Better WiFi: Motorola Solutions 802.11ac AP

So much of what we do is online, so it’s important to have a good connection. Thankfully, next generation 802.11ac increases Wi-Fi capacity to meet network bandwidth demands.

Motorola Solutions recently introduced a new suite of indoor- and outdoor-rated 802.11ac access points (APs) that deliver faster speeds, helping enterprise businesses and government access high-bandwidth applications over their Wi-Fi networks.

Motorola’s complete offering includes the AP 8232, AP 8222 and AP 8263, with flexible options on installment. In addition to increasing speed, the next generation 802.11ac APs enable integrated location and security sensing, ideal for mobile commerce applications where shoppers need to be connected. The APs also feature:

• Expandable design to support plug-in applications
• AP 8263 offers tri-radio for ruggedized and outdoor deployments
• Real-time content caching with WiNG 5

“The demands on network bandwidth are on the rise, and our end-to-end solution for the 802.11ac standard, including new APs and WiNG 5.5 upgrade, increase capacity in the Wi-Fi network for both enterprise and government. In addition, the application acceleration engine with content caching helps accelerate application performance without requiring significant increases in WAN bandwidth,” said Imran Akbar, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Networks & Communications, Motorola Solutions.

Learn more about the Motorola Solutions 802.11ac AP.

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Motorola WiNG 5: Wi-Fi for All!

Could Wi-Fi be the future of retail?

Do you get frustrated when places don’t offer their Wi-Fi? Well, worry no more. According to research by Motorola Solutions, 56 percent of retailers are currently planning to offer guest access to Wi-Fi networks in order to improve customer experience.

By providing secure Wi-Fi connections to their shoppers, retailers hope it will encourage engagement in in-store activities, such as product reviews, in-store coupons and even ordering online.

Luckily for retailers, Motorola now offers WiNG 5 Secure Access, a cloud-based solution that addresses the issues of providing secure guest access and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

Motorola’s WiNG 5 features:

• Zero-touch on-boarding for a wide range of smartphones
• Flexible authentication methods such as Facebook, Google and LinkedIn
• Secure connections with Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA2) encryption
• Analytics

Learn more about Motorola’s plans for providing Wi-Fi to retailers.

Would you use a retailer’s Wi-Fi connection to enhance your in-store shopping experience, or just check your Facebook page? Share your thoughts by commenting below, or on our Facebook or twitter pages.

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Mobile Backhaul

Extreme Networks E4G family enables mobile operators to deploy a true 4G mobile backhaul network to address the current requirements of 2G and 3G services while laying the foundation for a true 4G mobile broadband network. By combining next-generation timing capabilities, carrier-class resiliency and line-rate performance, Extreme Networks E4G enables a true 4G mobile backhaul network, designed for the new mobile world of man and machine, providing pervasive access, awareness and control from the edge to the cloud.

E4G-200 Cell Site Router

Cell site router supports industry-standard TDM pseudowires, enabling the support of legacy voice services over an Ethernet mobile backhaul network.

E4G-400 Cell Site Aggregation Router

Highly scalable cell site aggregation router enables mobile operators to manage and aggregate TDM and Ethernet services onto a single, economical and efficient Ethernet mobile backhaul network

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Wireless LAN Products

High-speed, scalable, secure WLAN equipment for enterprises of all sizes

The Extreme Networks® portfolio of wireless LAN (WLAN) products include Summit® WM3000 Controllers, Altitude™ Access Points (APs) and the Motorola® AirDefense® Services Platform. The fully 802.11-compliant hardware and software has been designed to directly address today’s user expectations—wireless connectivity that works transparently, flawlessly and across divergent networks. A wide selection of offerings give IT administrators the flexibility to meet the needs for a wide range of enterprise networks—small to medium sized businesses, large corporate campuses, and distributed enterprises with many branch offices.

Overcoming BYOD ChallengesOur WLAN products are built to seamlessly integrate with wired infrastructures, helping ensure faster deployment, better service delivery and stronger security across the entire network. Better integration also streamlines installation, maintenance and upgrades throughout the entire WLAN lifecycle, for improved TCO and ROI. Enterprise-class security, availability, scalability, and manageability features, along with wire-speed throughputs, ensure reliable delivery of business-critical applications such as voice, video and high-speed data. Advanced management features such as site planning and visualization, proactive diagnostics, remote troubleshooting and automated installation greatly simplify IT tasks such as mobilizing users, deploying new services and optimizing system performance, without sacrificing network security or user functionality.

