Boingo Wireless - Wi-Fi Industry Basics

Boingo’s client software allows users to access Wi-Fi networks, both private and public, and to connect to WWAN networks when Wi-Fi isn’t available, all through one simple user interface.

In the home or office, Boingo’s profile manager makes connecting to private secure networks much easier.

On the road, the Boingo software becomes a universal pass to Wi-Fi hotspots and WWAN networks. Each hotspot that is part of the Boingo aggregated network is presented to the user uniformly under a single brand (the brand of the carrier or ISP that owns the end user relationship). The software knows how to log in to each hotspot it encounters, so all the user sees is a familiar username and password box. Boingo takes care of authentication and verifying that the user is fully connected.

Here is an example of the Boingo client branded for EarthLink:

Business travelers can set the software to automatically launch their corporate VPN after connecting to a hotspot, completely securing their connection. Users who don’t have a corporate VPN can use the one-click Personal VPN built into Boingo’s software.

The client includes a built-in location database which is automatically updated every time a hotspot is added to the Boingo system. Even the software client itself is kept fresh with updates provided by Boingo’s central servers.

Boingo’s client software is available for Windows and PocketPC. A Macintosh version will be available in 2004, and future device platforms will be supported as they embrace Wi-Fi.

Depending on the carrier, WWAN signals from GPRS, 1XRTT and iDEN networks are presented in the sniffer along with Wi-Fi hotspots. Users and their service providers have the ability to control network preference and auto-connection logic, e.g., “Connect me to a hotspot when available, otherwise, default to my GPRS network.”

Boingo supports many different kinds of authentication, including username/password, which is standard in the Internet world, and SIM-based authentication, which is standard in the GSM world.

The hotspot user experience without Boingo’s software is confusing and as fractured as the hotspot footprint itself, and it’s impossible to brand the experience uniformly.

Boingo overcomes these problems, all under a single brand for carriers and ISPs.