Wi-Fi Hotspots Wireless hot spots,  Hot Spot Solution for Small Business, Hotspot Kits. Everything you need to build and grow your Hotspot   We are dedicated to providing serious solutions to serious businesses. We help you get it right the first time. End-to-end solutions for unmatched availability to electronic resources development and application engineering services to a broad mix of institutional, governmental, and corporate clients. Here are the tools that will improve the way your company deals with clients and other businesses process.  "Plug-and-Play" Hotspot Systems Contact us Today! Wireless hot spots are popping up everywhere. OkHotSpots Coffee shops have them -- so do airports, sandwich shops, public parks, and more. Hot Spot Solution for Small Business Owners; All-in-One Wi-Fi Service, Maximizes Profits for Individual Retailers But in general a hot spot is a specific wireless network location that provides wireless network connectivity to a select group of users, whether public or private. These locations can be either free, paid, or part of a corporate network, and offer unlimited or limited service. Business travelers can now stay connected anywhere using wireless hot spots. Whether you are in an airport, a cafe, a public park, a shopping mall, or a parking lot, you may find yourself smack-dab in the middle of a public or commercial hot spot. With the right gear, hot-spot hopping is easy. Opt for a PC Card with a sensitive antenna, an external antenna connector, or a high-power output, and find out which wireless ISPs are available in your area. find out how can you have your own hot spot. Some Hot Spot Venues are: Coffee Shops Restaurants Hotels Convention Centers Truck Stops RV Parks Marinas Business Parks Auto Service We ship pre-configured Hotspot Kits to fit your particular venue.  Most installations are plug-and-play.  GeneralCommunication Engineers will help design your solution. GC Solutions enables people to provide, use, and profit from Wireless LAN service.  "Plug-and-Play" Hotspot Systems Contact us Today! Managed Hotspots Once installed, your Hotspot is instantly able to start generating income.  We provides the backend support for user authentication, on-line credit card processing, billing plans, subscriptions and pre-paid card management. Instant HotSpot OkHotSpots is a complete Wi-Fi solution in-a-box for small to medium sized businesses who want to provide secure and reliable high speed Internet access to their customers on-the-go. Instant HotSpots are ideal for cafes, restaurants, lounges, reception areas, hotel, marinas, etc.   Keep 100% of the revenue Instant HotSpot OkHotSpots eliminates traditional and expensive Wi-Fi hotspot deployments in which you share revenue with third parties. OkHotSpots HotSpot is an affordable alternative offering most of the same features. More importantly, you keep 100% of the revenue, whether you charge a usage fee or provide service for free to attract more customers.   To Check Prices go to  http://www.oksolar.com/lion Communications > HotSpots HotSpots Questions and Answers 802.11(Wi-Fi) 802.11b and 802.11g are international standards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for wireless local area networks that operates at up to 11 megabits per second (54 megabits per second for 802.11g) and have a range of 100-1000 feet. Also called by their marketing moniker "Wi-Fi", 802.11 has now become the most popular worldwide standard for setting up wireless local area networks in offices, homes and public spaces. Competing technologies such as HomeRF have been abandoned and hundreds of equipment suppliers are rallying around Wi-Fi. Billions of dollars in R&D and manufacturing capacity is now pointed at churning out Wi-Fi products. Laptop computers from major PC manufacturers have Wi-Fi built-in. New appliances such as portable phones, MP3 players, digital picture frames and toys will soon be Wi-Fi compatible. Competition has already driven down the costs of deploying Wi-Fi networks from thousands to hundreds of dollars. As a result, Wi-Fi networks are now being deployed aggressively by businesses to give their employees mobility within the enterprise. Home users are buying cheap Wi-Fi gear to extend their DSL or cable broadband Internet access wirelessly to the entire house. Major consumer ISPs are even selling inexpensive Wi-Fi home gateways. Public Space Deployment In addition to homes and enterprises, Wi-Fi networks are now popping up in public spaces. Users who already have a Wi-Fi network at home or the office don't need to buy any new equipment to connect. These new public networks are fast - 11 megabits per second, up to 200 times faster than a modem connection and more than 4 times faster than the speeds promised by "3G" networks. Wi-Fi public networks use unlicensed frequencies and are cheap to set up and operate, so they will be far less expensive than 3G for the end user. Most importantly, Wi-Fi public access is available now. Wi-Fi Hot Spot operators Though it is still early, a number of wireless network companies ("Hot Spot operators") are actively building Wi-Fi networks in public spaces such as hotels, airports, conference centers and retail establishments like Starbucks. They typically strike a deal with a landlord to deploy wireless access points ("APs" - Wi-Fi wireless transmitter hubs) in the facility and then pay the landlord monthly fees and/or a cut of revenue. A Wi-Fi AP has a maximum typical range of 500 to 1000 feet. So making Wi-Fi ubiquitous in all public spaces will require an enormous number of Hot Spot operators. In addition to the large players, like the early days of the wired commercial Internet, we should expect a frothy market for small Hot Spot operators. It's a necessity of the technology and its range, and there's plenty of business to go around. There are already hundreds of small Hot Spot operators operating one or more access points in cities like Seattle, San Francisco and New York. Becoming a small hot spot operator is inexpensive and easy. More and more hot spot operators will translate into more and more confusion for end users, and increase the importance of a company to bring all networks together into a single service. Customers While public Wi-Fi networks are popping up all over the place, trying to connect and use them as an end user is a frustrating experience. Configuring the software provided by Wi-Fi hardware companies is clumsy, requiring users to learn about arcane settings such as "SSID" (network names) and "WEP" (network security). Users are expected by Hot Spot operators to manually configure their Wi-Fi cards to gain access. But at the same time, Hot Spot operators provide little or no technical support. The limited coverage of any one hot spot operator means that users will need to sign up for different Hot Spot operators depending on where they are. For example, if a user at LAX walks from an airline club to a gate area he will need to sign up with a new hot spot operator. No one hot spot operator can hope to have a large enough footprint to serve a single customer wherever he/she goes.   