New category structure at Rokland.com

Today we introduced a new category structure to our web site http://www.rokland.com. You can see it over under the products menu on the left of that site. Previously we had all of our wireless products in the "Wireless Networking" section, broken into subcategories. While we have left that entire category and all of its subcategories in tact for those who are used to navigating the site that way, we have created a bunch of new WiFi-related top level categories since we sell so much various wireless equipment.

To make it as easy as possible to find what you are looking for, we have cross-referenced most products, so most of our items are now in multiple categories. Our top selling 802.11n wireless USB adapter for Macs and PCS, for example, can be found in the following categories:

1. Macintosh/Apple
2. WiFi > 802.11n
3. WiFi > USB
4. WiFi for Macs

We hope this makes navigating our web site even easier than before.

Late Summer Update- FireFox peaks, IE drops!

Back in July we published this blog post denoting how we had noticed FireFox's marketshare was rising vs. Internet Explorer, at least in terms of visits to our own web site. While the data is not very scientific (considering official marketshare numbers for FireFox are around 20% while Internet Explorer is at about 70-75%) we thought it would be interesting to post some more information about what we have witnessed since that time. So here goes:

The number of visitors using FireFox has crept up, while for the first time in our company's history, FEWER THAN 50% of visits came from Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. Here are the stats from September 2008 (so far) and August:

September (1st-16th)

Explorer 46.8%
FireFox 36.4%
Safari 9%*

*we sell a lot of Mac equipment, so Safari visits will be much higher than average, and this no doubt impacts the Internet Explorer number as well.

August

Explorer 51.7%
FireFox 34%
Safari 6.4%

It will be interesting to see if the launch of Google's "Chrome" web browser last week will chip away Microsoft's lead even further. We don't believe that our stats programs will register Chrome visitors as actually using Chrome though, probably their visits will show up in the "other" percentage column. We should still be able to get some good data from that column though, considering visits from "other" browsers currently register at just 0.2%. Should that column spike, we can likely attribute that to Google Chrome.

Have you tried Google Chrome yet?

Okay, we're in the tech field and we get excited whenever some new Web 2.0 product or service comes along, but the excitement is usually short lived. Whatever product it is, whether it is a new social networking site or a new email program, usually has enough flaws to keep it from getting more than once glance from most people including us.

This past week Google launched their own web browser called "Chrome" as a competitor to other browsers on the market (Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, and Apple's Safari browser). Google says the browser is enhanced for Web 2.0 activities like watching videos and viewing photos. We had a chance to take the browser for a test drive recently, to complete basic tasks such as going to various web sites, search engines, and of course completing activities on eBay.

Our conclusion? We didn't use the browser for all the Web 2.0 things that Google says it would be great for, so we are not really qualified to give an indepth review of the browser's features. That being said, as far as basic Internet use, the browser definitely has more of a "Web 2.0" look to it than other browser on the market, but other than that the functionality and speed are about the same (except when compared to Internet Explorer of course, which is a known memory hog).

Have you tried Google Chrome? What do you think about it?

R.I.P. Steve Jobs...wait, "What???" says Jobs

We thought this article may be of interest to Mac fans out there...

Can Jerry Seinfeld save Windows Vista?

If you've given Windows Vista a try, you may be one of the many who has already gone back to using Windows XP. Or perhaps you have decided to give a Macintosh or Linux system a try. The folks at Microsoft are well aware of the problems presented by Vista, and it appears instead of trying to fix the operating system, they are going to launch a massive PR campaign starring Jerry Seinfeld to convince people that Vista is good, not bad. Here are more details from the Wall Street Journal via HuffingtonPost.com.

So the question is, if Jerry Seinfeld turns out to be funnier than John Hodgman and Justin Long (the two guys in the "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads for Apple on television right now), will you:

A) Give Vista another try (or a first try if you haven't used it yet)
B) Stay with the operating system you have, no matter what comedian is doing the pitching
C) try and watch the ads on YouTube to see if they are funny because you'll never see them on TV thanks to your TiVo, but you still don't think the ads will affect you
D) possibly upgrade to Vista, but only if Microsoft launches a campaign where Paula Poundstone tells you to

The RokN: not just for Macs!

If you follow our new product offerings (often written about here on our blog), you know we recently launched an 802.11n draft standard wireless USB adapter called the RokN. It is compatible with Apple Mac OS 10.3, 10.4, and 10.5 (Leopard).

It works very well with Macs, but it also works great in Linux too.

(note: the following statements are made based on testing in BT3- BackTrack 3- if you have a different Linux distro all statements may not apply or be correct for your particular version.) If you are a BT3 user, not only is the RokN plug and play, meaning you don't need to install drivers, but it can operate in monitor mode. The fact that it is plug and play is especially invaluable if you are running BT3 from a bootable CD and you don't have the ability to install and save drivers to a hard drive.

