zero-config WiFi gadget

When we do commercial WiFi installations in hotels, cafés, or community housing projects, one of the main issues is how to provide client equipment that has little or no setup hassle.

I mean, we are currently working on a WiFi setup for a business hotel/apartmetn chain here in Copenhagen. They want to offer free WiFi as an amenity, and have already setup a system that covers one of their sites in town. When a customer wants Internet access and she doesn't have WiFi in their laptop (surprisingly often) they borrow a unit from the hotel reception. Currently they use USB adapters, that require the installation of a driver. Even if you ignore for a minute the small percentage of users that are non-windows, there are 4 or 5 possible windows versions out there each with a different way of installing drivers and setting up networking. With no skilled IT personnel at the front desk that can become a real issue for the hotel. And (a little surprisingly) the biggest problem seems to b the administration of the actual driver CDs. CD's are so easy to forget in your laptops CD drive that it is an all to common occurence where the hotel lends out an adapter, and gets the adapter back minus the driver CD.

Luckily for us our friends at KooKu have  an interesting solution to this problem which we'll be testing with the aforementioned hotel/apartment chain. The Gemtek WL-299C is pretty much a standard Wireless (802.11b) ethernet adapter much like the Linksys WET11 or any number of other Ethernet adapters from various manufacturers. That means it plugs into the computer using the existing ethernet port, and acts as a bridge between the wired and the wireless networks. For any computer with an existing ethernet port set up, and running DHCP, this means wireless networking without  installing additional drivers.

The main difference between most other ethernet adaptyers and the Gemtek unit is extremely simple and fairly subtle. The unit is powered through USB rather than through a separate power adapter, in other words you plug it into your usb port, and your ethernet port, and it requires no external power source and no drivers. A simple solution that solves a minor annoyance for sites that want to offer WiFi but don't want the support nightmare of lending out (or renting out) pc-card or usb-based adapters.

For a description of the unit, here's a pdf from Kooku: download (Edit: The link has been corrected 2003-01-13)

If you're interested in purchasing this unit, or just want more information, let me know: e-mail