Public Hot Spots: Challenges and Wireless Solutions Internet access in high-traffic public facilities such as airport terminals, hotels, convention centers, and cafes is a growing phenomenon. In particular, Wi-Fi LANs offer unique capabilities that differentiate venue owners’ public access services, helping attract and retain increasing numbers of customers. But public access networks bring with them a set of challenges – subscriber acquisition, billing, security, device safety, installation obstacles – that small business and home Wi-Fi deployments don’t face. Proxim’s Wi-Fi and broadband wireless solutions offer hot spot operators of all kinds the opportunity to increase customer spending on existing services and products, and to generate new revenue. Proxim’s ORiNOCO access points offer multi-standard support and auto-configuration features to enable effortless yet highly secure user connectivity. Plenum rating and other important safety certifications ensure compliance with insurance and building codes. And custom portal pages and support for varied billing models empower service providers and venue owners to promote existing products and services and to offer a variety of subscription plans that meet different users’ needs. And, to ensure consistent network availability, Proxim’s Tsunami point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless Ethernet solutions significantly shorten return on investment with cost-effective broadband delivery to public venues of any size – from sprawling airports to local coffee shops. Advantages  :: Provides differentiating hospitality service – increasing traffic and revenue Auto-configures connection to each user’s settings for effortless access Supports multiple security schemas for maximum protection Service protection features ensure profitable operations Increases return on investment with cost-effective broadband wireless solutions With Proxim, your wireless network can grow in all directions - from Point of Presence to building to laptop. Adding capacity or extending your network into new areas is simple when you work with Proxim – because we are the only company to offer all the components in an end-to-end wireless solution. Please review the other five solution sections of the web site for more information on other components in an end-to-end wireless network from Proxim Centralized Administration and Billing for Large Installations The Challenge Managing customer accounts for hot spot equipment on a large scale requires careful planning of the system architecture. Whether hundreds of users and access points reside in a single high-rise hotel, or single devices reside in hundreds of stores – a system that unifies the customer acquisition experience, service provisioning, and billing is imperative to profitable operations. Without an access gateway customer account information would be difficult to keep synchronized across many devices. Users would alter client settings for each access, and consolidated billing information would be lost. The Solution Proxim’s ORiNOCO access points, with a gateway to aggregate multiple access points, allows a provider to deploy a consistent service in both large multi-cell and distributed single-cell hot spots. Nomadix, a Proxim partner, offers two access gateways. The Universal Subscriber Gateway II is designed for large hot spots and can support up to 2,000 simultaneous users, while the HotSpot Gateway is ideal for small to mid-sized locations and can support up to 150 simultaneous users. Multiple access points together with a Nomadix Access Gateway allow customers to set up an account once and receive seamless access from any hot spot in the system. Hot spot owners can create billing plans and allow secure access while maximizing a smooth user experience.   Simplicity for Small Hot Spots The Challenge In a small hot spot location such as a café, restaurant or book store, local technical support is limited or non-existent. However, the technical issues associated with maintaining broadband access, accounting and billing, and access point availability are identical to larger installations. Separate router, gateway, and access point equipment present additional expense and complexity. Hence, simplicity adds greatly to the affordability of hot spot network equipment, and to consistent availability of Wi-Fi service at a small hot spot. The Solution Proxim is the only provider of a single-device hot-spot-in-a-box. For single cell deployments, the ORiNOCO AP-2500 access point solves the key issues of customer acquisition, service provisioning, and billing faced by providers. This Wi-Fi unit integrates a wireless access point and access gateway functionality into a single, affordable unit. Installation and maintenance of a single unit are dramatically simpler, allowing quick deployment of hot spot service. This is ideal for the small business owner as well as for the service provider provisioning multiple distributed, small venue locations.   Differentiated Hospitality Services The Challenge Travel rates have declined in recent years, causing vacancy rates at hotels and apartment buildings to rise. Competition for guests and residents has prompted cuts in room rates and giving away free stays. This squeezes already tight margins even further. To better differentiate a hotel or apartment complex, adding a competitive service can preserve margins and attract guests – especially a service appealing to business travelers. Adding broadband wireless access to each room, for a small fee, is a useful and desirable feature – but retrofitting a large building with cabling requires a capital expenditure that would take many years to recoup. The Solution Using Wi-Fi access points allows the addition of broadband Internet to all or some rooms in a hotel, conference facility, or multi-unit residence – without the expense of cabling. Access from a business center, lobby and conference facilities can also be added either as a fee-based service or as part of the reservation costs.   