In today's environment of liability lawsuits, if you have an access point in your home or business, you need to make sure it is secured. A court in Germany recently found an access point owner at fault for illegal activities someone else conducted via his access point (see this blog entry). And sometimes simply enabling WEP encryption won't be enough to stop intruders. But how can you detect vulnerabilities? Well getting into the nitty-gritty of it all would take pages and pages of text and a lot of trial and error, but fortunately everything you need to know is freely available on the web, in places like the forum section at Remote Exploit (the makers of BT3). But you have to take the first step of getting a wireless adapter that is not only Linux compatible, but that is also compatible with some of the programs that come with BT3, programs like Aircrack and SPoonWep.

Using both of these programs and the RokN, we were able to detect network vulnerabilities in several test WEP-enabled networks we created here for the purpose. We we also able to tweak our own office wireless access point to make it more secure. Newer WiFi security protocols are less prone to cracking then older ones, but it is only a matter of time before those become exploitable too. Having the knowledge and ability to detect vulnerabilities is a must for any business owner, CTO, or IT worker and will come in the handy both now and in the future. So whether you are familiar with Linux or not, the first step is to get a wireless adapter that is plug and play with a Linux distro like BT3, and fortunately the RokN is just that. But it also plays nice with many of the programs in BT3, something that cannot be said of all wireless adapters on the market today.

One final thing that Linux users might appreciate about the RokN- you can achieve true 802.11n connections when using with an 802.11n draft standard router. Some 802.11n adapters have chipsets which only allow them to work in G mode when used on a Linux computer, thus limiting your connection speed to 54 mbps. With the RokN you can connect at the same speed in Linux as you would on a Windows or Mac computer.

Lock up your networks!

No one likes it when other people leech onto their open WiFi signal to do things like download large files which tie up bandwidth and slow browsing speeds. So many folks already secure their home wireless networks. Yet most of us at one time or another have probably been guilty of accessing an open WiFi network somewhere without the owner's permission. After all, we NEED to check our email, and it isn't really hurting anyone, is it?

Well, now you may expect even more people to begin securing their home or office WiFi. Why? A court in Germany has ruled that the owner of a WiFi network was responsible for illegal activities conducted over his network, even though he didn't even know what was happening.

Yes, that's in Germany and this is the USA. But often times in cases without precedent, judges look to examples from outside the country to see how similar cases have been decided.

Here's some more information about the German case.

New Product: Senao/EnGenius EUB-9701EXT2 Wireless USB Adapter with DUAL SMA ports

At Rokland we never stop looking for the newest and greatest wireless equipment for our customers. And we don't stop negotiating with suppliers and manufacturers until we can bring you this technology at an affordable price. We are excited to be offering the newest long range wireless product from Senao/EnGenius- the EUB-9701EXT2. This is a new wireless USB adapter that is 802.11n draft compatible and also features not one but TWO external SMA antenna connectors.

Senao/EnGenius is a name folks have come to trust in wireless networking going back to the launch of the NL-2511CD PLUS EXT2 PCMCIA card years back, one of the first WiFi PCMCIA cards to feature dual antenna connectors. Now they have launched the EUB-9701EXT2, one of the first WiFi USB adapters to feature dual antenna connectors. But the best part is, as noted above, this is an 802.11n draft compatible adapter, so when used with an 802.11n draft router, you can achieve speeds up to 300 mbps (that's almost 6 TIMES speeds you get with standard 802.11g devices) and markedly increased range as well.

Click here to view the item on our web site and see more details about the product and some pictures as well.

The value of the admin password...

A helpful tip for those in the market for a used Apple Macintosh computer. Whether you are buying from a retailer or individual seller on eBay, be sure to ask if the seller knows the computer's admin password before buying.

The admin password is needed on most all Macs to install a number of hardware devices including wireless adapters. You will be prompted for this information during the installation process, and if you do not have it, the only way you can reset it is with the Mac OS installation disk (which is usually not included with used computers). If the seller is the first and only owner of the system they should be able to provide you with the information. If the seller is a retailer of many Mac systems, if they do not know the password they should be able to reset it for you using an install disk before shipping your system.

FireFox visits exceed 30%

While the official market share numbers for Mozilla's open source FireFox web browser stand somewhere around 19-21%, we have noticed an interesting trend in visitors to our own web site Rokland.com.

Vistors using a version of FireFox have constituted 31% of our total page visits going back to March. There seems to be steady growth as well- the numbers have climbed each month to a peak of 33.6% so far for July.

While analysts expect FireFox's share to continue to grow vs. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (which stands globally at about 74%), the question is, will it ever become more popular?