While you're relaxing in a shady part of the garden and the kids are doing their homework on the net, your mobile phone rings: the boss wants an amended version of your heavyweight presentation. Both the PC and the phone line are in use, but who cares? You can use your notebook computer to fetch the file, quickly change the dollar figures to euros, and send it off without even going in to the house... if you have a wireless network.
Because it's wireless, several computers can be connected without the cost of cabling and perhaps redecorating the house. And each computer can use any printer, scanner or other peripheral and share the internet connection. Not many people have wireless home networks now, but that's expected to change rapidly.
Kurt Bauer, vice president of marketing at Proxim, one of the leading suppliers, says wireless sales are "closely tied to the arrival of broadband networking". Once people get a high-speed connection, whether ISDN, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) or a cable modem, they want to share it. "Wireless is a great way to do it."
It's not the cheapest way, but it is convenient and easy to set up. Bauer claims "it only takes 10 mouse-clicks - mostly yes/no questions - and you're up and running."
Wireless home networks have started to take off in the US, where the suppliers include Apple, Cisco, Intel, Proxim, Zoom Telephonics and 3Com. In the UK, Apple started shipping its Airport system at the end of January, while Elsa, a German company, has just started selling the AirLancer range for PCs. Some computer manufacturers already offer Proxim's Symphony products, and Bauer says they'll reach the high street later this year. Intel's AnyPoint system is already in US stores and could reach the UK next year.
Both Cisco and 3Com are selling wireless networks to businesses and could target home users later. Cisco's Ian Milne, former managing director of Aironet Europe, a company Cisco bought in March, says: "Cisco will certainly be in that space: it's an obvious market to go to."
Another reason why wireless networking has started to become more attractive is the growing support for the HomeRF (radio frequency) Working Group standard, which is backed by almost a hundred suppliers. There is also the arrival of high speed 11Mbps wireless connections based on a new Ethernet networking standard, 802.11b.
Apple's Airport (developed by Lucent), Elsa's AirLancer and 3Com's AirConnect are among the products based on the new standard.
Proxim's Symphony range isn't yet HomeRF compliant (it has other models that are) and still runs at 1.6Mbps speed. But Bauer argues that "speed is less important when people are used to dial-up connections, and Symphony is more than adequate. What's more important is the 'out of the box' experience, the ease of use." But Proxim expects to get regulatory approval to run its system at 10Mbps later, while retaining support for voice, which 802.11b lacks. Proxim's vision is for one home network that supports everything, and it is working with Siemens to integrate DECT telephony.
Although 1.6Mbps is very slow for an Ethernet network connection, it's still almost 30 times faster than a 56K modem. However, no Ethernet network ever runs at its theoretical maximum speed, and wireless network efficiency will vary with distance and the number of walls in the way. An 11Mbps connection will probably work at about half that speed and may fall back to 2Mbps or even 1Mbps. But if this sounds pessimistic, in tests using Proxim's Symphony equipment, we were able to work more than 200ft from the house and still connect a laptop to the internet via the home network.
Installing a wireless (or any other) network usually means opening your desktop PC to plug in an expansion card, though with notebook PCs and smaller machines, it's simply a matter of inserting a PC/ PCMCIA Card. Intel's AnyPoint range is different because it uses a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector: plug in the external box and you have a 1.6Mbps wireless network. Access Points - base stations or hubs - may also be added to manage the communications on a wireless network and to connect networks together.
Most wireless products will work with whatever internet connection you have, whether it's an ISDN card, DSL or just a dial-up modem. In other words, if you invest in a wireless network - and they're not cheap - it won't become obsolete when you get a faster internet connection.
Microsoft Windows CE machines and PocketPCs have wireless networking capabilities built in. Some handhelds simply can't be connected into wireless PC networks, but later they may be able to connect to mobile phones and other devices using Bluetooth, a short-range wireless system that uses the same 2.54GHz waveband.
Bluetooth isn't a networking standard in the same way as IEEE 802.11, and has been designed mainly for point-to-point communications with one device at a time. However, Bluetooth devices will be able to form "ad hoc" networks so the two systems will overlap to some extent.
Cisco's Milne reckons that the fixed channel Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum wireless technology used by Cisco/Aironet and similar products is better for the job than the frequency hopping approach adopted for Bluetooth and also used by Proxim's Symphony. Having devices hop in sync from frequency to fre quency avoids interference but reduces throughput. "Bluetooth is good for your personal area network," says Milne, "but if you need to communicate beyond that, you need to move to the next level up."
It is not clear which type of networking and which wireless standard will be the winner, if any, or whether the different wireless systems will be able to talk to one another. But markets have to start somewhere, and it's usually by offering a product that solves an immediate problem.
If you have two or more PCs or Macs, and at least one notebook computer, and want to share a high-speed internet connection, consider yourself a target.
Web addresses
HomeRF Working Group
Apple www.apple.com/uk
Elsa www.elsa.co.uk or phone 08000 563445
Proxim www.proxim.com
