Wireless Internet with a few strings attached
In most homes, the world is crammed into one room -- the one with the Internet modem.
That’s where the computer, tied to the modem like a marionette to a puppeteer, gets the Web, e-mail and online music.
But now you can cut the strings.
Wireless networking, popularly known as Wi-Fi, allows you to get an Internet signal anywhere in the house and even out in the yard without a direct connection to the modem.
With a transmitter about the size of a paperback book attached to the modem and a receiver card smaller than a saltine slipped into a laptop, you can e-mail friends while sitting on the sofa, check online recipes in the kitchen, surf the Web in the garden and catch up on the news while lying in bed. And after the initial cost of the equipment, Wi-Fi is free; there are no usage fees above and beyond your basic Internet charges.
Indeed, I am now sitting at my kitchen table with a view of the front garden, which is a nice change from my tiny, almost windowless home office with its depressing mounds of unfiled papers. Yet the Internet is flowing into the laptop at essentially the same speed I get at my wire-bound desktop computer back in the lonely office.
Wi-Fi also provides a handy solution for homes with multiple computers. A wireless connection can simultaneously serve several computers with no speed penalty. And transmitters are for the most part cross-platform, serving Windows and Macintosh computers.
This through-the-air networking has been around for several years, with the vast majority of systems set up by experts for commercial or corporate establishments. Home setups existed, mostly in the abodes of brave experimental types.
But in the last year, wireless has become so much cheaper and easier to install -- a transmitter and receiver can be bought for a total of less than $100 -- that Wi-Fi has crossed the line from nerd-dom to the mainstream.
“There is no reason, anymore, to pay an electrician to run wires all though the house to hook up the computers,” says mobile computing analyst Ken Dulany of Gartner Inc. “So many people I know are going Wi-Fi, and there is not one I’ve talked to who doesn’t like it.”
Away from home there are benefits too. With a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop, you can take advantage of wireless Internet connections at thousands of public access points already established around the world (although many require usage fees) in coffee shops, hotels, airports and bookstores. Just by walking into one of these areas, you get a speedy connection you can use to e-mail back home or browse the Web.
Drawbacks? A few, which is the norm for an emerging home technology. The Wi-Fi transmitters have a maximum range of about 150 feet under optimal conditions, but those are rare. The signal is diluted by walls and other obstacles, creating dead or near-death signal zones.
Large houses with solid walls (wood or metal walls are especially difficult for Wi-Fi signals to pass through) might require multiple transmitters for full coverage.
Wireless also somewhat increases the chance that a hacker could get into your system. And although setting up home Wi-Fi is a lot easier than it was a couple of years ago, it can still be a highly frustrating experience.
Going Wi-Fi does not mean you can cancel your Internet service provider. “Some people think that with wireless they will somehow be completely freed from wires,” says Frank Keeney, a wireless network installer who co-founded the Southern California Wireless Users Group. “You still need that Internet connection coming into the house.”
DSL, cable or dial-up service plugs into a modem that is normally wired directly into the computer. But with Wi-Fi, the wire to the computer is replaced by a transmitter called an access point (an unsexy name for a cool item -- clearly, marketing folks were not involved in the naming stage).
There are several name brands of PC access points you can buy, including Linksys, NetGear, Belkin, D-Link and the behemoth known as Intel.
You can find deals that bring the price on an access point down to as low as about $40, but you’ll probably pay $75 to $100, especially if you want various extra features.
Apple Computer, which was a pioneer in home wireless, calls its transmitters “base stations.” These devices not only have a better name, they are also slicker looking, have cool features and are generally easier to install. But they’re Apple, so they are also more expensive, starting at $200.
Now you need receivers for your computers, and in the PC world they’re called wireless adapters. Luckily, most computer folks will know what you are talking about if you simply refer to them as wireless cards; check with the computer manufacturer or a technician to see which card fits into your system.
On a newer PC laptop, the electronic card slips into a small slot on the side of the computer. (On an Apple PowerBook, it usually goes into a hidden slot behind the battery.) On a desktop, the card usually slips into the back of the machine -- it’s a bit trickier to install.
Older computers without appropriate slots might require the use of external adapters.
The price again varies with type and features, but expect to pay between $50 and $100.
You might hear that there are two technological standards for home Wi-Fi gear -- 802.11b and 802.11g. You don’t need to worry much about them, however, because they’re compatible -- a b access point should work just fine with a g card, for example.
The b standard is tried and true, while g is new, faster and usually more expensive. Most independent experts agree that b is more than adequate for current home Internet setups, although future devices might take advantage of the g speed bump.
Now comes the hard part: installing software and configuring the equipment to get your wireless system up and running. My most important advice is: Don’t do this when the help lines for the equipment you bought -- as well as those for your computer and Internet service provider -- are closed. Maybe everything will go smoothly, but probably it won’t.
I installed both Linksys and Apple setups, and both required fairly lengthy chats with helpful technicians at those companies.
Then comes another tricky process: engaging the security protection standard, known as Wired Equivalent Privacy, or WEP, for your system. It should be available on your Wi-Fi software. WEP provides some protection against people in the area jumping onto your little wireless network. If they are skilled hackers, they might even be able to delve into an unprotected system to pick up passwords, etc.
However, no one in the security community is very happy with the loopholes in WEP. Replacement security software, called Wi-Fi Protected Access, or WPA, is due by the end of the year.
All this finagling and adjusting can be time-consuming as well as frustrating. But once your little home wireless network is operating, all will probably be forgiven. Wi-Fi is just so cool -- using it reminds me of the sense of wonder I used to get from the Internet until going online became all too mundane.
As I sit here with my computer at the window, I can look up to notice that the shrubs need clipping, the neighbor’s cat has wandered into the yard and clouds have moved in, making it a nice time to take a little walk.
When there’s work to be done, Wi-Fi opens up a whole new world of distractions.
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Going out, getting online
When you leave home, you don’t have to leave Wi-Fi behind.
If you have a laptop equipped with a wireless card, you can connect to the Internet at a rapidly growing number of public access points -- commonly called hot spots -- not only in the United States, but in many foreign countries as well.
Lists of hotel, airport, coffee shop and other hot spots can be found on the Web -- one of the most comprehensive is at www.80211hotspots.com -- but these lists quickly go out of date.
Some hot spots offer free access. Locally, one of the largest is a four-block stretch of Pine Avenue in Long Beach, where the city’s Economic Development Bureau and corporate sponsors teamed up to provide high-speed Wi-Fi. Just sit at one of the many restaurants or clubs on the busy street, and you’re connected.
Next Thursday, the same group will start providing Wi-Fi at Long Beach Airport. For information on either area, see www.longbeachportals.com.
Another free zone is in the Farmers Market in the Fairfax district, where the Sticker Planet store provides Wi-Fi for promotional purposes. When you go online near there, wirelessly, the store’s Web page automatically pops up.
The vast majority of public access points, however, charge usage fees. The leader in this field is the ubiquitous Starbucks, which has equipped thousands of its coffee shops with high-speed Wi-Fi and offers pay plans, including unlimited access for $39.99 a month or a pay-as-you-go 10 cents per minute.
Hotels with Wi-Fi enable guests to hook into a high-speed connection in their rooms without having to plug in. The New Otani downtown, for example, offers the service for $9.95 a day.
Other hotels in the area with wireless include the Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach and the Westin Bonaventure downtown.
