If Moses Had A New Tablet What Would He Do?

I just received my Motorola Xoom back from the Mighty M, supercharged with some 4G goodness. It is fast. Way fast. Like 25Mb down fast. Fast enough where you are waiting on servers to deliver content to you. While I am confident others will narrow the speed gap eventually, Verizon has got it going on, especially here in Atlanta. I've been wanting to blog about my real tablet experience, putting it into perspective in addition to knocking down some of the fodder that is floating around the Net about these things.

And the Lord spoke, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once at the number three, being the third number to be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."  - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Third Time's A Charm
I am a three-peater when it comes to tablets. I'm not hearkening back to the Newton. I'm talking more current tablet technology. In 2004, I began with a "new" tablet from a company called Motion Computing. It was the first slate style tablet (now referred to as a slab design). It ran Windows XP Tablet Edition, had about an hour and a half battery and an 866MHz processor. My daughter's Leap Frog reader was faster. Hell, I think the CPU in my microwave was faster. Needless to say, it was cutting edge and a glimpse of how things would eventually be. I remember going to meetings and traveling with it, feeling like I was Willy Wonka taking select people on a secret chocolate factory tour, as I wrote and drew on the screen as if it was a piece of paper. Lots of "oooo" and "ahhhh" moments. Very practical and useful...for about an hour. Then you were racing to find an outlet. Most of you who travel know that until recently, finding an outlet in an airport meant bare-knuckle boxing for a spot on a cold concrete floor, usually near or inside of a bathroom, with a power cord stretched like a jump rope. Only thing worse was watching some poor soul picking up the pieces of his smashed ThinkPad as a running traveler, in a OJ Simpson-inspired moment (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W1hnR3kLwo) didn't clear the power cord hurdle and yanked the laptop clear out of his hands and dragged it down to the next gate.  I hear most of you laughing right now. A few of you are crying.

Number two was a Dell Latitude XT, some time in 2007. This was a convertible laptop. A twist top if you will. Worked like a usual laptop until you twisted the screen and laid it down flat. And it had a touch screen like a smart phone. It started life as an XP laptop and quickly got moved to Windows 7. A much better tablet experience but still saddled with the same weaknesses: short battery life and a PC OS trying to act like a tablet one. And at 5 lbs, it was still a shoulder-breaker, especially when you add a 1 lb extended battery and the power brick. As they say, close but no cigar. 

I became an Android guy in the Summer of 2010 when I ditched my Windows Mobile 6.5 phone for a Droid X. The iPhone wasn't available on the Verizon network at the time so I dove straight into the deep end with Android. Being very pleased with that experience, I felt the Xoom held great promise as number three and was the second person in line the day the 3G version was released. To be truthful, I didn't know exactly how I would use it. But like a good tech jock, I would find a way to turn what could be something useless into something quite useful.  Who knew that on that faithful February 2011 day that my technical life would be forever altered. 

Riding A Bike With No Hands

So yes, this generation of tablets got it right, be it Android or Apple. I won't bore you with a long list of apps and fan-boy BS about Apple vs Android. Both are really, really good and there are plenty of blogs out there on both sides of that little war that will numb your cranium if that is what you desire. You want real life. Ok, here goes. For the record, I have included hyperlinks for the programs I use. I was not compensated or given promotional consideration for mentioning them. I use them. I like them. I am sharing them so that you don't have to roam around trying to find them. 

First, know this: a tablet does not replace a laptop or a PC so don't think you will lose a device by getting one. Anyone that tells you otherwise likely thinks Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix are living as roommates in some Tahitian fishing village with Stevie Ray Vaughn cooking chili. My tablet compliments these other devices and actually keeps me from reaching to them as much. Why? Because the tablet is always on. No real boot time. No sleep/hibernation recovery. No hard drive.  Like a puppy, it's just there waiting to be picked up and played with. So besides the minutes of time savings in your daily digital life, it becomes something practical to grab and use in any fleeting moment.  You see Emeril cooking up some etoufe', you grab the tablet, get the recipe, and print it to your printer in-between the first and second "BAM!" On a laptop, you would go to commercial and come back before it even booted up. Amazing.

