OK, attempting to get things squared away in my head here.
Anyone (Karlnet) - please feel free to confirm/discuss/debunk the points
below, I'm trying my best to get this straight in my head before
purchasing any equipment here.
1) There exists at least two "Karlnet Lite" hardware platforms - the
Karlnet designed and produced KN-50, and another platform similar to it.
Both use the Ubicom CPU however.
2) There (possibly) exists two basic versions of the "Karlnet Lite"
software load - one supports Prism radios, one supports Hermes/Hermes
II/Ruby radios.
3) The problems being reported with the KN-50 relate to the use of
Hermes/Hermes II/Ruby based radios (Orinoco/Agere/Others) and the firmware
loaded on the card itself. Due to flash space issues on the KN-50, no
tertiary firmware is uploaded to the card on initialization (unlike other
TC software products/loads).
4) There exists a newer revision of the firmware for the KN-50's that
addresses the packet loss issue, and is being shipped with new units.
5) Prism radios do not properly "remotely" report signal quality / stats
with any TC software product or Prism FW load.
6) Any issues with running WEP on the KN-50's that "work"?
Even at the risk of appearing like a doofus and continuing to beat a dead
horse, I'd really like to pin this down. Karlnet has been strangely quiet
on this issue, and I'm trying to zero-in on the technical issues here so I
can avoid them altogether, and/or help others out with the info as well.
A couple questions (some general) I have are:
1) Will Karlnet release software updates to the KN-50? <OBSERVATION> It
seems really odd to me that Karlnet expends an *incredible* amount of time
and effort protecting their code, and seemingly (on the surface anyway) a
lot less time getting some real basic problems resolved that affect the
overall saleability of the product, hence reducing income. Seems oddly
counter-intuitive and counter-productive. I know protecting the software
is important, but you couldn't have possibly anticipated zero issues with
a new product. New products need firmware updates. Firmware updates need
to be user installable. Surely this was discussed before product launch?
We've been hearing about upcoming upgrades for KN-50's for awhile now - is
that going to be a reality soon, as in days or weeks? </OBSERVATION>
2) Will the TC software ever be able to properly report, or extract/coax
Prism radios into reporting wireless quality stats? This is less of an
issue, but it seems to be a longstanding one that just keeps getting
brushed aside.
3) Is the KN-50 compatible with Prism radios as-is? Or is it crafted for
Hermes/Hermes II/Ruby radios only?
Anything I missed here? Karlnet - comments?
Like I said before, I love the Karlnet gear I have now, and want to deploy
more - real soon actually. But, I refuse to deploy anything that has
publically known bugs without real-life effective workarounds or deploy a
solution that will cause me nothing but headaches with promises of future
firmware upgrades that will "fix" it - and they never come. Been there,
done that (anyone ever used Ariel dial gear? I sincerely hope not.)
And, in the upcoming deployment, cost dictates that for it to be Karlnet
based, it's got to be a KN-50 (or similar) based solution. Otherwise, I
will have to consider other options.
Brad
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