Tag Archives: hotspot

Goodspeed flat-rate hotspot service now supports China Unicom

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Goodspeed flatrate hotspot service now supports China Unicom

Uros' Goodspeed hotspot service offers sanely priced international data, but it hasn't been available in China so far -- that's not much help when visiting friends in Fuzhou. Travelers won't have to fret, however, as Uros just unveiled a network agreement with China Unicom. Goodspeed's €5.90 ($8) daily rate now supplies a modest-but-usable 500MB of 3G data throughout large parts of China. Visitors will also need to pay Goodspeed's usual €9.90 ($13) monthly fee and buy the €269 ($353) hotspot, but they're still looking at big savings over conventional data roaming. Those planning Chinese expeditions will likely want to give the service at least a cursory look through the source link.

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Source: Goodspeed

Researchers able to predict iOS-generated hotspot passwords in less than a minute

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Anyone who's tried to tether to their iPhone or iPad will recall how iOS manages to craft its own passwords when used as a personal hotspot. The aim is to ensure that anyone sharing a data connection will get some degree of security, regardless of whether or not they tinker with the password themselves. However, three researchers from FAU in Germany have now worked the structure behind these auto-generated keys -- a combination of a short English word and a series or random numbers -- and managed to crack that hotspot protection in under a minute. To start, the word list contains about 52,500 entries, and once the testers were able to capture a WiFi connection, they used an AMD Radeon HD 6990 GPU to cycle through all those words with number codes, taking just under 50 minutes to crack with rote entry. Following that, they realized that only a small subset (just 1,842) of the word list was being used.

With an even faster GPU -- a cluster of four AMD Radeon HD 7970s -- they got the hotspot password cracking time to 50 seconds. The Friedrich-Alexander University researchers added that unscrupulous types could use comparable processing power through cloud computing. "System-generated passwords should be reasonably long, and should use a reasonably large character set. Consequently, hotspot passwords should be composed of completely random sequences of letters, numbers, and special characters," says the report, which outlines the trade-off between security and usability. However, as ZDNet notes, Apple's cycled password approach still offers more protection than static options found elsewhere. Check out the full paper at the source.

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Via: ZDNet

Source: Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander University (PDF)

Comcast Reveals Millions of Xfinity WiFi Hotspots

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Now subscribers to Comcast will be able to gain total access to the World Wide Web outside their home environments. Since the last couple of years, it had been busy constructing a Wi-Fi network that...
    


3DS owners get the gift of free WiFi from O2 in the UK

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3DS owners get the gift of free WiFi from O2

3DS owners in the UK will have at least one less thing to gripe about starting today: connectivity. Not that the British arm of the gaming giant hasn't been incredibly proactive about lining up WiFi partners, but the deal struck with O2 grants customers free access at yet another 7,000 hotspots. That includes major chains such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Costa Coffee, Debenhams, House of Fraser and Toby Carvery, not mention several major venues and arenas. This expansion of Nintendo's gratis network keeps DLC and new games within easy reach at almost all times, since the country's major airports, hotels and a few other fast food chains are already covered. Now Nintendo just needs to strike a deal with a few of the nation's optometrists. All that extra play time is certainly going to strain a few eyes.

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Source: Eurogamer.net

Yota introduces Ruby LTE hotspot with e-ink display at CTIA 2013 (hands-on)

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Yota introduces Ruby LTE hotspot with e-ink display at CTIA 2013 handson

Remember Yotaphone, the twin-display Android smartphone (color LCD in front, e-ink in back)? Today at CTIA in Las Vagas, Yota devices, the company behind the innovative handset, introduced Ruby, a sleek LTE hotspot with a small e-ink screen. We don't usually get too excited about such devices, but Ruby looks like something out of Jony Ive's workshop, with some interesting features to match. The design recalls the iPod mini but is made of white plastic instead of aluminum.

Along the top edge, you'll find the e-ink display and a two-way power switch -- slide it to the left and Ruby behaves like a secure hotspot, slide it to the right and it's a public access point. The e-ink screen shows battery and signal status, the number of connected devices and a smiley icon to confirm public mode. On the bottom edge is a trick flap that's both a micro-USB socket and a USB Type A plug depending on how it's positioned -- the micro-SIM slot is cleverly hidden behind it. A programmable RGB LED mounted behind the Yota logo completes the package on the front of the hotspot.