Then there are movies. Not streaming movies. I'm talking about that stack of twenty DVDs that you schlep around and play on your laptop or portable DVD player. All the parents in the audience just nodded their heads. No more! Take ten of your kid's favorite movies (after all they want to watch the same ones over and over again), rip them digital, and place them in the tablet. Viola. You just took 8 lbs out of your travel bag (and made the TSA really happy). And here is the cool part: the battery will not die with 5 minutes left in a two hour movie because my tablet battery last around 10-12 hours!  That is not a mis-type. I use my tablet for days between charges. Days!

My tablet is the primary device I take to meetings. See I live in two worlds. Creation and presentation. In my creation world, there is no substitute for a desktop or laptop. Take this blog for instance. No, not writing it on the tablet. I have a Samsung Series 9 laptop (http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP900X3A-A03US ). It is a razor thin Windows 7 version of a Macbook Air/Macbook Pro. Blazing fast, 2.8 lbs and 8 hours of battery. One look at it and you will know why Samsung and Apple are not getting along right now. Although it remains to be seen who actually stole the design. Anyway, I need the full capabilities of a machine for the creation work I do in things like Excel, Sharepoint, SQL etc. Presentation is a different story. Used to be I would take my Dell XT with me to appointments and presentations (before I had the Sammy). Always a drudgery as I waited for it to boot and watched the battery like a hawk. My tablet changed all that. I transfer my presentation docs to my tablet with Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) or EverNote (www.evernote.com) via wireless or 4G. I can then share them with customers or pop them up on a conference room LCD TV thanks to a quick, non-proprietary HDMI cable connection. I whiteboard (www.skitch.com) on my tablet.  I take notes on my tablet (www.evernote.com). I photograph customer sites and mark them up in real time...with my tablet (built in camera + Skitch).  Want a copy? No problem. A quick click sends those items direct to my customers, my engineers, my audience, or my desktop at work. No fussing around with a thumb drive, zipping up the files for email,  proprietary sync cables or rapidly dying battery. Elegant. Intuitive. Easy. And the best part? Bringing customers and my audience back into the conversation since I am no longer peering at them from behind a laptop screen; you know, that rather impersonal and borderline rude practice which we have all been forced to accept as SOP in our current laptop world. A practice which cannot leave quick enough.

What else do I do? I view my calendar and emails. I take remote control of Windows PCs using RDPLite (http://www.remotespark.com/).  I use Pulse Reader (http://www.pulse.me/) for collecting news from a bevy of different sites and giving it to me in one scrollable view. I edit pictures, create quick videos, and Skype with my tablet thanks to two built in cameras (front and back). I program my DVR with my tablet (www.directv.com). I even have a DirecTV remote on my tablet (http://www.facebook.com/WiredDFWSoftware). Really, DirecTV remote? Absolutely. View the guide, select programs to record, watch recorded programs...all without interrupting my wife as she watches  "Dancing With The Stars." I must confess it is also fun to play and pause Peppa Pig, from another room, as my daughter stares at the remote control and doesn't seem to understand ;) 

Being a music guy, I constantly find the need for a good tune or two. Over the years I have amassed a serious digital music collection. But I don't have everything. And sometimes I just don't want to think about pulling together a playlist. On the tablet,  I use Audio Galaxy (www.audiogalaxy.com) to listen to my personal music collection anywhere I go. But I am also a hopeless addict to Pandora (www.pandora.com). Both have native tablet apps that work amazingly well over WiFi and 4G. They even work well when I fly. Nothing like "Comfortably Numb" at 35,000 feet. 

Now that so much content is digital, you feel compelled to read on the tablet. And unlike a laptop, it becomes personal again. Years from now, I fully expect that a study will be released that speaks to an increase in reading thanks to tablets and other readers. Personally, I find myself immersed in articles and e-zines (no surprise here). But what I have picked up on recently are these enhanced websites that go along with the different television series I choose to watch. It offers me a deeper appreciation for the show since the tablet gives me extra content that both answer questions and fill in the blanks about the series episode. After all, there is only so much you can cram into :47 minutes of airtime. Don't understand what I mean? Go and watch an enhanced episodes of "Lost" or "Boardwalk Empire," using your tablet and you will get it. 

