iPhone Wi-Fi Hot Spot Connection Application Released

by Glenn Fleishman
Devicescape has released a simple application for the iPhone that lets you connect to Wi-Fi hot spots without all the fuss of tapping in user names and passwords, clicking Accept buttons, or remembering WEP and WPA encryption keys. The Devicescape Connect application requires the Nullriver AppTap application installer, a third-party hack that allows easy installation of software on the device. (I've been testing a version of the application released before the Nullriver integration.)



The way that Devicescape accomplishes this minor miracle - and obviates the single most annoying factor in using the iPhone outside of one's home and office - is via their flagship software, which comprises client software on a device, handheld, or laptop, and an account at their Web site in which you store passwords and account information. (I wrote a full account of Devicescape's approach in "Devicescape Aims to Ease Wi-Fi Hot Spot Connection Pain," 2007-05-07.)

At my.devicescape.com, you set up an account and enter any Wi-Fi hot spot and network information that you want to include. For instance, I store my home and work WPA keys on their site. Devicescape automates the login process for dozens of for-fee hot spot networks and aggregators of hot spots, including T-Mobile HotSpot, AT&T WiFi, Fon, Boingo, iPass, and others, as well as dozens of fee-free networks that require some confirmation step or login account to use.

With the Devicescape iPhone app, when you're at a hot spot for which you've entered your connection information, you simply tap the Connect application and click Login. Devicescape connects to the local network, tunnels your login request through the hot spot's DNS service (clever, that), receives back an encrypted set of login details, and then passes those credentials on to the hot spot. For free networks, the system knows to "click" the right button, sending a Web request with the correct response in it. (The Devicescape software for laptops, handhelds, and a few phones works pretty much the same way; you also get the benefit of every device you use having the same set of network access without re-entering details.)

I've been using Connect for over a week, and have tested it at a few T-Mobile locations. It's rather marvelous to simply tap Login, and be on the network. It's the way the iPhone should work - and suddenly does.

While Steve Jobs extols the ubiquitous availability of Wi-Fi, he and the company have done nothing to make connections easy except to simply protected home and work networks (and easy is relative there with the silly manner in which you have to type in passwords), and to open Wi-Fi networks. Devicescape bridges that gap.

In a briefing several days ago, the company also noted that they had found the business-grade authentication software in the iPhone, as I had expected, since the connection client needed for corporate networks is also built into Mac OS X. As Devicescape creates small device networking software, they could choose to provide an interface to this, making the iPhone immediately usable in corporate environments. (It's obscurely known as 802.1X after an IEEE protocol, and allows a user name and password, as well as certificates and tokens generated by hardware, to create a unique login session for a Wi-Fi or Ethernet network. WPA/WPA2 Enterprise is the most modern flavor of 802.1X.)

There's just one missing feature from Connect that you find on their full Devicescape software: buddy lists. With buddy lists, you can choose which other Devicescape users can access networks you manage - your friends and colleagues, say. These buddies' copies of Devicescape download an encrypted set of network passwords. You can revoke a buddy's access or update your network password and the system handles that seamlessly, too, transmitting it to those related parties. That will be a big plus for iPhone users who roam among households and work networks when this buddy list feature hits Connect.

While you could cobble together free and paid logins at networks you frequent or expect to, your best combo deal for using Connect is Boingo Wireless, a hot spot aggregator which resells access to tens of thousands of locations in the United States, including dozens of airports. Boingo charges $21.95 for unlimited U.S. access. Their worldwide footprint is 100,000 locations, for which they charge $39 per month for unlimited access. Both are month-by-month rates with no commitment or cancelation penalty.

In the U.S., they have most major networks; T-Mobile HotSpot is the big exception. T-Mobile charges $20 to $40 per month for unlimited use at about 8,500 locations, with the price varying by whether you're a T-Mobile voice subscriber and the duration of your contract. Devicescape supports T-Mobile, too.

While you can log into Boingo through a partner login in the Web gateway interface at nearly all the locations they bundle up, that involves tedious data entry each time, instead of a single click with Connect. And some Boingo locations don't have the partner login, but you won't know which until you're traveling.

Devicescape's gap-filling software makes me hope that hot spots pile on and promote this as a simpler option to get online. It's only a benefit to Apple and AT&T to make the iPhone work with fewer interruptions and less friction - and the less we use AT&T's cellular EDGE network, the better that network performs. I hope Apple considers bundling Connect in a future release - or making Devicescape its first certified application developer.
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