Rafe Needleman writes about how “new companies help laptops stay connected even when they move between networks.” The problem arises because “when you move from one connection to another you have to reestablish your link — computers today can’t just hand off a connection from a modem to Wi-Fi, for example.” One of the companies he mentions is ipUnplugged.
Using a small software component installed on the wireless computer, ipUnplugged enables a single security and billing system to handle all users, no matter how they connect to the network.
ipUnplugged also allows real-time roaming among different networks. For example, if a cellular-data user walks into a building with Wi-Fi coverage, the software can redirect the network connection to the faster and cheaper Wi-Fi network, without any interruption in the data flow. Very fancy.
ipUnplugged’s primary selling point is its integrated security and access control, rather than its real-time multinetwork switching capability, because few companies will pay to provide multimode network handoff to their users (few business users need a live connection maintained while they walk in and out of buildings).