My Crystal Ball

If you have been around me the last year or so, be it at a conference or onsite, you know that I have maintained a very clear and certain level of thinking when it comes to tablets: You won't have one of these things; you will have two or three of them. And in a very short time (likely within the year), the average price for a 10" tablet (not a 7") will be less than $300. I believe the "magic" price to be around $200. At that level,  they will be all over your house and everywhere you go. Device controls (think TV remotes, whole house AV, and thermostats) have already began the transition to tablets (http://www.nest.com). And Microsoft isn't even in the game yet. Their turn will begin this time next year with Windows 8. While you may be incline to think that the Apple iPAD or the Amazon Kindle Fire are behind the revolution, you should really be thanking HP. You know, the company that recent bailed on the tablet business after six months and $12 billion dollars spent. Next blog I will tell you how the demise of HP led to the real tablet revolution, enabled Amazon to become Apple's biggest competitor, and forced Apple to do something it has never done before. Man I love a good story.
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P.S. Even in these uncertain times, I find many things for which I am thankful. I certainly hope you do too. Happy Thanksgiving.

iSad

"Brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world and talented enough to do it."

Thank you Steve. You will be missed.

Steve Jobs - 1955 - 2011

Am I A Plumber or Fisherman? You Be The Judge

Let me begin by expressing my appreciation for the great feedback on the last blog.  Seems I made a whole mess of people tug on their chins and utter a collective "hmmm." Even the RIM folks. Glad I was able to make you think a bit. Now, on with the show

"Occupation? Stand-up philosopher. What? Stand-up philosopher. I coalesce the vapors of human experience into a viable and meaningful comprehension" 
- Comicus (aka Mel Brooks)

Let's see, where were we? Ah, the rabbit hole and the departure of your data. Alice, are you ready? Cue White Rabbit music and let's begin. 

One Pill Makes You Larger...

Like a hippie at Woodstock, your data dances freely and completely uninhibited as it flies out the door. It is unchecked, perhaps sensitive in nature, and oh so easy to move. That's right, no midnight break-ins with flashlights and ninja suits. And it's happening right now, down the hall, in plain sight.There are lots of ways that data leaves your network. Examples would be email, thumb drive, or Trojan. The latter two are easier to control thanks to network security and countermeasure systems (think antivirus systems). The same is not true of email. You really don't think about it, do you? That is about to change...
Let me raise your eyebrow for a minute. Check out my favorite email "accidents." Yea, you know where this is going. The "uh-oh" moment. For those of you playing along at home, let me make sure you understand that the lesson here is that as long as it can be typed or attached to an email, it gets its very own digital wings and flies right on outta here. We'll start with the well known "accident" of an email to the wrong customer or company.  Embarrassing to everyone involved and is usually a legit accident. Usually. That is, unless it is a competitor.  Then there is the "accident" of an email being sent to yourself so that it lands on your smart phone. This one is usually done under the guise of "hey I needed it for a presentation." Nice.  Not so believable but nice. We'll round out the list with the big kahuna: the "accident" of sending data to your personal email address (like Gmail for instance). Can I do it and get away with it? Well, you just did. Screw those IT guys! The song "Can't Touch This" begins to play in your head (MC Hammer for those of you who just got lost) as you high five yourself and proclaim, "I am sticking it to the man!" 

Jeez. Did we just roll over one morning and discover that data loss was sleeping next to us in the business bed? Not really. It has always been there. I just made you more aware of it. And if you are a small business, you are a bit more in trouble thanks to blind faith. No, not talking about the 60's music group. See, in the SMB space, many things, including data security, are driven by trust acquired through blind faith. And it is given more so than earned, primarily due to small size and necessity. Long listed as an acceptable risk, it is also a huge "gotcha" that has unexpectedly removed large portions of flesh from the hind quarters of many business owners.

