[MLB-WIRELESS] RE: Cirond

[Dean Collins]

Brute-Force Wi-Fi
Cirond takes the guesswork out of installing wireless in the workplace.
By Rafe Needleman, May 08, 2003

At the Wireless Ventures conference last week, enterprise Wi-Fi
infrastructure company Cirond provided wireless network coverage. The
company had an interesting way of getting the attention of the venture
capitalists and reporters in attendance: You couldn't get your laptop on the
wireless Web until you went to Cirond's table to have its Wi-Fi client
installed on your machine. Once you were at Cirond's table, you were captive
to CEO Nicholas Miller.

I admire the efficiency of such an approach, even if it is a little
bait-and-switchy. But, as many conference-goers noted, most Wi-Fi providers
don't require a hands-on software install. Even Boingo, which uses its own
client software, downloads it to PCs over the air.

Unfortunately, the hassle of having to download Cirond's software resulted
in many people overlooking the creativity of its business model. The
company -- wisely, I think -- doesn't want to be in the business of
providing hotel and coffee-shop Wi-Fi access. Instead, Miller says, Cirond's
goal is to make off-the-shelf Wi-Fi access points more reliable. The sales
spiel is this: You can pay a lot for a wireless site survey that will tell
you exactly where to place your access points (so you don't have blank spots
or, their evil twin, radio channel conflicts). Or you can buy one of those
new superhigh-capacity smart wireless access points, like Vivato's. Or, says
Miller, you can save a bundle by installing, pretty much randomly, a bunch
of $79 access points from Netgear and using Cirond's $500 software to manage
the security and the channel conflicts.
FAST FACTS[PARA]Cirond[PARA]http://www.cirond.com
CEO	Nicholas Miller
HQ	San Jose
FOUNDED	2002
EMPLOYEES	15
FUNDING	$1M seed
PROFITABLE?	Projected for Q4 2003
MARKET	Wireless infrastructure


Cirond's client software is unique because it uses more Wi-Fi radio channels
than a standard connection, and because each user's machine sends
information to the server, telling it which access points it is able to
communicate with and what interference it is picking up (possibly from
non-Wi-Fi sources). That allows the server to automatically configure the
radio channels and to route signals to the best access points -- this
guarantees good coverage and distributes the load.

Also, the software allows users to set up ad hoc wireless networks
independent of an access point (just like Apple's (AAPL) Rendezvous), and to
manage non-Cirond Wi-Fi connections better than Windows XP's own wireless
manager. I verified this last fact using Cirond's software on my own
machine.

Despite having to manually install the client software, I like the Cirond
concept, which offers a lot of flexibility, speed, and cost savings in
setting up a corporate Wi-Fi network. If the solution works as claimed (it's
still in beta), the company is unlikely to remain independent; it could be a
nice acquisition candidate for a network hardware company.



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