Product Families

Summit WM3000 Series WLAN Controllers Summit® WM3000 Controllers deliver high-speed, cross-subnet seamless connectivity—the kind demanded by the latest enterprise mobility applications including transactional sessions and voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN). Controllers can be configured as an aggregate domain that reduces service disruptions caused by hardware or link failures. More...

Altitude Access Points A wide selection of Altitude™ Access Points lets you match hardware for specific environments, RF interference, mounting surfaces, management functionality or other deployment constraints. APs support sensorless scanning, Power over Ethernet and remote management. Thin APs can inexpensively connect hard-to-wire locations and large-scale deployments. Adaptive APs provide more local management functionality, including mesh, bridging and remote survivability. More...

Motorola AirDefense Services Platform Motorola® AirDefense® Services Platform provides centralized visibility and control across hundreds of wireless infrastructures and thousands of clients. Check device status, track portable equipment, proactively troubleshoot potential network issues, generate historical and event reports, identify and block network intrusions, remotely configure new installations, export raw data to other applications and much more. Thanks to the intuitively designed, browser-based GUI, even network administrators with little or no RF experience can get WLAN management functionality within a few hours of installation. Motorola AirDefense Services Platform Improved lifecycle management, wired/wireless security and network performance for mobile applications Motorola® AirDefense® Services Platform is a best of breed, full-featured WLAN management suite. With ADSP, IT administrators can better manage the lifecycle of their wireless networks—from planning to configuration, to deployment, to future upgrades. Centralized visibility and control helps get large-scale deployments online quickly and with consistent configurations across the network. Comprehensive reporting features assist with regulatory compliance and network performance analyses. Advanced security functionality enables IT administrators to centrally configure security policies and push them to multiple APs across the network, including remote locations. Real-time alerting and monitoring enables quick response to network intrusions, such as diverting malicious traffic, blocking unauthorized requests and isolating rogue APs. The Motorola AirDefense Services Platform has built-in wireless IDS/IPS that detects over 200 types of network threats. Advanced forensics and vulnerability, spectrum analysis and activity thresholds further protect the network from potential intrusions and attacks.

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Food Service Printing Solutions

Food Service Printing Solutions

Epson, the leading provider of POS printers for food service, offers the most complete range of printing solutions available. From quick service to institutional food service, Epson understands the needs of restaurant operators and provides the speed, reliability, ease-of-use and timesaving features that restaurants require.

Flexible printing solutions wherever you need them Epson printers give you the flexibility to move printing functions wherever your needs demand, eliminating the costs of expensive hard wiring. You can choose from thermal or impact printing technology, Ethernet or USB connectivity and wired, wireless or portable printer models. Receipt printing at the bar or counter Epson printing solutions improve the efficiency of your bar and counter operations by providing fast receipt printing and crisp, high-resolution text and graphics, in both wired and wireless models. Kitchen order printing Epson’s durable thermal and impact kitchen printers provide fast, two-color order printing, in both wired and wireless models. Our exclusive right-side up printing capability enables kitchen orders to print right-side up when the printer is wall mounted. Portable printing for tableside service Epson’s Mobilink® thermal wireless printer takes receipt printing where you need it for table and patio service or line busting applications. Made-to-order food labeling Epson thermal label printers are ideal for made-to-order food labeling from coffee and deli to fast food and carryout. Solutions are available for wired, wireless and portable label printing in both one and two-colors. Epson sets the food service industry standard Epson printers set the industry standard for features, connectivity, innovation, quality, reliability and value. Epson printers are compatible with best-of-breed and component-based systems, so they migrate with you to any open architecture POS system you choose. From kitchen to counter, tableside to poolside, there’s an Epson printer for all your food service printing needs.

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Should Barcodes Be Used on Student ID's?

A customer recently came to us with questions about integrating barcode technology in an elementary school lunch program. Barcodes are an excellent way to cut down on human error, and also great for a first-line defense against theft of important information like numbers, addresses and other data that may otherwise appear on an ID card.

Here is how the lunch program currently works:

1. Each student is issued an ID card that displays the student's ID number.
2. The student selects their meal items and brings them to the register where the cafeteria employee enters the items.
3. The student manually enters their ID number and the debit card associated with the ID number is then charged accordingly.

This seems pretty simple, doesn't it? While this process may look good on it's face, there are glaring inefficiencies, and a lot of room for potential errors.

What if the student forgets their ID card? 

