CES 2009 - Day 1: Netbooks, "Talking" Cars and more
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on January 9, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Portable Wireless Access Points: Intel’s My WiFi
We usually run into this problem at hotel rooms: multiple people in the same room with notebooks, but the hotel charges per MAC address for wireless internet access. The only real solution today is to either pay for each notebook you connect or somehow share your internet connection through one of the notebooks.
Intel’s My WiFi is a software application that will turn any Centrino 2 notebook into a wireless access point, without interrupting your wireless internet connection. Using the software (that will be available for free through OEMs over the coming months) your Centrino 2 notebook can allow up to 8 WiFi devices to connect to it and have access to the internet.
Intel demoed My WiFi for me, it just worked. The demo consisted of a camera with WiFi SD card connecting to a Centrino 2 laptop and uploading pictures to the computer, all over WiFi.
While technically My WiFi will only be provided by your OEM, as long as you have any of the Centrino 2 WiFi cards (WiFi Link 5100 or 5300) in your notebook it should work - you’ll just need the application.
I could not confirm whether multiple devices could access the internet at the same time while connected to your notebook. My WiFi will work in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista.
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Zoomer - Saturday, January 24, 2009 - link
To be fair, the eee isn't 1.2lb like the sony is.Would probably make a difference in their overstuffed handbags.
VooDooAddict - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
Netbooks are slow. Even these $500-$900 units being toted here.People are usually willing to take 2 out of 3. I'll take slow, portable, and cheap. but not slow, portable, and expensive. Netbooks have a perfect niche under $400.
I've got an Acer Aspire One it's perfect... for $300. If I had paid $500+ for this kind of performance I'd feel robbed.
To even get a glance $900 that Sony for $900 needs a dual core Atom and 2gb of ram.
JonnyDough - Saturday, January 10, 2009 - link
Netbooks aren't THAT slow. A modern netbook could run Windows 95 fantastically. They can even handle XP ok. But Vista + Atom = slow, no. You simply can't run Vista with the current Atom lineup.aeternitas - Sunday, January 11, 2009 - link
I hope you mean Windows 2000. There is no reason to run Win95 on anything anymore. We have light distros of Linux for hardware that slow with way more functionality and compatibility.JonnyDough - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
You'd be an idiot to run Windows 95 on anything connecting to the internet. My point was that Vista cannot run on crap hardware.OCedHrt - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
I believe Microsoft's dev team has released an unsupported driver that allowed the wireless NICs under Windows to be emulated, allowing you to link an emulated wireless with any of the free Wireless AP software that is available today.Also, many MB manufacturer's who have the wifi cards also bundle it Wireless AP software.
strikeback03 - Friday, January 9, 2009 - link
Or, verify that the hotel actually does not allow multiple devices to use the same MAC. I accidentally found that our network (with MAC filtering) at work does not care if two systems use the same MAC address.