Cellular router eases wireless working

A Digi product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Mar 28, 2008

SpaceDev uses the Digi Wi-Point 3G to allow its engineers to send data back to company headquarters from remote rocket testing sites.

Digi International has released the Digi Wi-Point 3G, a PC card-based 3G cellular router with an integrated Wi-Fi access point.

It acts as a cellular-to-Wi-Fi hotspot and provides secure, high-speed internet access to remote work groups and devices.

It works with more cellular PC data cards than any other cellular router, enabling internet connectivity virtually anywhere a cellular signal is available.

SpaceDev, a developer of space technology systems, products and services, uses the Digi Wi-Point 3G to allow its engineers to send data back to company headquarters from remote rocket testing sites.

Jon Martin, director of IT for SpaceDev said: "We test rockets at least two miles from civilisation, so we usually have no wired connectivity".

"The Digi Wi-Point 3G allowed us to set up an on an 'on the fly' hotspot so our engineers could send data back to headquarters".

"It was simply plug-and-play and we were up and going in 30 seconds".

The Digi Wi-Point 3G supports more than 40 cellular PC data cards around the world, including PCMCIA and PCI Express cards (with an appropriate adapter).

It is a three-in-one router with integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi access point, 10/100 Ethernet and global cellular network access via virtually any carrier-supplied PC data card.

It is small and easy to deploy and enables drop-in networking to devices that are hard to reach or do not have convenient access to wired connections.

"The Digi Wi-Point 3G allows remote sites and devices to wirelessly connect to the internet or securely integrate into a corporate network - even if that remote device happens to be driving down the highway", said Larry Kraft, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Digi International.

It suits applications such as temporary networks, remote Wi-Fi hotspots, mobile/transportation deployments, disaster recovery and security.

The Digi Wi-Point 3G features enterprise class security, including IPsec VPN, WPA2 encryption and a firewall.

It also includes GPS support (with qualified PC cards), failover to dial-up modem and auto-detection of the cellular data card for seamless field upgradeability.