Several years ago, while Microsoft and Intel were still trumpeting their “groundbreaking” home-network-through-the-electrical outlets and phone lines technologies, Apple Computer was doing what they do best – innovating. They developed, using the 802.11b wireless communication protocol, what they called “Airport”. 802.11b operates at frequencies above your cell phone and wireless home phone, and is basically free and unregulated by the FCC.

The Airport concept is simple – an Airport Base Station (essentially a network router and an antenna) connects to your home (dial-up, cable modem or DSL) internet service, and broadcasts it to other computers that have an Airport receiver and antenna. Besides sharing internet connections, you can also share files, just like a hard-wired Ethernet network. Airport reception is good to 150 feet and delivers 11 megabits per second (about 10 times faster than downloading from a fast cable modem) – more than enough for high speed browsing, downloading and file transfers. Although you can set up Airport networks among stationary desktop machines, the system is ideal for laptops. You can find the most comfortable spot in the house and knock out those emails or search eBay for your next trinket.

802.11b became the industry standard in wireless networking, but 802.11b doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, so wireless networking has become known as WiFi (for wireless fidelity). Since Apple introduced Airport, the whole WiFi market has exploded.

The logical extension of this technology, especially with the advent of full-featured PDAs as well as laptops, is putting WiFi access in public places, now known in the lexicon as “hot spots”. Because someone has to pay to provide the bandwidth and hardware, most coffee shops, internet cafes, and airports (the kinds with planes) have some kind of commercial service (meaning, of course, you pay for the access). The idea that free WiFi access would bring people in to drink lots of lattes just didn’t float. Plus, with computer geeks being generally resourceful folks and the range of the WiFi antenna easily reaching across the city street, surfers could access from outside. In fact, a new kind of high-tech “scavenger hunt” has emerged – roaming around trying to find hot spots that are either free or “hackable”.

For the serious business “road warrior”, the proliferation of WiFi is a blessing. No more crowding around that pay phone in the airport, precariously balancing the laptop on one knee, hoping the modem cable will reach, just to check your email. If you’re going on a trip and want to see what’s available at your destination, check out http://www.80211hotspots.com/. Hotels, where hard-wire broadband connections have long been available, are starting to offer hot spots in their meeting and guest rooms as well.

Where’s WiFi headed? To a faster, longer-range standard, of course - 802.11g, with 54 megabits per second (yes, that’s five times as fast as 802.11b) and extended range. Of course, these improvements only come with communication between two 802.11g stations. The good news is: 802.11g is completely backwards-compatible with 802.11b, so you’ll still be able to access the thousands of 802.11b hot spots, albeit at the host’s speed and range.

Apple, again at the forefront, has implemented 802.11g in what they call “Airport Extreme”, which in addition to the increased speed and range, includes AOL support, tighter security features and built-in firewall, bridging of base stations to widen the range, USB printer sharing through a direct connection from the base station, and the ability to phone home from the road into your network to retrieve those files you forgot to bring with you.

So get that laptop, find a comfy chair, and start exploring the web without wires.

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski