[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I'm considering adding it here at home, where getting broadband to my sons' rooms upstairs would otherwise involve a big carpentry job.

But I went to Fry's and noticed a preponderance of 802.11b access points and interface cards with return stickers. That tells me these products disappointed many of their buyers. Are they really ready for prime-time?

Incidentally, it seemed that the NetGear stuff had the fewest returned units.

Browsing Fry's shelves for return stickers doesn't constitute a scientific consumer-satisfaction study, but it's been illustrative in the past.

[blackbart1]

Sounds great but I wonder if it will work for those of us out in the country. We live out in the High Desert. Could it be? Please let it be.

[HeadOn]

Yep. 802.11b is "it" lately. I work for a big corporation and we have lots of little technical devices, both in our facilities, and out in the field with guys who are all over the place, every day.

"Bluetooth" is the trade name of the wireless devices we are specifying. Our offices have nodes in the ceiling for roaming around with laptops or palms, and our field guys use the wireless for communicating between devices. Short range only, though. Not sure how much it would help with cell-phone or internet type applications. Strictly LAN right now.

[Dinsdale]

Whatever you do, don't use this to share a broadband connection with 3 or four neighbors. That would be wrong. ;-)

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

802.11b or WiFi is more or less to computing networks as cordless phones are to regular phones. My point being that just because we have cordless phones in our homes doesn't mean our need for cell phones go away. Sure, there will (eventually) by "hotspots" in airports, starbucks, University Campuses, Coporate Campuses, but I don't think this will replace 2.5G and 3G data services.

[Lancey Howard]

Great post.
Excuse me if I am going a little "off topic" or outside normal protocol in some way, but there seems to be an interesting investment possibility in here somewhere.
Can you name a few firms (publicly traded) which are at the forefront of "wi-fi" technology and seem to be in this for the long run?
Is it already too late to get in at the ground floor?
Any good opportunities with "parallel" industries, and if so, do you know what would they be?
Thanks, and regards,
LH

[longshadow]

What I find most interesting in this discussion is what's NOT being mentioned: while the "networking" side of the system is wireless, it has to all plug into a large "pipe" to the 'net if you want internet access.

In short, it's swell to talk about WI-FI in your house, but don't expect broadband speeds to/from the 'net unless you have a T1 line or some similarly large bandwidth 'net access. That's where the costs become prohibitive (for home use).

[BellStar]

Please, have your Fire Wall and Anti Virus Software updated to thne latest version if you go Wi-Fi!

[July 4th]

If anyone here get's 802.11b for their house, please read the manual so you set the security levels properly. You want family members to access it, not the whole block.

I've actually seen a few short lists floating on the internet that tell of locations in San Francisco where ordinary home users have not secured their network. Now those people are free access points for the Bay area.

[LonePalm]

Neat, we demo'd this at a government trade show two years ago.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LoanPalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And the April 22 Businessweek has an article about a new superfast data-beaming technology is on its way!

My login is messed up so I can't put up a Link to it!

[Anoy11_]

I'm stocking up on tin foil.

[Godel]

802.11b is great for some circumstances, but be warned. WEP (wired equivalent privacy) is completely broken. There is freely available software which listens to the encrypted packets and once it gets enough of them it can crack the encryption. Do not rely solely on WEP for protecting your network.

[knews_hound]

Personally, and I speak only for myself, I would NEVER use any of these wireless products.

Call me paranoid but I am very uncomfortable usng any system that allows such easy access to my network.

It seems to me, that for the money spent on the wirelss access point, wirelsss NIC cards ect, you could spend the same amount and get a real 10/100/1000 MB connection using conventional Category 5 or 6 cabling.

I'm sure that for some instances, it is the only workable solution and 11 MB sounds like a lot. BUT.... I have been using home networks for almost 10 years, in that time I have gone from Thin Coax (<1.5 MB) to Category 6 (currently 100 MB but soon to be 1000).

It seems that bandwidth requirements expand to meet whatever you have available. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that I would have bandwidth issues running 100 MB at home but none the less it happens.

I would suggest, as someone who does this for a living, save your money on equipment and get real connections run using real cables. It does limit your options as far as locations but is worth it for not only security as well as speed and looking to the future...

Cheers,

knews hound