"Customers who want mobility in their home network now have a "simple way to take advantage of untethered Internet and network access from their dens, patios or other locations."
Introduction
In this feature, we'll look at some of the most popular (and, in some cases, formerly popular) options available for wireless networking using unlicensed radio frequency spectrum (i.e., no monthly fees). These options include HomeRF, 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g "Wi-Fi," and a few others as well.
One of the first consumer-priced networking systems was Intel's AnyPoint home networking system. The company may have confused potential customers by offering both wired "phone line" and wireless networking products under the same brand-name banner, but, in retrospect, it's safe to say the problems went deeper than that. The version of the AnyPoint wireless network we tested was offered in versions for desktop and portable computers, as USB add-ons, internal PCI cards, or "Cardbus" PC Cards.
With one of these, and/or interoperable Symphony-HRF USB and PC Card products from Compaq, IBM and others, you can network PCs up to 150 feet apart, through walls and floors, by the magic of "HomeRF" technology, at radio signaling data speeds up to 1.6 Mbps, yielding network transfer rates of 500K - 800 K/sec. in typical applications. (A faster 10Mbps version, the company promised back in 2000, would be announced in the second half of 2001; however, this project never saw the light of day. Intel in late March 2001 further muddied the waters by revealing that its next-generation wireless efforts would be based on the competing "Wi-Fi" 802.11b standard -- in essence, admitting that HomeRF was not in its future plans.)
The AnyPoint Wireless Home Network products support up to 10 PCs or, through Proxim's Farallon subsidiary, PC Card-capable Apple PowerBooks. Although the product was originally intended as a home solution for users of Windows 98/98SE and Windows Me, Intel in early 2001 released a "beta" version of a Windows 2000 driver, and further enhanced the system's flexibility in March 2001, with the release of a Network Bridge utility that allows users with both wired and unwired networks to access both. The problem was, this bridge never really worked all that well, and the company eventually pulled it from its web site -- posting a rather lame message saying, in essence, that you shouldn't try to do this. (We did it anyway, as detailed in our article elsewhere on this site, entitled Wireless Windows XP.)
As detailed in our Home Networking Solutions feature, Intel also offers a product that uses your home's phone wires to deliver network connection speeds of up to 10 Mbps for up to 15 PCs. An Intel FAQ provides additional details on Wireless Home Networks.
Getting Unwired
PC Buyer's Guide spoke with Dan Sweeney, General Manager of Intel's Home Networking Operation, on the subject of wireless home networking products. "Customers who want mobility in their home network now have a simple way to take advantage of untethered Internet and network access from their dens, patios or other locations," he explains.
Home networking, says Sweeney, is revolutionizing family computing. By the end of 2000, an estimated 30 million U.S. households had at least two computers. That's more than double the figure from two years ago! Families, he says, are finding out that networking home computers is quickly becoming a necessity. Until now, family members accessing the Internet at the same time needed to have separate Internet connections. Now, family members can share a single Internet connection, printers and even computer games with a home network.
AnyPoint, he says, gives PC users the freedom to link up home PCs without wires. AnyPoint can network desktop computers and laptops up to 150 feet away. And you don't need to be a technology expert to install it and get it running. Anyone who has added a peripheral device to their PC, he maintains, can easily get an AnyPoint home network up and running. All AnyPoint Home Network products are compatible with both dial-up and high-speed Internet access specifications, including DSL and cable. There is, however, a catch, at least until the company releases a piece of "bridge" software around the end of the year: you can access the Internet or an existing Ethernet network, but not both at the same time. In July 2000, Sweeney said Intel's plan is to release the bridge, currently in beta testing "in six months or so."
The Intel AnyPoint units are fully interoperable with HomeRF devices such as the Compaq Symphony-HRF (AKA the iPAQ Connection Point) and the wireless module for the IBM NetVista computer (which are all based on the same Proxim-manufactured logic board). To connect a third-party device to an AnyPoint network is quite simple: you merely open the wireless setup configuration panel on the new device and change its 8-digit number to match the number of the existing group and, you're done.
Unfortunately, these new HRF compatible products are not compatible with the wide range of drivers Proxim has developed for its older OpenAir-compatible Symphony products, which are now considered the de facto standard in the healthcare industry. A wide range of operating systems are supported by OpenAir wireless products, including Windows 95, 98, NT and Windows CE. A Windows 2000 driver for the AnyPoint wireless products is now available from Intel; another is posted at the Proxim.com site in beta form and third-party drivers for Linux are also available.
Intel is also working with Farallon (now owned by Proxim, Inc, of which Intel, in turn, holds a $10 million share) and in March 2001, announced PowerBook support for HomeRF networks; support for other Macs was promised at a later date. (This never materialized, unfortunately.) Some members of Proxim's Symphony line of products for the PC are HomeRF based, although the company shipped these "Symphony-HRF" components only to OEM partners (e.g., Intel and Compaq).
