.
What was missing from all of this was an easy mechanism to indicate specific (or named) networks that you want users to connect to all the time, or conversely networks that should always be avoided. The first three settings focused on access across network types. Now we’ve introduced a new capability to manage policy on specific network names.
This is where the new “Prefer, Prohibit and Rename” policy option introduced with the Open Mobile for Windows 1.4.1 client can really make things easy (shown in the Open Mobile Portal screenshot above). Think of this as a white-listing or black-listing option that sits on top of the three options mentioned above. In this context, the network refers to a specific Wi-Fi SSID or Mobile Broadband network name. This new option allows you to:
- Prefer a specific network location to appear at the top of the available networks list
- When that preferred network is available, disable the ability to connect to any other network (this option would allow you to disable a connection to that Mobile Broadband data card in the example mentioned above)
- Conversely, allow you to prohibit a connection to a specific network.
- When a prohibited network is available, you can choose to make it visible but grayed out, or completely obscure if from being shown to users.
- You can also define specific networks that while are still available to the user, the auto-connect policy will be disabled.
- You can also rename networks to something that is more user friendly.
This is a feature that we think will offer a lot of utility to our customers. Perhaps your corporate office has multiple Wi-Fi networks with overlapping signals that may make sense to your internal employees, but confuse your remote visitors. This can make it easy for them to know what to connect to. Or perhaps you are moving to a different Mobile Broadband data card and want to prevent employees from using their old Mobile Broadband cards and force them to request a new one. Or you want to ensure that remote employees who you have given a Mobile Broadband data card to only use the campus Wi-Fi and not the Mobile Broadband data card when they are in the office. There are really many different ways that this policy option can be used.
Did you know? One thing that many of our customers are not aware of is that the ordering of the available networks (see option #1 above) is important in determining which network to connect to when there are multiple options.
For example, look at what happens if you prioritize the free iPass OpenAccess network at the top of the list. When a user walks into a Starbucks Coffee shop with free Wi-Fi (which is part of the OpenAccess network), and that coffee shop is next door to a hotel with a fee-based iPass hotspot that is also available to that user, because the OpenAccess network is at the top of the list, Open Mobile will attempt to connect to it first. Saving you money.
Prefer, Prohibit and Rename – network selection policies >>