And One Pill Makes You Smaller...

Ok, so this seems easy enough to stop doesn't it?  You'll just stop allowing email attachments. Yea, that'll work. Think about that for a second. No, really think about it. How much stuff we all send via attachment these days. I mean legit stuff. Quotes, bids, brochures, fax (yea I said it: fax)...the list is nearly endless.  Not so easy now is it? So what do you do? You raise your index finger and say, "Ah ha, I will control the phone." Not so fast. Remember my Blackberry example? The evaporation of device control (click here for last blog) . You gave up that gig to put some Benjamins back in your pocket. What do we do now? Jedi mind trick? Not likely. Enforcement from Jules and Vincent? Not unless your name is Marsellus Wallace. Old fashioned honesty? Well, there are still some honest folks in the world. Wait a minute! If you can't control it, surely you can control what goes TO it? Indeed you can. My friends, I give you Data Loss Prevention (aka DLP), your new e-mployee.  He is cheap, tough as nails,  never calls in sick, and you don't have to pay matching social security. Got your attention? Walk with me…

Master of your Domain. King of the County. Lord of the Manor.

DLP technology has been around for a little while but is just now being talked about with small business. The technology is complex but the concept is quite simple: keep unauthorized data from leaving your network. If DLP was an employee describing their job to you, it would sound something like this: Day and night, I read every single email and every email attachment before it leaves your office. Period. I don't care who you are, you have to get through me before you get out the digital door. See, I am an expert on your company policies, your customer data, and your proprietary information.  I know the difference between a credit card number, a customer database, and a price list. I know if you are even allowed to send email, let alone an email attachment of any kind. When I question something I have read, and I do this a lot, I alone decide the fate of your messages. I delete them. I quarantine them. I even encrypted them before they are sent.  I can do all of this, and more...in real time. I learn from what I have previously read so that I can make better and swifter decisions in the future. And, so you know, I am very detail-oriented. I keep track of all my decisions and know when it is proper for me to get someone else involved, especially if I suspect something is questionable or flat-out wrong.

Good stuff, eh? This is real. This is what DLP is all about. The good news is the technology behind DLP has been fleshed out and vetted by many businesses before yours. You should thank them for being early adopters, working out the kinks and getting the price down. As a result, there are a number of companies offering this technology. However, you need to be careful here. The term "Data Loss Protection" is twisted and torqued by a number of companies in order to steer business to products that are...well...not real DLP products. WatchGuard does it right with their XCS device. They didn't re-invent the technology. Instead, they found a leader who has perfected it. See, XCS  was born and raised as Borderware before being assimilated into the big red collective that is WatchGuard. A battle tested product, they have stayed true to the definition of DLP. It's worth your time to check out their XCS product.  

Time To Go Fishing

So...you are leaking all over the place. But at least you now know what to do about it. Who knew it was all about hippies! Remember, the rod must control the fish, not the other way around. And that my friends will never change. Ask any fisherman. Need more proof? Just look at your desk, your nightstand, and your hip. The device-to-person ratio is beyond 2-to-1 for most of you. That's a lot of fish. And thanks to our obsessive infatuation with technology, it ain't going down. Think about it. We have 3D in HD and Hifi over Wifi. We have Internet on the ground and in the air, with Angry Birds everywhere. Smartphones, laptops, netbooks galore. Tablets, iPads, Kindles and more. You're gonna need a strong rod and a small nuclear device to run all this stuff. Sure, wind power would be better. But you would look pretty silly with a windmill on your head now wouldn't you? 

You're Leaking Because of Blackberry...sort of

Ok, so I am going to tell you a Blackberry story. Not the one you think you know from the news or tech articles. This is a story about you, your business, and all that really important company and customer data that is being seen by people whom you don’t want to see it. "Hey Rick, I don’t even use a Blackberry.” I know. Your mobile love fest begins and ends with either Apple or Android. But the gravity of the Blackberry universe still pulls on you. For all you Blackberry folks, don't get wound up. I am not a hater. In fact, I am very much a believer in what the product was: groundbreaking, innovative, and secure.

