The good news is that BT, after spending so long preventing users from running two broadband ADSL connections for the price of one, is falling over itself to enable you to connect up to 10 computers or laptops in your house. And all for the price of one £199 Voyager 2000 wireless (Wi-Fi) kit as long as you have a broadband subscription.
BT advertises it as a "plug and play" service. A better description would be "retrospective p&p". Once you have figured out - or, in my case, stumbled across - the reason why it was not working, then it may turn out to be p&p the next time.
Getting a wireless signal was no problem: we plugged the ethernet and phone lines into an existing broadband installation and a strong wireless signal could be received from any wireless-enabled laptop in the apartment. BT claims a 50-metre range indoors and 250m outdoors. However, a strong signal is not much good without an internet connection - and that was not happening.
The service is aimed primarily at the PC market, but the connectivity instructions for other systems looked simple enough for our Apple Mac. Several hours later, it suddenly connected to the web after we had survived a number of navigational diversions to come across a screen that gave a default login and password (rather than our BT broadband login we had been using).
That still didn't work until we experimented with both logins at different stages - then suddenly we had internet access. The helpline - at 50p a minute - was not used.
But the end was worth the effort. Getting broadband connectivity from anywhere in the house is addictive. If your laptop is on "sleep", it will start working at the touch of a key, bringing to an end the disruption caused by a few members of the household wanting to use a single connection at the same time.
Every laptop receiving signals from the base station must have a wireless card or airport card for the Mac. BT's wireless card cost £69.99 (which I had tested in an expensive Wi-Fi hotspot in a London hotel) also worked well . So did the alternative aimed at desktop computers - the BT Voyager 1010 USB adaptor.
· More from <A HREF="http://www.bt.com/homenetworking."" TARGET="_NEW">www.bt.com/homenetworking.
