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 A Closer Look WiFi's Widening World
Special to The Washington Post Sunday, December 22, 2002; Page H07
WiFi has been the buzz this holiday season, and this trend in computer fashion makes a lot of sense. "WiFi" is the consumer-friendly label for a standard called IEEE 802.11b. A WiFi network links computers via 2.4-gigahertz radio, using receivers -- gadgets that plug into PCs via internal PCI or PC Card slots or external USB ports -- and base stations, stand-alone boxes that broadcast a network signal. This connection runs at speeds of up to 11 million bits per second (Mbps) and at distances of up to 150 feet or so. With it, a student can get on the Web by opening a laptop in a WiFi-enabled coffee shop, and a multiple-PC family can share files and Internet access without running wires through walls. The appeal of Internet access out of thin air is easy to explain; as a result, sales of WiFi chipsets this year should jump more than 290 percent from last year, the Aberdeen Group estimates. A basic WiFi home network need not be expensive. Base stations cost about $100, receivers about $50, and you can mix and match different companies' products to suit your budget. Properly made WiFi hardware works together regardless of manufacturer or operating system. That's the upside of WiFi. But for all that it does well, this technology also suffers some notable faults that buyers should be wary of. The first is ease of setup, something that varies wildly from vendor to vendor. Rely on friends' recommendations before paying any heed to the promotional chatter on the box. Apple Computer Inc.'s AirPort system is well designed and easy to set up (though expensive), and Microsoft Corp.'s recent line of WiFi products has earned praise as well. The second, more critical WiFi flaw is security. Its WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption, is, in a word, terrible -- and most WiFi systems ship with WEP turned off, leaving the data stream totally unprotected. I would sooner discuss my salary, tax return or sex life on a cellular phone in a crowded restaurant than transmit that data over a WiFi network. The third is the prospect of upgrade anxiety. Two new WiFi standards will offer both faster connections and compatibility issues. Both 802.11a and 802.11g offer much higher speeds, up to a theoretical maximum of 54 Mbps, enough to stream high-quality video. 802.11a has a head start in the market, is faster overall and offers greater capacity, but has half the range of regular WiFi. And its use of the 5GHz frequency shuts out current WiFi hardware. 802.11g, just emerging from the standards-setting process, doesn't sacrifice much range or compatibility (some 802.11b equipment may be upgradeable to 802.11g) but is stuck in the same crowded band as WiFi, often cluttered with noise from cordless phones and microwave ovens. Chipmakers are developing dual-band 802.11 chipsets, fluent in all WiFi dialects. But this hardware won't hit shelves until the spring and for a while will cost much more than current, monolingual devices. That may be enough to convince many buyers who don't actually need the faster speed of 802.11a or g to stick with today's WiFi. Of far greater immediate importance is security. A temporary fix for WiFi's leaky security will come within six months in the form of WPA (WiFi Protected Access), which will offer substantially better encryption. It should be available as a downloadable update for existing products, and it wouldn't hurt to ask vendors about their WPA plans now. Further down the road, a more robust solution is promised in the form of yet another alphanumeric specification, 802.11i. This is due at the end of 2003, with hardware supporting it available soon after -- but you probably won't be able to upgrade the receivers and base stations of today. In case you aren't sufficiently confused, you can also look for 802.11e (built for reliability delivering real-time multimedia) and 802.11h (which will cope with European restrictions on 5GHz wireless use). But that's all in the future. Should you install a WiFi home network today? Sure, unless you'll be moving data over it that you wouldn't want to find written on the bathroom wall in the café down the street. If you think you'd like higher speeds, waiting a few months -- say, until summer -- should give you more secure choices.
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