LINUXANT ADDS WI-FI PROTECTED ACCESS (WPA) SUPPORT TO DRIVERLOADER™

MONTREAL, QC Dec. 14, 2003 - Linuxant inc., a world-class supplier of consulting, software development and professional support services is announcing the immediate availability of DriverLoader™ 1.50, featuring state-of-the-art Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security.

DriverLoader™ is a revolutionary compatibility-wrapper allowing standard Windows NDIS (Network Driver Interface Specification) drivers shipped by hardware vendors to be used as-is on Linux x86 systems.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a standard promoted by the Wi-Fi Alliance, to overcome the vulnerabilities of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), the traditional mechanism for interoperable Wi-Fi security. WPA provides users with the confidence that their data will remain protected and that only those authorized can access the network, by using the 802.1x standard for port based network access control and the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) or the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for encryption.

Thanks to DriverLoader and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), owners of Wireless LAN devices (CardBus and PCI) with compatible Windows drivers can now use their devices under Linux, enjoying the full speed of the latest Wireless LAN technology with the freedom of the renowned open-source operating-system, without exposing sensitive data to the weaknesses of WEP.

The latest release of DriverLoader can be downloaded from Linuxant's web site and also features stability improvements and compatibility with Intel PRO/Wireless (Centrino), Broadcom, Intersil Prism GT/Duette/Indigo, Cisco, Realtek, Texas Instruments, Atheros, and other Wireless LAN drivers for Windows.

Linuxant is committed to continue improving DriverLoader as it becomes a fully compatible generic wrapper capable of running the majority of Windows NDIS drivers.

DriverLoader technology is the ideal Linux solution to support devices for which no adequate native open-source drivers are available. It also allows vendors to drastically reduce time to market or eliminate the need to support multiple drivers for Windows and Linux. By using the same NDIS driver on both platforms, significant resources can be saved. All Linux-specific code in DriverLoader remains open-source, allowing it to be used under any supported version of the kernel.

DriverLoader packages can be downloaded from Linuxant's web site. The software is easy to install on standard Linux distributions (RedHat/Fedora, SuSE, Mandrake, TurboLinux, Debian, and derivatives) with any recent 2.4 or 2.6 kernel, and includes a user-friendly Web-based configuration system. Current users of DriverLoader can upgrade to the latest version at no charge.

Vendors interested in using DriverLoader technology to enable their products under Linux should contact services@linuxant.com.

For more information or to download your copy of DriverLoader, please go to http://www.linuxant.com

About Linuxant
Linuxant is a world-class supplier of consulting, software development and professional support services. Linuxant works closely with leading vendors and OEMs of semiconductor, PC, embedded and communication/wireless products, as well as with companies in other industries, providing technological expertise and solutions to maximize the potential of Linux and open-source. Additionally, Linuxant develops and distributes specialized system software, such as device drivers for specific applications.