Not sure why I’ve been on a WiFi kick lately. Maybe it’s the WiFi project in Billings? Maybe the frustration over not having access to iPhone service?
Regardless, one of my clients has retail locations where free wireless internet access is offered. Because a single broadband connection is shared between the hotspot and the corporate systems, they have had to put in a lot of effort to ensure that their corporate systems are secure. As WiFi phones start becoming the norm and as city-wide WiFi projects continue to fail, more and more SMBs will want to ensure that their customers have WiFi access while on-premise.
I think there is an opportunity here for someone to build a router that makes the process plug-and-play. The router plugs into your cable/DSL modem as usual. An unsecured public WiFi network is automatically setup. Also, a second WiFi network is automatically created for internal use with all the key security setups defaulted. Alternatively, an Ethernet port could be used for a secured wired connection to the corporate network.
Seems to me, someone like Cisco, Netgear or Linksys could easily build this. Maybe they already do. If so, they need to make it easy to find on their website because I don’t see it. Am I just missing it?
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