5th December 2001
Hark, the herald router sings! When the Ricochet network died, I was left without a wireless Internet connection for my Pocket PC. As soon as a low-power Wi-Fi (802.11b) option was available for my PDA, I snapped it up. As this new technology saturates the market, it will change the way we access information. Imagine being able to do price comparisons, get up-to-the-minute weather and traffic reports, and view public transportation schedules on-the-fly. So, how do you know when there's a wireless Internet connection in the vicinity? Check out what Jason Dunn from Pocket PC Thoughts forwarded to me: "I was taking to a developer / friend about the [sniffing] issue, and one of our ex-coworkers found a answer when programming a driver for FreeBSD. Use 'ANY' (sans quotes, case sensitive) for the ESSID; it's an 802.11b standard. It will find the nearest available access point. So far, my Symbol card seems to be switching to the closest network. For me, it switches to the network's ESSID automatically." Much to my surprise, this works! Of course, I'm not recommending that you hijack someone else's connection on a long-term basis. It's really more for those of us who are always on the go (and want to stay in the know).