Wireless Internet connection is a must have for most users these days. There are many Wi-Fi hotspots around town and most homes would have installed wireless routers. But Wi-Fi, as we now know it, does have limitations, notably a relatively short distance and speed ceilings. A new standard, 802.11n, which promises greater range and higher speed, is emerging. However, there is as yet no agreement on specifications for a common standard.

Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, has come up with two products, a Wi-Fi router and a PC card, based on 802.11n draft specifications. The WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband router and the WPC300N Wireless-N Notebook Adapter promise up to 12 times the throughput of Wireless-G and 4 times the range. Testing of this combo on a PC laptop confirms that surfing speeds are descernibly faster.

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Book Detail:

Caution! Wireless Networking
By Jack McCullogh
Published by Wiley
268 Pages

This book focuses mainly on the security issues arise with wireless networking, ranging from viruses to e-eavesdropping. Some of the threats, such as worms and hoaxes, are familiar from wired networks and are fairly easy to guard against. Others, such as drive-by downloads and sniffers, are linked to natured of wireless communications and are considerably tougher to fight.

The book offers a spectrum of defensive measures, but the main problem is that they are mainly designed for the American environment. Still, there are useful principles dicussed here, althought Asian users will have to check for system compatibility.

Thanks to dropping prices and wide-ranging abilities, printers are consuming office space at a blinding rate. No longer is it enough to have an inkjet printer to handle all the printing duties because low-cost laser and multifunction printers are now too tempting for many users to pass up. But where to put them all and how to handle their complex configuration often leaves many questions unanswered.

D-Link has an answer to these questions in the form of its DPR-1260 RangeBooster G Multifunction Print Server. This wireless device lets you share up to four printers or multifunction devices, which means you can place your printers wherever you like and not worry about running cables to connect your computers to them. Better yet, you no longer need to run a host PC in order to print from other networked PCs.

The DPR-1260 came with impressed with the server’s ability to make our life with printers far simpler. For the initial configuration, we connected the server to local wireless router using an Ethernet cable, plugged in the external power supply, and connected our multifunction printer to one of four USB ports on the device’s rear panel. From here, we easily configured the server using D-Link’s setup wizard.

After the installation, not only could we print wirelessly, but we also used a Web-based interface to scan documents and photos directly to our computer. If you have multiple printers or a printer that’s remotely located in your home or office, the DPR-1260 provides an instant remedy for those printerrelated headaches.

It’s a surfboard. With a built-in laptop. No, you’re not hallucinating, it’s really happened. And it’s called the Intel Wireless Technology Surfboard and as PR stunts go, it must rank among the oddest, surely. Built by North Devon board shaper Jools Matthews and demonstrated by pro surfer Duncan Scott, the board was commissioned by Intel to showcase at the North Devon Intel GoldCoast Oceanfest. Duncan can surf the net while travelling out to the swell via a wireless hotspot on the beach, although we reckon typing in a web address might be slightly more problematic. A bonkers idea certainly, but there’s no denying it’s one that holds a certain novelty value.

Three components :- range, reliability, and speed, help to determine the quality of a wireless network link. Although today’s wireless standards call for a maximum throughput speed of 54Mbps, actual network configurations rarely reach that speed. In traditional networks (that don’t use MIMO), each of the three components strongly affects the others; for example, manufacturers have to reduce range and reliability to increase a network’s speed, reduce speed and range to increase reliability, and so forth.

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The promise of improved performance and speed from the next generation of Wi-Fi, 802.11n, eventually should be an incredible benefit to home and business wireless network users. The speed of 802.11n will make current wireless networking standards seem as though they’re working through a strong headwind. 802.11n will be key in developing home networks, such as allowing for the sharing of high-def files among components on the network.

There’s much to like about 802.11n, other than one problem: the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) may not ratify the final specification until the second half of 2007. Until then, those wanting 802.11n have two choices: 1) Wait 2) Purchase “pre-standard” equipment, gain some of the benefits of 802.11n now, and hope that the hardware will still work with the final standard.

It’s your standard risk-reward question: Is the risk of whether the new technology will work as expected in the future worth the reward of spending money on it now?

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