Ruby currently supports quad-band EDGE, plus HSPA+ and LTE for the European market, but the radio can be configured (in hardware) to support other bands. The 2100mAh battery powers the unit for about 16 hours of use (60 hours on standby) and can be charged to 70 percent capacity in about an hour. Yota's signed a few deals with carriers in Russia and Europe and the device is expected to become available to Russian customers in two to three weeks for about $120 (unsubsidized). No word on whether Ruby will land in the US (yet). Take a look at our hands-on gallery below.

Gallery: Yota devices LTE hotspot hands-on

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Microsoft implants Wi-Fi hotspots on Forbes’ magazines to promote Office 365

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Apart from its "usual" features and insights, the first week edition of Forbes magazine for the month of May seem to have a special added feature. Microsoft is reportedly promoting the latest Office...
    


FreedomPop announces $40 hotspot with access to Sprint’s 3G network

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DNP FreedomPop announces new hotspot with access to Sprint's 3G network

FreedomPop, the famously "free" data-only internet provider, promised an upgrade from WiMAX to Sprint's LTE by the end of 2013, and while the company may have missed that mark, it is now offering access to the carrier's 3G network. A new $40 Overdrive Pro hotspot, available today, will connect to Sprint's 3G in addition to 4G courtesy of Clearwire's WiMAX network. Users will get 500MB of 3G/4G coverage for free each month, and can choose a monthly 2GB plan for $20.

FreedomPop says it will release several devices running on Sprint's LTE spectrum later this year, in line with the carrier's build-out. Even the addition of Sprint's 3G is a big step up, though, as FreedomPop's own network doesn't exactly blanket the US. If you already own one of the company's hotspots but want to upgrade to this one, you'll be able to swap yours via customer service. Check out the full press info past the break.

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Source: FreedomPop

AT&T and Boingo unite on free-but-not-really airport WiFi

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AT&T and Boingo unite on freebutnotreally airport WiFi

AT&T has been forging partnerships that give its roaming customers free WiFi while abroad, and it just struck one of the more logical networking deals that we've seen to date, if also the most lopsided. A pact with Boingo will let AT&T subscribers have 1GB of free data each month on Boingo's airport hotspots -- but, as with previous arrangements, only if they're subscribed to AT&T's $60 or $120 international data plans. Boingo subscribers, meanwhile, get a much better deal. They can use AT&T hotspots anywhere in the US as part of their existing rate, which could see them paying as little as $10 per month. Either arrangement will keep us online during a layover, and for that we're thankful -- but there's only one that's likely to have us pulling out our credit cards.

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Source: AT&T, Boingo

T-Mobile’s Sonic 2.0 mobile hotspot revealed, brings LTE-powered WiFi to the masses

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TMobile's Sonic 20 mifi revealed, brings LTEpowered WiFi to the magenta loving massesT-Mobile's UnCarrier announcement event is taking place a little later today, but some bits of news have started to leak out ahead of time. First was the BlackBerry Z10, and now comes an LTE mobile hotspot, the Sonic 2.0. It's T-mo's first LTE mifi and can feed data to up to eight devices at a time. Not only that, it's compatible with both Mac OSX 10.8 and Windows 8, plus Microsofties get the added benefit of compatibility with the Win8 Carrier application so users can easily access real-time data usage info for every connected gadget. As for the hardware, the Sonic 2.0 has a 1.77-inch color LCD on the front, a 3,000 mAh battery, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and quadband LTE and 3G radios on board. There's also a MicroSD card slot for simple file sharing of up to 32GB cards. It'll be available by the end of the month, though we don't yet know how much it'll cost. Guess you'll have to tune into our liveblog to find out.

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Via: Laptop Mag

Source: T-Mobile

T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 LTE hotspot reportedly poses for a press image

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TMobile's Sonic 20 LTE hotspot poses for a press image

We've previously had just a smattering of text to hint that T-Mobile might kick off its formal LTE launch with a Sonic 2.0 Mobile Hotspot. Things just got more tangible this weekend through an apparent TmoNews leak. The really-truly-4G pocket router has surfaced in a supposed press render that's fairly plain looking, but suggests a little sophistication through a color screen. We're still missing the rather important details of the Sonic 2.0's performance and price; if prior tips are on the mark, though, we'll have our answers (and more devices) in about six weeks.

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Source: TmoNews