[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.

[LarryM]

I have it at home. Works great. Range can be somewhat limited in built-up areas.

[Bush2000]

They are ready for prime time; however, if you're going to do it, don't skimp on the most important pieces: access points (APs) and wireless network interface cards (NICs). I use nothing but commercial-grade Cisco APs and NICs in my house (Aironet 340). Why? You're paying for (a) bandwidth, (b) reliability, and (c) scalability. Aironet APs will handle somewhere around 400 to 500 simultaneous stateful connections (NAT). That's more than I will ever use in my house -- and the bandwidth (10Mbps) is good enough to do streaming video anywhere in range. You'd be surprised at how inexpensive it is. APs are about $500 and NICs cost about $180 each. Not bad.

Just one thing: Make sure that you use a distinct SSID (don't use the default) and turn on 128-bit Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP). It's a minor pain to setup but there have been recent articles outlining how easy it is for hackers (or even just plain snoops) to connect to unsecured APs. WEP provides some small measure of security. And to put it another way: If you choose not to use WEP, you might as well run an Ethernet cable from your router out to the street and put a sign labeled "Free Ethernet Network" out there.

[Scutter]

The technology is quite mature. I waited for it to mature before I bought. I've been using a Netgear Access Point for about 6 months now. It works great.

Several of my friends have Linksys units that they like. The features and price of both units are similar, however, the Netgear beats the Linksys unit when it comes to signal strength.

If you want reviews of wireless cards and access points, and tips on how to get the most out of it, check out Practically Networked

[bobwoodard]

I use it here in the apt and it work like a charm. Only 10mb/s compared to 100mb/s, but for just casual use there hasn't been a problem. A friend had troubles though when he tried to mix and match brands between the network access (broadcast) point and the wireless cards.

[BraveMan]

Posting this from a laptop, on the back porch, sipping a cold one while Blues streams in from a Shoutcast station through a broadband connection. No cables; life is good . . .

It's almost ready for prime time. $150 worth of hardware and a little fiddling around, and you're good to go. If I had WinXP on everything, it would have been painless . . .

[Centurion2000]

But I went to Fry's and noticed a preponderance of 802.11b access points and interface cards with return stickers.

You're first problem is that you went to Fry's. They suck.

802.11b is not bad at all and it's pretty easy to install. Just be sure to encrypt your IP traffic as the signals have been known to bleed beyond the walls. I've seen laptops setup with DHCP and wireless cards pick up logon prompts in financial companies parking lots. Not good.

[dinodino]

I'm posting this from my Sony laptop connected via a wireless Linksys ethernet card. I have a Linksys access point in the computer room and this thing works great. I can even sit on the deck out back and surf the Web.