Carol Ellison

About

Carol Ellison is editor of eWEEK.com's Mobile & Wireless Topic Center. She has authored whitepapers on wireless computing (two on network security–,Securing Wi-Fi Wireless Networks with Today's Technologies, Wi-Fi Protected Access: Strong, Standards-based Interoperable Security for Today's Wi-Fi Networks, and Wi-Fi Public Access: Enabling the future with public wireless networks.Ms. Ellison served in senior and executive editorial positions for Ziff Davis Media and CMP Media. As an executive editor at Ziff Davis Media, she launched the networking track of The IT Insider Series, a newsletter/conference/Web site offering targeted to chief information officers and corporate directors of information technology. As senior editor at CMP Media's VARBusiness, she launched the Web site, VARBusiness University, an online professional resource center for value-added resellers of information technology.Ms. Ellison has chaired numerous industry panels and has been quoted as a networking and educational technology expert in The New York Times, Newsday, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio's All Things Considered, CNN Headline News, WNBC and CNN/FN, as well as local and regional Comcast and Cablevision reports. Her articles have appeared in most major hi-tech publications and numerous newspapers and magazines, including The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor.

What Makes RIM Run?

The business profile for the wireless sector, it seems, has caught up with the rest of the industry—or down, as the case may be. An influx of inexpensive 802.11 components from Taiwan is making it harder and harder to earn a decent margin on hardware. Not only have prices on 802.11b equipment fallen to near […]

New WLAN Security Has Its Price

Last week the IEEE gave its official stamp of approval to 802.11i, the long-awaited security specification that replaces Wired Equivalent Privacy, the original—and basically insecure—802.11 security scheme. In its place, were getting the robust, elegant and globally applauded Advanced Encryption Standard. That comes as good news in a month in which wireless security was haunted […]

Patent Wars Go Wireless

Its tempting to look at the patent infringement suit that Wi-LAN slapped against Cisco Systems last week, wring our hands and lament, “Here we go again.” On the face of it, this one has the makings of high drama—a classic David and Goliath battle, as a small, Canadian firm takes on the heavyweight champion of […]

This Time, Cell Phone Virus Is for Real

It had to happen: A computer virus has spread to cell phone networks. Kaspersky Labs issued an advisory Thursday on a network worm called Cabir that affects phones that use the Symbian operating system. Cabir uses the Bluetooth wireless peer protocol to propagate, copying itself to other Bluetooth devices as far as 30 feet away, […]

Interlink Brings Enterprise Wi-Fi Security to SMBs

Interlink Networks rolled out Monday a software-based wireless security product that aims to bring high-end enterprise security to small businesses in a setup thats as easy to configure as security codes in a garage door opener. At least thats the goal of Mike Klein, president and CEO of Interlink, who believes that small businesses have […]

Quicker Embrace of GSM Would Help Stateside Wi-Fi

We seem to need pager alerts these days to keep up with competition in the Wi-Fi hot-spot space. Yesterday, just a week after Wayport announced a retail partnering program that challenged T-Mobile USAs dominance among retail hot spots, T-Mobile countered with an aggressive move into Wayports bread-and-butter niche, the travel and hospitality sector. T-Mobile lit […]

War Driving Misses Part of WLAN Security Picture

On a slow news day, you can always go “war driving.” Thats what Mike Outmesguine did in an 800-mile drive down the California coastline in an Associated Press story this week. About 40 percent of the networks he detected from the laptop on the passenger seat of his Toyota 4Runner were not secured. The news […]

Want Wi-Fi with That?

Before Wayport had much time to glory in its April win of a bid to unwire McDonalds restaurants, one of its key competitors went belly-up. Immediately, it seemed, pundits and analysts everywhere were asking whether the retail model for Wi-Fi hot spots—the one that suggests wireless connectivity will attract new customers to a venue—had any […]

Cometas Wi-Fi Clients Left Scrambling

Cometa Networks announcement that it is suspending operations has its former clients—and the providers who court their business—scrambling to pick up the service. /zimages/6/28571.gifClick here to read more about Cometas decision to pull the plug on Wi-Fi. Peter Hoedemaker, vice president of retail at Tullys Coffee, said Tullys is actively looking for alternatives. “Everybody is […]

Cometa Pulls the Plug on Wi-Fi

Strapped for investment capital, Wi-Fi provider Cometa Networks announced on Wednesday that it plans to suspend operations after less than 18 months in business. AT&T, IBM, Intel and two venture capital firms launched the collaborative venture in December 2002 to aggregate and wholesale wireless hot spot services. In March of 2003, Cometa gained prominence as […]