Students are encouraged to memorize their ID number in the event that they forget the card, but they do not always do so. The resulting impact is that cafeteria employees have to spend more time at checkout locating a student's ID number, which can slow down the line and leave students with less time to eat.

A potential solution to this problem is to leave the student ID cards with their teachers instead of with the students themselves. Each teacher would keep the ID cards of the students who go to lunch after their class, and distribute them so that the students will always have their cards. It's possible that some students will find a way to lose their cards between class and lunch, but the likelihood is greatly diminished if the cards are handed out by the teacher on a daily basis and then returned to the teacher after.

What if the wrong ID number is entered? 

Given the high rate of error in elementary school children entering a string of numbers from memory or even a card, it's probable that one student's account may end up being charged for another's lunch. This can also be a problem when students see the ID numbers of their peers and enter them intentionally, instead of their own. This is an inconvenience for both parents as well as for the school, whose employees have to process a refund and charge the correct account. Questions of theft can also come into play under these circumstances.

The best way to minimize the likelihood of human error is to eliminate the opportunity for the error to occur in the first place. This can be done by either adding  a barcode to the existing student ID, or by completely replacing the student ID number with a barcode.

How To Add Barcodes to Student ID Cards

It's easier to add barcodes to your student's ID cards than you think. All you really need are a few important things as outlined below:

Barcode Software To Use

Most student ID numbers are going to be no more than 13 characters. This is good news because the easiest solution is to use Code 39 barcode fonts. Why? Because of it's simple encoding process. The data you want to turn into a barcode must be formatted properly before the font is applied to it, or else your scanner will not recognize the barcode. In the case of Code 39, all you need to do is type an asterisk before and after the data you want to encode. Like this:

*12345*

Just highlight the above data and then apply the appropriate Code 39 font to it and you've got a readable barcode. Other barcode types that encode larger amounts of data require more complex encoding which is usually done with a special font encoder tool. This makes these other font types less compatible with other programs, especially in comparison to Code 39 which is essentially compatible with any application that can call on a specific font. Simply apply the font to the student ID number when you are creating the student ID card.

Barcode Scanner To Use

IDAutomation USB Bacode Scanners are excellent for reading Code 39 barcodes in a POS environment, even if it's a school cafeteria. If a stand is purchased as well, the scanner can be programmed to continuous mode which means the student need only hold their ID card in front of the scanner and wait for the beep that indicates a successful read without even even touching any POS equipment. This not only cuts out the risk of human error in entering the correct ID number, but also extends the life of POS equipment which is handled much less.

It doesn't take much to increase the efficiency of your elementary school's lunch room, thereby cutting wasteful costs. IDAutomation can provide the necessary products to add barcodes to your student ID's, and to scan them into your cafeteria POS system with relative ease.

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Interactive Services Detection - Failure to Mag Encode

You may find a windows client called Interactive Services Detection preventing you from mag encoding

 

To rectify the above fault please disable Interactive Services Dialog Detection search the word “services” in your Start menu, click on Services when it comes up, and find Interactive Services Detection in the list of services. Right click it, and click Properties. Here, you can stop the service

Or:

Open Control Panel

Double click ‘Administrative Services’

Double-click “Services”

Right click - ‘Interactive Services’ from list in Window

Select ‘Stop’

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Magicard Printers encoding string

The printers may have the Magstripe encoder fitted as an enhancement for added security. To ensure that the magnetic encoding is compatible with your card readers all the printer default settings are set to meet ISO std. 7811.

• Right click on the printer driver selecting printer properties.
• Click on the Magnetic Encoding tab and select Perform Verification and High Coercitivity.

• To encode magnetic cards from either notepad or any other application, start and end sentinals will need to be entered into it.
• The encoding string is as follows;
• ~<tracknumber>,<data>
• Sample ~1,12345XYZ         this will encode 12345XYZ onto track 1
• Sample ~2,12345678         this will encode 12345678 onto track 2
• NOTE: There are no end sentinals for this printer
• A sample of what is required when entering the encoding string into an application is shown below (CardExchange)

