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computerwriter.com
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The Wonderful World of WirelessToronto Star Fast Forward Section Front for February 22, 2001 Copyright ©, Myles White, 2001 Let's start out by looking at some numbers. According to ACNeilsen Canada, over 30 per cent of Canadian households with one computer has more than one. Extrapolating that figure suggests that the number of Canadian homes where a computer network may be possible exceeds two million No one that I know has calculated how many Canadians with one computer at home also have access to notebook (laptop) computers from their place of work, nor how many of them bring those small computers home at night to keep working. However, the US analysts, The Gartner Group, has estimated that employees with notebook computers put in an average of six hours of unpaid overtime each week, so I think it's safe to assume that many of them are doing that work at home. In short, lots of us have reasons to begin exploring the possibility of forming some type of home computer network. In an earlier feature article, last April, I outlined a variety of ways you could build a small home network. See the sidebar, A Quick Guide to Home Networking, for a summary. However, I also gave rather short shrift to one of the more interesting ways to go about forming that network: the use of wireless technology. Advantages of WirelessOne of the primary advantages of wireless networking in the home environment is, of course, that you can create a fairly robust network (in terms of speed, number of systems, and distance between them) without the need for poking holes in any walls, floors, or ceilings. Few homeowners may be prepared to do as I have done in my home office: to use a hole saw between two ground-floor rooms in order to run a two-inch conduit full of networking and other cables between them. For many young, first-time homeowners, fishing wires through walls and developing skills with drywall tape and compound seems a daunting, not to mention potentially expensive and possibly relationship-damaging prospect. If we expand our potential audience to include those with larger home-based businesses and small business operations where an off-site sales force may occasionally call, then wireless connectivity would provide those staff members with instant access to the company network without the need for dedicated network lines and also allow them to use office and meeting space anywhere within or close to the company premises. DownsideOf course, there's a downside to wireless networking, too. The primary disadvantage is that as a method of implementing a network, it's among the most expensive. As well, current wireless networking standards offer only a fraction of the speed available through wired networks – although you may find that problem is offset by the flexibility it offers. ChoicesThere are three broad choices of wireless standards available to home users:
Home RFUsing Intel's AnyPoint Home RF product as a guide, this is the least expensive wireless alternative. The system is composed of two products, an external transceiver designed to attach to a desktop PC through its Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, and a PC Card (formerly PCMCIA card) that fits into a notebook computer's Type II PC Card slot. Typically, the desktop unit sells on the street (when you can find it) for about $179, while the PC Card version is closer to $200. Note that these are prices quoted from online sources and that they may be lower in storefront retail locations. Each computer in Home RF wireless network has to have either a desktop or notebook transceiver. Computers using Home RF cannot be further apart than 150 feet. The Home RF network cannot talk to any other type of network. It can't communicate with a wired Ethernet network, to a Home PhoneLine Association (Home PNA) network, or to a WiFi (IEEE 802.11b) network. This incompatibility with other network standards may not bother you if what you want to set up is self-enclosed. But, if you're bringing a notebook computer home from work, the documentation warns quite sternly that you may not want to install the required software without first talking to your employer's network administrator. Home RF is, so far, strictly a PC solution. Intel's at least doesn't work with Macs. Home RF does support Internet sharing (assuming you have an Internet account), through software similar to the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) product that comes with Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition (or Millennium Edition or Windows 2000 Professional). It will even, if you adjust both, work along side Microsoft's ICS. However, the network's top speed of 1.6 megabits per second (Mbps), particularly if it's shared among several computers, may make that shared Internet line quite slow. It's certainly faster than dial-up access and Sympatico's High-Speed Edition, but may clip the top off the @Home cable service. Home RF will let you share files and folders among your systems. It will allow you to share printers. You can even play games across it. But for some reason, you cannot share scanners (Intel's documentation advises you to walk over to the PC with the scanner, to save the file on that system's hard drive, then to walk back to your system and move the file over). You could also try sharing applications, so long as you don't expect them to run quickly. Aside from distance, speed, and compatibility limitations, there's another feature (or lack of it) that makes Home RF unsuitable for small business use. There's no security features that might prevent someone else with a Home RF setup from accessing your network. There is no unique name you can assign to the "members" of your network, nor is there any encryption. True, only if you're extremely paranoid might you suspect that a stranger may troll your neighbourhood with a Home RF-equipped notebook, looking for others (or you in particular), but if this is a concern you have, then look to other alternatives. IEEE 802.11b (WiFi)The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers 802.11 Committee is a standards body composed of representatives of various companies. Because of the "standards" attached to 802.11b, this means among other things that products from one company will likely work with those of another. A WiFi network requires at least one wireless access point and one transceiver to connect to it. For those familiar with networking structures, it acts like a hub or switch, tying the various wirelessly connected computers together. Then, depending on the company and model, this single access point can service up to 252 transceivers. Speed is up to 11 Mbps, but interference and distance can drop the transmission rate to as low as 2 Mbps. Distance between the access point and a transceiver can