Painless Linksys? Please let it be true!

March 10, 2005

I just saw this bright piece of news from the CeBIT show in Germany:

Linksys Makes WiFi Installation as Easy as Pushing a Button

As a reluctant geek who has struggled mightily to make WiFi work in his home, I hope this is really true (although I'm skeptical -- I've broken down in tears many times trying to use products advertised as "easy," "seamless," "effortless" and so on).

This paragraph describes what you should experience when setting up your new Linksys router enabled by SecureEasyStep (SES) technology (there's that fearsome word "easy" again -- activates my post-traumatic stress reaction just to see it):

Traditional wireless LAN�installation can be a complicated and time-consuming task, requiring the user to possess the technical know-how to�manually enter several settings (such as network name, and encryption key or WPA pass phrase) on each Wi-Fi device. SecureEasySetup was developed to help simplify installation by automating the processes of configuring new wireless networks and adding devices to existing networks. After a user has pressed the SecureEasySetup button on their Linksys router and wireless device (or uses access point setup software on their notebook computer), SecureEasySetup establishes a private connection between the devices and automatically configures the network's SSID (Service Set Identifier) whilst enabling WPA security.

AB -- 3/10/05