14 DAY TRIAL // The Wi-Fi Alliance, a global, non-profit industry association of more than 275 member companies devoted to promoting the growth of wireless Local Area Networks, has finally announced the name for its previously "Wi-Fi Simple Config." - Wi-Fi Protected Setup, a program designed to ease installation and activation of security features on a network in order to improve the home Wi-Fi user experience.
Hardware News reported that the project has been initiated after a research that showed that more than 43% of Wi-Fi users found installing security on a home Wi-Fi network moderately-to-very difficult. "Wi-Fi technology is proliferating across a wider range of consumer electronics, so ease-of-use has become more important than ever," said Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director Frank Hanzlik. "The Wi-Fi Alliance will continue play a central role in enabling a positive user experience."
The members of the Wi-Fi Alliance are manufacturing a wide range of devices such as PCs, gaming consoles, cameras, TV sets that benefit from certifications available only for the affiliates. Consequently, the easy-to-use program Wi-Fi Protected Setup will be added to the portfolio of the alliance and adopted in the future by several makers.
More precisely, the program will be available in the fourth quarter of 2006 as an optional certification based on a standardized method for security setup in home Wi-Fi networks.
Ever since it has been established, back in March 2000, the alliance tried to improve the interoperability of WLAN mobile wireless devices based on the IEEE 802.11 specification. More than 3,000 products have been certified as being Wi-Fi ready.