vary from 150 to 300 metres (the greater distance comes into play if there is more than one access point serving an area. WiFi is completely compatible with wired Ethernet networks (although not with Home PNA or Home RF). Typically, access points start at around $500 (give or take a little depending on brand, model, and how carefully you shop). Internal network interface cards (NICs) for desktop systems are about $300 each (same caveats) and PC cards for notebooks run in the $400 range. I tested four separate products in three different configurations to prepare for this article. There are a wide variety of configurations available. The least expensive units combine an access point with one RJ-45 Ethernet port to allow it to be integrated into a wired network. Models with more than one port (three or four are common) cost more, but they could also replace an Ethernet hub or switch for a smaller network. The high end of the price range is reserved for models that combine several features including wireless access, multi-port Ethernet connectivity, and an Internet gateway / router. These units can cost from $600 to well over $750, again depending on brand, model, number of Ethernet ports, and how carefully you shop. The products I tested, from 3Com, D-Link, and Linksys have several things in common. To begin with, I was able to communicate with other wireless products, and with my existing network, no matter which company's PC card transceiver was in the notebooks I used (a Dell Latitude C800 and Eurocom 8500-V), and no matter which company's access point happened to be connected at the time. That bodes well for situations where you may be inviting participants from different companies to join you for a corporate version of a LAN party. And the chances that there might be eavesdroppers was remote. All of the products allow – in fact require – you to enter a common name (in effect a password that can be any combination of alphanumeric characters) into both the access point and all transceivers to which it communicates. Then, depending on the company and product, it is also possible to add 40, 64, or 128-bit encryption to the data stream. So, instead of being wide open, as is the case with Home RF, the WiFi network can, in effect, provide two layers of security. Where there were points of differentiation was in ease of setup and technical support. I found D-Link's DWL-1000AP (single-port wireless access point, just under $500 on the street) and its DI-713 (3-port wireless access point with Internet gateway / router, just over $600 on the street) the easiest to set up and integrate into my network. The 3Com HomeConnect Wireless Gateway (3-port wireless access and Internet Gateway, $575 or less) was a little more complicated, but still came up within about a half-hour of fiddling. Unfortunately, the Linksys WAP11 (single-port wireless access, $480 or less) fell down and couldn't get up. For some reason, it not only wouldn't integrate into my network so I could configure it, but its alternate communication method, via USB cable, wouldn't accept any configuration changes. I found technical support at both D-Link and 3Com to be within acceptable limits for wait times and quality of the advice I got. Despite phone calls ("Someone will call you back." They didn't.) and e-mails to company public relations people ("Gosh, we're sorry. The product manager will call you." He didn't.) I still haven't been able to talk to anyone to find out what the problem with the WAP11 is. I can report that the Linksys PC card transceiver worked just fine with all 3Com and D-Link access points. I didn't always get the full 11 Mbps speed I was hoping for, but even at the minimum rate of 2 Mbps, that was fast enough so I didn't notice any degradation of speed when sharing the Internet. My home office network uses 100 Mbps over its wired portion, so I did notice a lag when moving large files, although the lag wasn't excruciating. I was able to use a scanner on another system (that slow-down was a bit annoying) and to share applications. If your existing network is 10 Mbps, you won't notice any difference. Moving the access points to a higher shelf and twiddling with their antennae seemed to help both signal strength and speed. In short, I've been impressed with the examples I've tested of the IEEE 802.11b products. If I had to ask for anything more, it would be increased speed and distance. And, wouldn't you know it, I'm not alone. That's why you can expect to start hearing about IEEE 802.11a very soon. When you do, expect to hear distances quoted of up to 650 metres and 45 Mbps transmission speeds. I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing products by fall at the latest and possibly as early as this summer. BluetoothIf the folks at the Bluetooth alliance have their way, every small, portable device you own will soon be able to talk to every other small, portable device and to your desktop computer, too. The raw specifications on Bluetooth, however, are unlikely to make it an alternative to the two other wireless solutions we've discussed so far. The normal range for Bluetooth devices is 10 metres, although the specification mentions an "optional" range of 100 metres. I've been all through the technical specifications for Bluetooth and haven't been able to find any reference to data transmission speed. Like IEEE 802.11b, however, Bluetooth devices operate in the 2.4GHz band, which means they may collide with cordless phones, microwave ovens, and similar devices (802.11a will operate at a higher frequency, which is another reason why that segment of the industry is interested in changing the "standard"). The Bluetooth "SIG" (Special Interest Group) includes Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Toshiba, 3Com, Lucent Technologies (Bell), Microsoft, and Motorola. There are some products, such as a cordless headset for Ericsson cell phones, at least a pair of Sony notebooks with Bluetooth connectivity and over 100 others listed at www.bluetooth.com ("The Official Bluetooth Web Site"). ConclusionWireless networking at a robust level is expensive. Even the Home RF solution is pricey compared to alternatives such as Home PNA (PhoneLine) networking alternatives for those who wish to have a renovation-free home computer network (and it's slower, too). If the idea of having a hard-wired Ethernet network leaves you cold, or you need a wireless solution to integrate with it, then for now at least, if you can afford it, IEEE 802.11b (WiFi) is the way to go. Home Networking at a GlanceWhy you may want to network
Broad Network Types
Robust Peer-to-Peer Networking
Other “Networking” Solutions
Sharing the InternetIf you plan to share your Internet connection throughout your network (via dial-up POTS or ISDN, broadband cable or xDSL), there are two broad ways to do so.
Some Other Things To Think About
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