Proxim Helps SMBs Enter Public Hotspot Market With New Access Point

The AP-2500 supports 802.11b (Wi-Fi) and 802.11a wireless networking. It also provides a built-in universal services gateway to simplify the process of authenticating a customer on a public wireless network, as well as other software to help manage a wireless network.

The universal services gateway allows solution providers to set up the system to redirect to a Web page that will prompt users to log in, said Ken Haase, director of product marketing and business development at Proxim, Sunnyvale, Calif. The gateway also can be used to provide a portal page to supply some information for free, but then prompts a user to pay for premium services, he said.

Haase said the product saves customers from having to buy a separate universal services gateway, which can cost as much as $30,000. The AP-2500, on the other hand, includes two wireless card slots and has a list price of $1,095.

The AP-2500's dual slots also can be configured to support internal corporate users and guest users separately. This enables companies to set up an access point that can service guests, but at the same time provides different, secure and private services for employees, Haase said.

"This is an opportunity for resellers to up-sell customers that already have an access point but don't have any way to set up visitor or public access," he said.

It's also an opportunity for solution providers to start SMB customers, such as small coffee shops and other retail outlets, on public hotspots without requiring a large monetary investment, he added.

In addition to its hotspot and guest-access features, the new access point will include anti-eavesdropping technology, Haase said.

Software that will let users log in to a public wireless network even when a static IP address is configured on their systems is also included, he said. Most public access points use dynamically generated IP addresses, but the Proxim AP-2500 access point remaps the static IP address to a new, dynamically generated IP address to get around this problem, he said.

Although many companies are announcing support for 802.11g at Comdex, Haase said Proxim plans to wait until the IEEE wireless networking standard is ratified before releasing products on the market. 802.11g offers data rates up to 54 Mbps and backward compatibility to the popular 802.11b standard.

Because of its card-slot architecture, the AP-2500 will support 802.11g cards once they are released, said Haase.