Wi-Fi with your asiago bagel...@ Panera

[WiredTigress]

This story has generated a great deal technology buzz...Panera to offer Wi-Fi in stores coast to coast (http://www.madison.com/captimes/business/stories/54310.php)

I think the Panera atmosphere suits this type of technology. Six Metro Detroit locations offer the Wi-Fi access.

Will more eateries follow suit?

[Wolf Hopper]

How much slower is it than cable?

[Gosfgiants]

Wi-fi will be everywhere in the next few years. Starbucks and many other coffee places offer wi-fi networks in SF. McDonalds has also started offering this as well. Most siginificantly the McDonalds near Pacbell Park has the service. A person on an email list I'm on recently conducted a wi-fi experiment. Using his laptop and some sniffer software on a drive home he came across about 200 wireless networks in about a 20 block trip.

[Skip]

I am cynical, leery of, and scared of wireless internet. I crosses my personal bounds of security based on what I know of it.

[huskerdru]

I am cynical, leery of, and scared of wireless internet. I crosses my personal bounds of security based on what I know of it.

WLANs can actually be extermely secure - in some ways more so than wired networks, but not necessarily. Never attach to a WLAN that uses WEP (Wired-Equivalent Privacy) for security!!! If the WLAN is using WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), then you're probably okay. Soon (like this year still) the IEEE will adopt 802.11i as the WLAN standard, which has security beyond what we see in most wired networks.

[Skip]

I've been reading up a bit on Wi-Fi. I'll admit it seems pretty good. I let my IEEE membership lapse years ago ... but I've got a decade or more of back issues of 'Computer' still stashed in the attic if you want 'em. :D