Even after Intel bailed on HRF, Proxim kept at it. In 2000, it released a statement saying Intel's move to the 802.11b "Wi-Fi" standard wouldn't change its product plans for HomeRF support on the Mac, which included plans to release products based on the the faster 10Mbps HomeRF standard, expected to be approved by the FCC in March 2001. Unfortunately, this ended up being little more than brave talk. These products never appeared, either.
Intel in Nov., 2000, released a beta driver for the USB and PC Card Anypoint wireless products that provided basic support for Windows 2000 (sans network switching facilities); an update released in mid-2001 (and still available at www.intel.com/anypoint/support) finally provided full support for Windows 2000 -- but by that time, the writing was on the wall. The driver was not compatible with Windows XP, and Intel wasn't even willing to say whether XP would ever be supported by a future software release. (It was, eventually, by a driver released in Nov. 2001.)
A free software upgrade released in August 2001 for Windows 95/98/98SE and Millennium Edition users enhanced the system with several new features, including basic firewall capabilities (based on Black Ice, minus that product's intrusion detection features); parental control facilities; an integrated, network-savvy MP3 jukebox from MusicMatch, intercom software (also available separately as a free download) and a multiplayer racing car game. Apparently, Intel was hoping that better software bundle would spur sales.
We found that the performance of the Internet Sharing Connection feature seemed to be a little lower than that of the Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature in Windows 98SE and Windows Me. Fortunately, you are able to choose ICS if you have it as part of your OS. We were also able to use third-party Internet Security software in lieu of, or in addition to, the BlackICE-based firewall service provided by the AnyPoint 2.0 software release.
In our tests, this 2.0.01 software revision reduced (but, alas, failed to completely eliminate) occurrences of the USB adapter not being correctly recognized after a reboot. We, like nearly every other user of Intel's AnyPoint wireless system, eventually just gave up on it.
Other Products
As HRF was faltering, another wireless standard known as IEEE 802.11b was just starting to gain widespread popularity. Used in a business-oriented (read: more expensive and faster) line of products announced by Intel in June, 2000 as well as products such as Apple's AirPort and various products by Lucent Technologies and numerous other manufacturers, it is unfortunately not interoperable with HomeRF, despite the fact that both technologies use the 2.4 GHz band for their communications. Back in 2000, Intel tried to put a positive spin on their product, saying HomeRF technology was specifically developed for the consumer around ease of use, convenience, price, and performance. That was their way of defending the inescapable fact that HomeRF was much slower than 802.11b's 11-Mbps top speed. (Of course, as with HomeRF, the 802.11b standard's theoretical top speed is virtually never achieved in real-world use. In practical tests, you will probably find that 802.11b-based systems deliver sustained throughput rates around 5Mbps.)
Despite 802.11b's obvious advantages and faltering support for HomeRF from early proponents (including Intel), industry pundits including Electronic Buyers' News in late 2000 claimed "HomeRF is not expected to disappear anytime soon." It did. The HomeRF Working Group in Jan. 2003 said will no longer be developing its wireless networking specification, although university partners may continue the work. Read more....
Although Apple's AirPort is designed for Macs, it is possible, with the help of Rop Gonggrijp's FreeBase, a free Windows application, to configure the AirPort base station from a PC. There's also a Java-based AirPort configurator. There are a few caveats, however. Microsoft is moving Windows to a base standard of 128-bit encryption in products such as Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 and newer releases. Because Apple's AirPort 1.0 is hard-wired for 40-bit encryption, there may be problems in some cross-platform networking attempts. This issue was resolved with the release of Apple's AirPort Base Station 2.0 and 128-bit compatible AirPort cards in 2001; in Jan. 2003, Apple announced AirPort Extreme, a faster Wi-Fi implementation based on a draft of the (currently unratified) 802.11g spec. Intel, Nokia, Proxim and others followed in April 2003 with an announcement of support of the nascent WiMax spec, promising speeds up to 70Mbps.
A Lucent-developed product known as WaveLAN Silver provides similar functionality to AirPort on Windows PCs. MacInTouch notes that Lucent's Orinoco wireless product line includes the RG-1000, similar to the Apple AirPort Base Station; WavePoint-II, which can bridge between wired Ethernet networks but requires Windows software; PCI adapters for desktop PCs; and PC Cards, which also work with Apple's AirPort software (which in turn requires Mac OS 9 for PowerBooks).
Farallon (now owned by Proxim, Inc, which is partly owned by Intel), meanwhile, offers a US$199 AirPort-compatible wireless PC Card for laptops called 11Mb SkyLINE.
Dell offers a wireless networking card that is IEEE 802.11b (and thus Apple AirPort)-compatible. Made by AiroNet, it's a bit cheaper than some competing products: US$139 for the PC Card, US$179 for the PCI version.
There are also other IEEE 802.11b-compatible products from vendors like Nokia, Maxtech and others. There are other 802.11 variants offering higher performance, as well, and new specifications on the horizon. See part 2 of this feature for more details.
For Further Reading:
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