"You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." -Morpheus

While many do not like the holy trinity of a Blackberry device, Exchange, and BES, the fact remains that RIM brought us the first real mobile business platform. You could send and receive emails, manage your calendar and contacts, and pretty much run your business life while riding the subway or in the airport bathroom.  And thanks to everything travelling to and from the mothership in Waterloo, it was secure. Above all else though, your IT department could centrally control and manage the entire experience. This was especially important for those of you engaged in top secret clandestine missions where your Blackberry may fall into the wrong hands. A swift click of the mouse and you could nuke the thing from across the globe (cue Mission:Impossible theme). That my friends is power. 

Summer of love
When the iPhone 2G came along in the Summer of 2007, a quiet smartphone revolution began. It was a slow burn that was further ignited when Android came along. See, besides the usual feats (think email, calendar, contacts, etc), these phones could do more. Much more. I'm not talking about lobbing birds at buildings, shooting zombies driving down the highway, or reliving those 80's concert moments with your faux Zippo lighter. I'm talking electronic boarding passes, reading all your news in one view, navigation, and Pandora. And then there is browsing. Yea, ask any Blackberry user about their Internet browsing experience and you will get a scowl followed by a series of colorful metaphors which are...well...they are just plain mean. 

When the bow breaks...
I know, where is the connection to you non-Blackberry users? I’m getting there. You need more info. Check this out. For a long time, companies have been tired of negotiating phone contracts with cell carriers. If you think you hate the experience as an individual, image doing it a hundred or even a thousand times. They also can't stand the cost of replacing the phones. Not just replacing them because of technology changes; replacing them as they go for a late night swim in the pool or have their aerodynamic properties tested in an unexpected manner (sidenote, the Blackberry Storm seems to excel here). But what they abhor most is the ongoing expense of keeping Blackberries going. Cross hairs on IT here. The endless support of Exchange, the costly support contracts for Blackberry Enterprise Server. And the beat goes on. These are hard, sometimes out-of-control expenses. And they are big ones. 

The cradle will fall...
About a year or so ago (maybe a tad bit more), as the three-way game of chicken between Apple, Google and RIM went on, the day had arrived where the unthinkable was now thinkable. Companies finally evoked the words of that great 20th century philosopher, Jackie Gleason, and said "straight to the Moon with you." This was the proverbial middle finger to the carriers and platform makers to indicate that mobile madness would not continue at the behest (and expense) of companies. In an instant, the genie was out of the bottle and its name was BYOD (Bring Your Own Device). It's easy really: you bring your own phone, pad, or tablet to the party.  Use whatever device you prefer. Get your mail, calendar, contacts…everything on YOUR phone. We as the company will give you (maybe) a monthly stipend to use your phone for "business needs." Wow, my own phone and cash in my pocket. My company is great! Wait, why would they do this? Easy. No more buying phones; no more contracts; no more software renewals. And yes, no more responsibility. Finally! One tiny issue though: no more central device management. Alas, here is the leak and why every business owner should now be concerned. Lean closer.

And down will come baby...
"Ok, so I get the whole Blackberry thing. I even get the BYOD thing. Where is the payoff? What about this leak you speak of and how am I affected even though I don't have a Blackberry?" The leak is your data. As the Blackberry kingdom unravels, so does information protection for a lot of companies. Put another way, the more iPhones and Androids that are used in the business world, the more your closely-guarded company data will leave your network without being checked. Why? Remember that little note about the loss of central device management? With no one watching the device, no one is watching what goes TO the device.  Think room full of 4-year-olds and a jar of cookies...with no teacher. Your customer database, your unpublished product costs, your source code, your proprietary research, your special formulas and predictive calculations you have developed for years your (insert your most important data here). Easily copied, zipped, attached to email and sent to a device. No one would ever know. All through the air, no cables required. Think it isn’t happening to you. Think again. And it's not some rogue group of operatives in your company (well, not most of the time). Check these stats from Watchguard Technologies:

73% of all data leakage that occurs is customer data

52% from internal employees

48% from hacking into network or mobile device

96% of internal data leakage is accidental

Bit by bit, you are leaking every single day. And remember, in these uncertain days of economic turmoil, even trusted people do untrusted things when they are invited to leave your organization, no matter what the history. Put another way, you sit down and conduct that exit interview with your soon-to-be-former employee. Perhaps he is smiling as a sense of relief. He's not. He's downloading your entire customer database to his iPhone while you are firing him.Welcome to the "new-new."  

