Skip to Content

Wi-Fi Made Easy

Researchers at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California have come up with software that lets users set up secure communications between the devices in a home Wi-Fi wireless network in less than a minute. A user who wishes to add a device, such as a laptop, to the network need only point it at an infrared port attached to the base station. Over the infrared channel, the devices swap digital addresses and short “fingerprints” of cryptographic keys. Then they switch to a Wi-Fi radio channel where they can use the fingerprints to identify each other and exchange full encryption keys, automating the process of making further communications indecipherable to eavesdroppers. Normally, the process is so tedious that many Wi-Fi users don’t bother, leaving their networks open to hackers and piggybackers. The PARC researchers say they hope to license the software to hardware companies this year.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.