Secure Management Interfaces to Protect Hot Spot Service The Challenge From mischief-makers and petty theft to serious political activism, the Internet represents an opportunity for illegal activities of many kinds. The past decade has seen online credit card fraud, unpaid service “hitchhiking,” rapidly evolving email worms, and full-scale denial-of-service attacks on major corporations. Without robust security measures, public wireless technology makes the Internet accessible to criminal invasion from outside locked doors. Consumer access points found in the home are not equipped to handle professional hacking attempts to which public networks are susceptible. They are optimized for easy access rather than careful service protection and billing integration. The Solution Proxim access points are designed with security measures to protect Wi-Fi service in the most publicly accessible locations in the world. Proxim’s ORiNOCO AP-2500 integrates an access gateway which allows only authorized, paying users to gain access to public Internet service. Secure management interfaces on Proxim access points minimize the risk of hackers accessing and altering the device settings. Rogue access point detection proactively helps administrators find hackers that may attempt to snag unsuspecting subscribers or flood the airwaves and create a denial-of-service-attack. Proxim simultaneously supports multiple security methods to prevent unauthorized access, ensuring that network service is uninterrupted.   Secure Airwaves to Protect Corporate Data The Challenge As workers become more mobile, confidential company information becomes more dispersed in public hot spots. Despite the most secure access point interfaces and the most effective management gateway devices, the air itself must also be “locked” in order to prevent snooping over the airwaves. The traffic passing from a client laptop or PDA to the access point, if not encrypted, can be vulnerable to industrial espionage or credit card fraud. In the past, service providers recommended VPNs to ensure data privacy, but are now offering an encrypted service to meet the demands of their clients. Yet inexpensive access points lack the full-scale data protection that corporations are demanding of their service providers. Much like the advent of laptop computing brought the sudden awareness that a fellow plane passenger could be a competitor looking over your shoulder – wireless computing forces the realization that an under-featured access point could open a window for Peeping Toms. The Solution Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and IEEE 802.1x technologies protect corporate intellectual property by encrypting data between client and AP – and providing mutual authentication between the client and the network. This alone is not sufficient though, as service providers have differentiated client needs and need to simultaneously support more secure access methods as well as open, unencrypted sessions for other subscribers. ORiNOCO access points support simultaneous WPA and unencrypted data, allowing support for all types of subscribers.   Transforming Telephone Booths into Telephony Booths The Challenge The usage – and relevance – of phone booths has declined in inverse proportion to the usage of cellular telephones with nation-wide or world-wide roaming capability. Yet mobile professionals are still searching: not searching for a phone, searching for an Internet link. With thousands of existing public telephone booths in every city in the world, broadband Internet access in a foreign city could be as close as walking down the block. The Solution With Wi-Fi access points installed in public telephone booths, mobile Internet users have nearly infinite options for access. Newly transformed “telephony booths” offer highly accessible, relatively private space to quickly download email or upload time-sensitive work. Wireless technology is affordable to purchase and maintain, and has no moving parts that would be susceptible to theft or vandalism. A simple web page makes both billing and user connectivity simple and hassle-free. With Proxim access points, standards-based management allows remote monitoring and configuration of devices, eliminating truck rolls for software upgrades or configuration changes. Wireless backhaul from Proxim further improves ROI by delivering high-speed Internet connectivity to telephone booths to which it would be cost prohibitive to bring DSL or leased lines.   Internet Access in Unconventional Venues The Challenge Increasing revenue comes from either selling more to your existing customers, or expanding your marketplace. Enterprising coffee shops and bookstores have added comfortable seating, music and Internet access as ways to keep coffee-drinkers in the store. Adding Internet access to less traditional venues can expand your market by attracting new customers that might have chosen to patronize competing venues due to proximity or price. But if your retail shop doesn’t have comfortable seating or food, Internet access may seem impossible. Not so. The Solution Creative thinking by store owners has led to new ways to lure new customers and take business away from competitors. For example, gas stations and convenience stores can leverage their established consumer presence to offer drive-in Wi-Fi access. Freeway rest stations, automotive service waiting rooms, carwashes – all are places where Internet access is a special service that can draw customers. As an added benefit, Wi-Fi service can help ease customer impatience with waiting, in addition to attracting customers. Doctor and dentist offices that often run behind, Post Offices, courthouse jury rooms and automotive service waiting rooms all have idle, captive populations. Not only would Wi-Fi Internet access provide a distraction from waiting and better worker productivity away from the office, but a fee-based service also offers a small stream of additional revenue.   HotSpots Questions and Answers WIFI Hot Spot Kits | Wi-Fi Hotspots Everything you need to build and grow your Hotspot.   Intel's Hotspot Finder - Wi-Fi Hotspots - Wireless Hotspots - Worldwide Hotspot Directory   Wi-FiHotSpotList.com