As Paul Harvey used to say, “now you know the rest of the story.” (here is a link if you are too young to know of Paul Harvey) No longer will you dismiss Blackberry’s fall from grace as yet another tech company sleeping at the wheel of the getaway car. There is much more at play here. And it is affecting every business. You just didn't know how...until now.

Feel like you just got told about the Matrix? That’s good. That means you are now aware. Next blog I will tell you how that information is leaving your network and introduce you to the new sheriff in town. His name is DLP. No, it’s not the Texas Instrument television technology. More to come…

Wireless N Speed Explained...Really

It seemed fitting that my first blog be about wireless since it is the one thing we get questioned about the most. In specific, why customers never see the speeds they think they should get. Let me throw this scenario at you. Read on, its not above your head and quite fun.

So you bought a shiny new Wireless N router for home or are about to install numerous ones at work. You are stoked to get it deployed cause this new network is gonna fly. Perhaps you plunked down big Benjamins for those new fancy "Dual Band" ones. Let's rock. 

Getting it up and running...so much easier now than the last time you did this some three or four years ago.  Now, onto the devices. Hmmm. What shall I test? I have my laptop, some IP Cams, my smartphone and a tablet (choose your poison on the last two; I am an Android guy but you Mac folks can substitute your respective devices). You follow the config wizard, including turning up security because (circle one):

a) Need to keep the neighbor's 14-year old from using/hacking your wireless or 

b)Prevent the freeloaders on the forth floor from chewing up all your bandwidth watching The Jersey Shore on Hulu...while at work.  

Set a passphrase and off you go. Done. You are amazed at how easy this process has become. You beat your chest and utter those timeless Mel Brooks' words, "It's good to be the king."  Behold, I have created a fast wireless network of all my toys that runs at...what...54Mps? Did I read the box wrong? I thought I read 450Mps somewhere. I did, its right here on the box.  Your first instinct is to think there is something wrong with the device. Perhaps it is behind on software updates. Not usually the case. You my friend just got caught in the 'N' zone. And we are not talking about football.

FACT #1: Your old laptop is making your wireless slower

There is a lot of rocket science that goes into wireless technology. I will spare you from that so that you can better understand the deal. See, wireless N is meant to bring all the former wireless protocols together. Kind of the Jimmy Carter of wireless. Old wireless devices worked on wireless-B or wireless-G. Wireless-N promised quicker speeds and reverse compatibility. That means your three-year old laptop with wireless can work with your new tablet on the same wireless network at the same time.  But your three-year old laptop is not going to magically benefit from the wireless-N speed increase. It actually may slow down your network. Why? Because the radio in your laptop knows nothing about wireless-N and tells the router to "slow down" so that it can keep up. Put another way, your brand new super fly wireless network will only be as strong (or as fast) as the slowest or oldest device. Bet you weren't told that when you bought the thing, were you? All is not lost yet. Read on...

FACT #2: Encryption is the key to faster speeds.