Attachments

Magicard Encoding Test Card

220 b

Download File

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Magnetic Encoding Standards

Magnetic Strip Encoding Standards Below will be found a brief synopsis of some Magnetic Strip Encoding Standards. Standards Driver's Licenses Suggestions Standards As a general rule, data on Magnetic Cards conforms to the encoding format for financial transaction cards (ISO 7811).  Tracks 1 and 3 read alphanumeric data at 210 bpi, while track 2 reads numeric data only at 75 bpi. ISO 7810 defines the physical characteristics of the card. (3.375" length, 2.125" height, .030" thick) The majority of magnetic cards used in the UK, Europe and USA confirm to the following ISO standards for magnetic cards. The majority of magnetic cards used in the USA, UK, and Europe confirm to the following ISO standards for magnetic cards. Full copies of these standards can be pruchased from http://www.iso.org/ and http://www.ansi.org/. The information below is abstracted from these standards.  Further ISO Standards are available from American National Standards Institute. ISO Number Description of Standard 7810 Physical Characterisitics of Credit Card Size Document 7811-1 Embossing 7811-2 Magnetic Stripe - Low Coercivity 7811-3 Location of Embossed Characters 7811-4 Location of Tracks 1 and 2 7811-5 Location of Track 3 7811-6 Magnetic Stripe - High Coercivity 7813 Financial Transaction Cards Physical Dimensions of Cards: Physical Plastic Card 2.175", 55.245mm 3.375", 85.725mm 0.030", 0.762mm thick   Characteristics of Tracks: Position Track Number Recording Density (bits per inch) Character Configuration (including parity bit) Information Content (including control characters)  0.223" (5.664mm) from card edge  0.110" (2.794mm) Track 1 210BPI 7 bits per character 79 Alphanumeric characters  0.110" (2.794mm) Track 2 75BPI 5 bits per character 40 Numeric characters  0.110" (2.794mm) Track 3 210BPI 5 bits per character 107 Numeric characters Track One:   < 76 alphanumeric characters >   SS FC data FS data FS data ES LRC     Description Value SS   Start Sentinel 05h FC   Format Code FS   Field Seperator 3Eh ES   End Sentinel 1Fh LRC   Longitudinal Redunancy Check Character Track Two:   < 37 numeric characters >   SS   data FS data ES LRC     Description Value SS   Start Sentinel 0Bh FS   Field Seperator 0Dh ES   End Sentinel 0Fh LRC   Longitudinal Redunancy Check Character Track Three: (ISO 4909)   < 104 numeric characters >   SS FC data FS data ES LRC     Description Value SS   Start Sentinel 0Bh FC   Format Code 2 digits FS   Field Seperator 0Dh ES   End Sentinel 0Fh LRC   Longitudinal Redunancy Check Character Character Sets Data stored on magnetic stripes does not use the standard ASCII character set as used on PCs. Below are the two ANSI/ISO character sets used on magnetic stripes. ANSI/ISO ALPHA Data Format (Track 1) The ANSI/ISO ALPHA format is 7 bit, 6 data bits + 1 parity bit (odd). The data is read least significant bit first. The character set contains 64 characters, 43 alphanumeric, 3 framing/field characters and 18 control/special characters. Data bits   Character Value Function b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7   (Hex)   0 0 0 0 0 0 1 space 00 Special 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 ! 01 Special 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 " 02 Special 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 # 03 Special 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 $ 04 Special 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 % 05 Start Sentinel 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 & 06 Special 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 ' 07 Special 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 ( 08 Special 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 ) 09 Special 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 * 0A Special 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 + 0B Special 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 , 0C Special 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 0D Special 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 . 0E Special 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 / 0F Special                      0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 10 Data 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 11 Data 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 12 Data 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 3 13 Data 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 4 14 Data 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 5 15 Data 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 6 16 Data 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 7 17 Data 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 8 18 Data 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 9 19 Data                      0 1 0 1 1 0 0 : 1A Special 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 ; 1B Special 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 < 1C Special 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 = 1D Special 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 > 1E Special 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 ? 