Wireless Networking. First of all, what is it? If you have any experience at all with a home or office network, it is probably connected using wires called CAT5 cables with RJ-45 plugs on the end. Older (much older) networks used coaxial cable similar to television cable. Using these cables and an inexpensive central point called a hub or a switch, it was very easy to network (connect) PCs together. Once connected, you could share files and printers and do other things.
Home networks were not very necessary until the introduction of high speed Internet access. Using a network, you can share the one Internet connection (Road Runner or DSL) to all the PCs in your household. But the main impediment (as I found out) was running the wires. My attic is full of trusses and insulation, and very difficult to work in.
Wireless networking simply does away with the wires. You put the proper hardware in place at the cable or DSL connection, and other hardware in place at each computer and voila! they can talk to each other without wires. The radio frequencies used are the same as some cordless phones (the 2.4 GHz. band). Pretty slick. (For you techies out there, I am referring to 802.11b wireless, or Wi-Fi.)
But, is it all roses? Well, perhaps not.
I purchased a wireless enabled cable/DSL router from Linksys, two PC Card adapters (the flat kind that slip into notebook computers) and one PCI adapter (the kind that fits into a card slot inside a regular PC). The PC Card adapters were from Orinoco, a subsidiary of Lucent. I used these brands because gossip on the Internet said they had the best range. I generally have been recommending Netgear equipment, but I had a friend up north who was fooling around with Netgear wireless and I wanted results using other hardware.
The cards and router installed without a hitch. The router replaced my Netgear router, and the first PC Card went directly into my notebook PC. I had to tweak a few settings, and off it went. After I got that running, I put the other PC Card into its PCI adapter and put that into my wife's PC. I did have some trouble on that PC, but a file from Microsoft fixed that problem.
The results were pretty good - a keeper. It sure is nice not having that wire strung around the walls, and I can use my notebook computer anywhere in the house. Internet on the fly!
But, there are some drawbacks. First of all, the wireless adapters use the same frequencies as some wireless phones and there can be interference between them. My wireless phone is a 900 MHz. unit, so there was no problem. But my friend in NY whose phone is 2.4GHz. losses his Internet connection temporarily when he uses the phone.
The next drawback is range. As your PCs get further apart, the signal strength is reduced and when the signal is reduced the bandwidth (amount of data) is reduced. Today's wired Ethernet runs at 100Mbs (100 megabits per second) and is full duplex - i.e. your PCs can talk and receive at the same time. With wireless, the maximum speed is 11Mbs and only one signal can be sent at a time. When longer range reduces the signal, the data rate goes down to 5 or even 1Mbs. But that is still not bad, if you remember that your cable or DSL connection probably runs at 1Mbs or less.
The signal range around my house was good, but not spectacular. Even 30 feet apart (with walls in between), the signal quality had already degraded from Excellent to Good. But the connection still ran at the maximum speed. I will do more extensive testing when I can.
The final issue is cost. The wireless components are still more expensive than a cable, and probably still more expensive than having an electrician coming over to put in the wiring. But its high tech, man, and you have to keep up with the high tech Joneses!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).