Posted on: Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Setting up home wi-fi is affordable, but not easy
By May Wong
Associated Press
After a hard day's work as a grocery store manager, the toughest decision Joe Swantack has to make is where he'll relax while surfing the Internet.
On his rear deck, where he can admire his water garden and butterfly bushes? By the fireplace? Or should he open his laptop in the hubbub of his kitchen, where he can keep an eye on his three kids?
No longer confined to the desktop computer in the basement of his home in Perrysburg, Ohio, Swantack is enjoying newfound freedom. And he's not alone. After big price drops, the market for wireless home networking products is sizzling.
The average price of a wireless home "access point" dropped from $140 in 2002 to $88 in recent months, and is expected to fall to about $60 next year. Even discount retailer Wal-Mart sells the gear that once belonged only to the technophile.
But uninitiated computer users hoping to go wireless this holiday season should be aware that setting up an untethered network — like many computer-related upgrades — may not be tangle-proof.
Wireless networking, or wi-fi, allows users to link multiple computers or other devices, such as printers, to each other and to the Internet without cables.
It works like a cordless phone setup. The base station your computer network needs is known as an access point, or gateway, that plugs into your cable or DSL modem and transmits data via radio signals.
The most common access-point devices also contain routers, which allow multiple computers to share an Internet connection. Without a router, a gateway can send wireless Internet access to only one computer.
Each device on the wireless network needs to be able to receive the signals, with the attachment of special wi-fi cards or adapters. Many new laptops include wireless capabilities as a standard.
If any installation problems arise, they usually involve getting the devices to communicate. The newest computer operating systems — Windows XP and Mac OS X — have made the configuration process simpler, but the industry is far from being able to say most setups occur without a hitch, said Craig Mathias, a wireless industry analyst with the Farpoint Group.
Users can find themselves trapped in a jumble of unfamiliar computer and radio networking lingo. Product manuals can be confusing, and even people who pride themselves as tech-savvy have issued online pleas for help.
Swantack remembers the agony that preceded his wireless joy.
"It's not nearly as trouble-free as oftentimes it's touted," Swantack said. "I thought you'd plug it in and turn it on and it would work, but it was more complicated than that."
Too proud to ask for sales help at Best Buy, Swantack purchased only an access point, not knowing he needed a router to network multiple computers. He returned to the store to get the router.
He was stuck again after setting it up. After frustrating hours of fiddling, he finally called his cable provider. A service representative walked him through the process over the phone and got the wireless network, including his printer, working as it should.
Interest in wireless home networking has soared, now that a third of the nation's households are equipped with more than one computer and high-speed broadband Internet access. (A dial-up connection is comparatively slow, and would be painstakingly slower if Web access had to be shared across a home network.)
Worldwide, shipments of home wi-fi equipment are expected to more than double, to 8 million units this year, from 3 million last year, according to market research firm In-Stat/MDR.
"It used to be a weird technology, but now it's commoditized," said In-Stat/MDR analyst Gemma Paulo.
Wireless technology will be all the more important as consumers look to move all kinds of digital data, from music to video, to various gadgets around the home. Some wireless media adapters now let users take songs or photos stored on their computers and play them on TVs and stereo systems. And wi-fi Web cameras can wirelessly transmit images to Web browsers or computer hard drives.
Wireless "bridge" devices are available for the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 game consoles, so users can connect to home networks for online gaming.
Despite installation hiccups, many agree that going wireless is easier than the alternative — running cables from room to room.
"I dreaded the thought of putting holes in those beautifully painted walls," Swantack said. "And I was happy there was this new technology so we wouldn't have to."
