Peter Memishian writes:
> > By wireless are we just talking about WiFi or are things like GPRS or 3G
> > considered in here too ?
>
> IIRC, Vincent Wang has some of that stuff working, but I have not heard a
> timeline for integration. From NWAM's perspective, I'd think it's outside
> the scope of the initial phase, but worth considering in the design.
GPRS and 3G use PPP, and involve annoying make-Windows-happy tricks
such as making the telephone look like a modem (it's not) and making
the link look like an ordinary async line (it's not). These are
unfortunately far from simple to get working on just about any system:
you get all the fun of dealing with cantankerous modem-like beasts
(proprietary AT strings and the like) added in with subtle
per-provider service variations and failure modes.
I think that if we need to automate those two in any way, there are
probably two separate phases to the solution:
- An intelligent configuration tool that guides the user through the
steps of configuring and _debuggging_ (sigh) such a link to a
single provider. (I hesitate to say "wizard" as it carries
baggage.)
- A profile that NWAM can use to turn the link on or off based on
conditions or demand.
This isn't anywhere as neat and simple as the tricks required for WiFi
and other ordinary networks. (And, unless the deployment is botched,
WiMAX may eventually make the issue irrelevant. One hopes ...)
A separate issue might be whether NWAM itself needs, could use, or
somehow interacts with the sorts of complex configuration tools you'd
need for this task. For the cases where we know what to do, the
answers are pretty simple. For the cases where you need a workaround
to some bug in the infrastructure (say, a DHCP server that always
gives you a bad host name), I think things get more complicated.
--
James Carlson, KISS Network <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