1F End sentinel 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 @ 20 Special                      1 0 0 0 0 1 1 A 21 Data 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 B 22 Data 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 C 23 Data 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 D 24 Data 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 E 25 Data 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 F 26 Data 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 G 27 Data 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 H 28 Data 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 I 29 Data 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 J 2A Data 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 K 2B Data 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 L 2C Data 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 M 2D Data 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 N 2E Data 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 O 2F Data 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 P 30 Data 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 Q 31 Data 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 R 32 Data 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 S 33 Data 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 T 34 Data 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 U 35 Data 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 V 36 Data 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 W 37 Data 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 X 38 Data 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 Y 39 Data 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 Z 3A Data                      1 1 0 1 1 1 0 [ 3B Special 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 \ 3C Special 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 ] 3D Special 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 ^ 3E Field Separator 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 _ 3F Special ANSI/ISO BCD Data Format (Tracks 2 and 3) The ANSI/ISO BCD format is 5 bit, 4 data bits + 1 parity bit (odd). The data is read least significant bit first. The character set contains 16 characters, 10 alphanumeric, 3 framing/field characters and 3 control/special characters. Data bits   Character Value Function b1 b2 b3 b4 b5   (Hex)   0 0 0 0 1 0 00 Data 1 0 0 0 0 1 01 Data 0 1 0 0 0 2 02 Data 1 1 0 0 1 3 03 Data 0 0 1 0 0 4 04 Data 1 0 1 0 1 5 05 Data 0 1 1 0 1 6 06 Data 1 1 1 0 0 7 07 Data 0 0 0 1 0 8 08 Data 1 0 0 1 1 9 09 Data 0 1 0 1 1 : 0A Control 1 1 0 1 0 ; 0B Start Sentinel 0 0 1 1 1 < 0C Control 1 0 1 1 0 = 0D Field Separator 0 1 1 1 0 > 0E Control 1 0 0 1 1 ? 0F End Sentinel Credit Cards Note from the table below that Magnetic Stripe Readers used for acquiring Credit Card data need only to read tracks 1 or 2 from the card.  Note also the redundancy: Track 1 contains the customer's name in addition to the account number and expiration date recorded at higher density. Lower-density data recorded on track 2 contains only the account number and expiration date. In the early years of Magnetic Stripe technology, data was recorded at lower density to increase read-reliability.  Low density data is still recorded on track 2 for compatibility with older-technology readers and provide redundancy when reading with newer-technology readers.  Readers with both track 1 and 2 are recommended for acquiring Credit Card data since redundancy permits the authorization process to compare account information on both tracks and also fallback to the lower density track data if the reader is unable to decode track 1 due to damaged track data on the card. Track 3, originally an alternate numeric-only track, is no longer used in the Banking and Credit Card format. Driver's Licenses Track 1 and 2 of the Driver's License Magnetic Stripe format conform to the original formatting standards used by the Banking and Credit Card industry.  While the data encoded on the tracks is different from the Banking and Credit Card industry, the number of bits/character is the same.  In order to encode the additional alpha-numeric information required on the Driver's License, the specification was revised to permit alpha-numeric information to be encoded on track 3. Note from the table below that the information contained on the 3 tracks of the Driver's License differ only slightly from the AAMVA standard to the early California DL standard.  While the information contained on each track may be only slightly different, the field order, field lengths, and method of field separation and termination differs significantly.  This table is only an overview of what data fields are contained on the three tracks of a magnetically coded driver's license.  For detailed format specifications refer to the AAMVA specification. Track Data Type Credit Card AAMVA License Non-AAMVA Version of California License 1 Alpha-Numeric (210 BPI, 7 Bits/Char) Account Number Name Expiration Date Last Name First Name Address City State Last Name First Name Address City 2 Numeric-Only (75 BPI, 5 Bits/Char) Account Number Expiration Date Drivers License Number Expiration Date Birthdate Drivers License Number Expiration Date Birthdate 3 Numeric-Only (210 BPI, 5 Bits/Char) (No longer in use) (ISO 4909 Specification - No longer in use) (N/A) (N/A) Alpha-Numeric (210 BPI, 7 Bits/Char) (N/A) Postal Code Sex Height Weight Hair Color Eye Color State Postal Code Sex Height Weight Hair Color Eye Color Abacus 21 Suggestions for Magnetic Strip Encodings  (please call to confirm before utilizing)   Track: In all cases utilize Track 1 -- which is alphanumeric (up to 79 characters). Sentinel Characters: Start Sentinel:  % Separator:  ^ End Sentinel:  ? Card Types:  (Note:  all Encodings should be equal-to or less-than 30-characters) Member Card:  %MC^xxxxxxx? (where the seven x's are digits -- padded to the left with 0's) Guest-of-Member Card:  %GM^xxxxxxx? (where the seven x's are digits -- padded to the left with 0's) Gift Card:  %GC^xxxxxxx? (where the seven x's are digits -- padded to the left with 0's) Card Philosphy: The x-numberings must be unique within Card Type. These 'arbitrary' numberings are 'attached' (ie. cross-referenced) to the appropriate Member, Guest, Gift Card file upon activation -- and 'inherit' their respective 'associations', Expiration Dates, Denominations, Limits, etc. at the moment of activation.

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