Now, the previous curse doesn't happen to all wireless-N routers; just most of them.  But the real speedbrake (I couldn't resist the pun) is encryption. But it is not what you think. Stay with me here cause this one is a hare bit deeper. Back to our earlier example of turning up wireless security. It's a good thing and you must do it. After all, you don't want your business out there for everyone else to see. The most important part of this security is encryption. Unlike the old days, this is all handled for you automatically. All you need to do is pick the protocol and method. Kind of like picking car colors.  To make any wireless device work, you have to pick an "exterior color" (security protocol) and an "interior color" (encryption method). Now before you start getting swatch happy, know that due to the age of some devices, your color choices may be very limited (insert Henry Ford comment here: any color as long as it is black)

These days the preferred "exterior color" is WPA2, the successor of WPA. Former exterior colors of "Open" and "WEP" may still be available but they are unsafe (and uncool).  Here is the rub. Some devices support WPA, some WPA2, and some both. The newer the device, the more likely to support both (ie more exterior color choices). The documentation on your device (or the wireless setup) will tell you more. Now to the interior color. Depending on your exterior color, you will have either one or two  choices here: only TKIP or TKIP and AES. You can click here if you want the Steven Hawkings explanation of the differences.  Here is where a handy color chart would likely help:

Here is where you need to pay close attention. Your choice here really depends on what your devices will support. Back to your laptop: it is three years old and only supports WPA. This means you are stuck with the interior color of TKIP. Your tablet is new will do WPA2 so you can choose your interior color between TKIP or AES.  Ok, easy enough. Lowest common denominator here. Set your wireless to use WPA-TKIP and everything will work. Yes they will...except they will run slower. Like 54Mps slow. Why? TKIP will only work on a 54Mps network. Ugh. Here is the deal:

Wholly cow! That is huge! They didn't tell me that at the store!  Darn laptop is bringing me down again. What do these numbers mean? They mean that your bionic wireless-N router is running at a fraction of the speed it is capable. I am not advocating you get rid of all of your TKIP devices. Just want you to know what happens when you use TKIP instead of AES. Who would have thought an interior color would make so much of a difference ;) Also, as an aside, know that many routers support a mixed mode of TKIP and AES. This is done for ease of connection. Even in this mode, all devices will slow to TKIP speed even if connecting with AES. Why? Because TKIP is turned on.

FACT #3: Not all Ns' are created equal

Whew, now that the math lesson is over, lets get back to wireless shall we? Ok, so you now understand (I think) that you want to run WPA2-AES to get the most out of your new wireless - N router. And thanks to this info, you are happy cause you can get to 300Mps with all your devices and be really secure. Life is good right? Except for one question. What is this dual-band stuff?  I want to go for the gusto. After all, the box says I can get up to 450Mps. How can I get there? That my friends is where you need a bit of quick history. See there was wireless before there was wireless-N. I know you're saying "Is this guy for real? That isn't any big revelation. I know about wireless-B and wireless-G. And I even know they work in the same frequency as my cordless phone and microwave oven." That is 2.4Ghz for those of you keeping up at home.  However, you may not know about wireless-A. Unlike its two siblings, wireless-A came out after wireless-B and runs in the 5Ghz range instead of the normal 2.4Ghz range. It had a short life but was used in many places due to its higher power.  So, check this out:

Wireless B/G (2.4Ghz) => Wireless N (2.4 + 5.0) <= Wireless A (5.0Ghz)

So, manufacturers came up with Dual Band routers. The idea was to put "legacy" devices on the 2.4Ghz network while placing newer devices on the 5Ghz. By doing so, your old B/G devices would be isolated and run at a slower speed (like your laptop) and your newer devices would get supercharged thanks to having up-to-date 5Ghz radios onboad (like your tablet).  Neither would interfere with the other. Hallelujah! That is how you get the fastest speeds. What they don't tell you at the store is that  this process is not automatic. So, with a little front end work, you can divide your devices between bands and everything is peas and carrots. 

Getting there is always the hardest part. To make things more difficult, it is sometimes not easy to tell whether your device's wireless-N radio is 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. A quick Google search of the spec will likely tell you. However, the easiest way I have found is to try to attaching the device to the fastest network first. If it works, you are a contender. If not, you have to fall back to the second network as a featherweight. Let's setup a fictional wireless router. If we pull everything together, here is how it would look:

Mind you, you would only need two (2) of the above SSIDs. Again, depends on the age and capabilities of your devices. 

Now go run off and look a bit more closely at your wireless router. Most of you will be surprised that you are on the slow boat. A little patience and a few mouse clicks will deliver warp speed.