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During the Mobile World Congress last week, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced that it has certified more than 200 devices as part of its Wi-Fi Protected Setup Program.  The program, which was launched just over a year ago, is intended to help consumer and small-business users to secure their Wi-Fi networks. 

Products certified for Wi-Fi Protected Setup include dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular phones, Wi-Fi enabled printers, and more than 80 products featuring Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n draft 2.0 technology. Just over half of the devices are also certified for WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) Quality of Service, which optimizes them for voice, gaming, and multimedia applications. 

The WFA has also launched testing support for NFC (Near-Field Communication) as an additional Wi-Fi Protected Setup network configuration method. 

NFC is a short-range wireless technology that allows consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs to communicate. Accrording to WFA:

In the NFC method, a user touches a card or token to designated areas on an access point and a client device to connect them. NFC joins two previously-tested mechanisms, push-button and PIN entry, to simplify the process of joining devices to a security-enabled Wi-Fi network.

Like the push-button method, the NFC technique is especially useful to connect devices that don’t have a keyboard-oriented user interface, such as cameras, gaming devices, and other consumer electronics. Manufacturers now have even more flexibility in how to deploy Wi-Fi Protected Setup, ultimately giving consumers more choice when they buy Wi-Fi CERTIFIED phones and consumer electronics.

A list of all products Wi-Fi CERTIFIED for Wi-Fi Protected Setup, as well as a white paper (available at no charge) which describes the specification in detail, is available at the Wi-Fi Alliance Web site. 

Adapted from Wi-Fi Planet