News

Wireless from BT Openworld: they come clean at last!

An experimental wireless LAN product has been quietly on sale, with no fuss, for six months, from ADSL provider BT Openworld. Now, it's coming out of the closet, and the official launch of the Linksys range for small businesses is today

The market test was revealed on NewsWireless Net back in December , when the first Linksys WiFi products appeared on the BT Openworld web site, aimed at home users.

The announcement confirms the availability of the WiFi Certified BTopenworld Wireless Network line of IEEE 802.11b LAN solutions, throughout the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland.

Robert Auci, Linksys' senior manager of international business development said: "The wireless solutions provided by BTopenworld and Linksys allow broadband customers with multiple PCs the ability to share Internet and network access, while simultaneously granting them the freedom to set up solutions to wirelessly transport their laptop(s) around the home or office.

"The wireless solutions are well suited to the BTopenworld broadband access products which are available in 500Kbps, 1Mbps or 2Mbps versions."

Tony Harris, president of business internet services, BTopenworld, said: "We welcome this offering of Wireless LAN solutions to our broadband offerings. Linksys shares our vision to bring broadband solutions to SMEs and SoHo customers in the UK, enabling them to increase their productivity and reduce their costs."

Recommended retail price of the BTopenworld Wireless Network Laptop Card (WPC11-BT) is £73.19 excl. VAT. Price of the Wireless Network USB Desktop Adapter (WUSB11-BT) is £73.19 excl. VAT- and the main access point catalogued as BTopenworld Wireless Network Access Point (WAP11-BT) is £138.72 excl. VAT.

The Access Point is equipped with additional features such as Wireless bridging, WEP key masking in SNMP utility, 128-bit WEP keys, DHCP client, IP filtering, a MAC authorisation table and added SNMP password protection. Wireless Bridging allows for one WAP11-BT to talk to another WAP11-BT in order to wirelessly connect two Ethernet Local Area Networks (LAN). Point-to-Multi-Point Bridging allows for multiple WAP11-BTs to connect to multiple Ethernet LANs. And the AP also has a client feature, which allows the WAP11-BT to act as a Wireless client instead of an Access Point.