Is It Time for Whole-Home Wi-Fi?

While Wall Street coasts into the final quarter of this year, the foot soldiers of securities operations are likely consoling themselves with thoughts of bonuses and what to spend them on. I will do my best to help you dream about the gadgets you’d like to buy with some help from Pepcom’s Holiday Spectacular! East, a meet-and-greet between press and the makers of consumer electronics, held recently in New York.

Over the coming weeks, I will be providing a broader survey of what’s new from the gadget world and I may get some of my fellow FTF denizens to try out certain gadgets. But for today I want to spotlight a provider of a “whole-home Wi-Fi solution.”

The company is Amped Wireless, which describes itself as a manufacturer of “high power, long range wireless solutions.”

The company introduced late last month the ALLY Wi-Fi System that bridges Wi-Fi and security to create a smart home, of sorts. The system uses multi-user, multiple-input and multiple-output technologies (MU-MIMO) for wireless communication. The ALLY hardware units, built with “next generation 802.11ac,” can stream “HD content at faster speeds to multiple devices at once, delivering increased speeds for homes with multiple devices,” Amped Wireless officials say. “Every smartphone, tablet, computer, TV and more can connect from virtually anywhere in the home or office.”

As for the reach of the ALLY and ALLY Plus systems, they can achieve “up to 15,000 square feet of secure coverage” for roaming and streaming.

Amped Wireless also announced that it is working with IT security vendor AVG Technologies, to secure devices, data and people. “Customers can download the ALLY app and help safeguard devices from malware by activating AVG’s free, built-in web protection and real-time monitoring of network traffic,” according to Amped Wireless. “ALLY’s security features, parental control options and iOS and Android apps are built on Chime, AVG’s smart router platform developed by AVG’s Innovations Labs, an exploratory branch of AVG Technologies.”

The partnership enables ALLY to offer web protection “that safeguards devices, including tablets, phones, computers and other devices,” according to Amped Wireless. “Additionally, the system alerts users when a new device requests network access, further protecting the network from unwanted parties.”

Market research firm Gartner Inc. “predicts the average family house will contain more than 500 smart devices by 2022. As the complexity of the connected home increases, so does the potential risk involved,” says Todd Simpson, chief strategy officer of AVG Technologies, in a prepared statement. “AVG’s Innovation Labs created Chime to simplify security and router technology for connected families. In time this will be like an antivirus for the home that can stop threats before they reach devices.”

For another kind of protections, the vendor has added “intelligent parental controls” and customized user profiles to help parents manage and limit access to selected content, websites or apps. “Additionally, parents can monitor and segment a child’s screen time, review an activity log, pause Internet service and even set a curfew schedule for their Internet use,” according to Amped Wireless.

The ALLY offerings will begin delivery in early October, the vendor says. More information is at ampedwireless.com

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