Newsletter #77 Wi-Fi, Why Not?

Created on 16/04/03

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The last newsletter (14th March, 2003) was "Saving Private Hollywood" and was extremely well received - thanks to all those who responded.

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So what is Wi-Fi?
It is a standard for consumer wireless networking and otherwise known as IEEE 802.11. According to On World, 15.8 million Wi-Fi devices were shipped in 2002 making it one of the fastest growing electronic technologies of all time.

What makes Wi-Fi so interesting? Wi-Fi is cheap, powerful, and most importantly, it works. A small router box distributes wireless broadband Internet to an area with a radius of around 100 metres (300 feet). A card no larger than a matchbook receives it - the next laptop you buy will probably have Wi-Fi already built in. Although most of the nearly 16 million units have been sold in the SOHO and home market, as consumers look to distribute broadband connections throughout a home, there are a number of innovations and projects happening that will continue to drive the take-up of the technology.

Already there were around 3,700 for-pay Wi-Fi "hot spots" in the United States by the end of 2002, 2,600 of them in coffee shops, according to market research firm In-Stat/MDR. This number is expected to explode to 10,000 by the end of 2003. These "hot spots" allow anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled device to access broadband Internet if they are in range.

There are other ad hoc community nets, such as apartment owners using Wi-Fi to share a broadband connection. Tens of thousands more are accidental, leaking out of private homes or offices and often free for passers by to hitchhike on. With prices for Wi-Fi equipment continuing to drop, the scattering of Wi-Fi dots on city maps are growing more dense with every passing week.

According to Business 2.0, Tim Pozar of the Bay Area Wireless Users Group has begun an ambitious plan to install high-speed wireless access points on the peaks of San Francisco's hills. Under Pozar's plan, anyone with a directional antenna (a surplus satellite dish or even a modified Pringles can will do the trick) would be able to aim it at the nearest hilltop and connect to the Web for free.

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However, this wireless networking standard still has a couple of hurdles to clear, imperfect security and the technology's relatively short range, before it can achieve its potential as a mainstream technology.

Some of this hurdle clearing may lie with firms like San Francisco-based Vivato. This company is developing Wi-Fi switches that increase the range and security of Wi-Fi networking technology. Business 2.0 again "Using specialized antennas, intelligent signal-processing technology, and a series of complex mathematical algorithms, Vivato engineers have developed Wi-Fi switches that improve Wi-Fi's range by delivering data access in highly focused, direct beams of information." Transmitting in this fashion can increase the range in excess of several kilometers, according to Vivato CEO Ken Biba.

One of the fascinating aspects of Wi-Fi is that it has been consumer driven, an inversion of the usual adoption cycle where large companies build an infrastructure and then persuade consumers on board. This is one of the reasons why Wi-Fi has the potential to be a hugely disruptive technology, subverting the plans of telecommunications, consumer electronics and other companies who have not included it within their strategies.

So how could Wi-Fi change the world?

1. By becoming the universal standard within the electronics world allowing data to be transferred wirelessly and quickly between all forms of consumer electronic devices such as computers, cellphones, PDAs, digital cameras, DVD players and even videogame consoles. Wi-Fi has the potential to fulfil Bill Gates' dream of the PC being the central information server and hub of every household.
2. Wi-Fi, especially in higher-speed incarnations, can transmit voice as well as any cordless phone, and because calls travel over the Internet rather than over a phone network, they are far cheaper. Voice over IP growth will be greatly accelerated by Wi-Fi, creating even more headaches for those telecommunications companies with wire networks and even those with wireless ones. Already several companies are planning to add Wi-Fi to cell phones, allowing users to make calls over the Internet when in Wi-Fi range.
3. By crossing the broadband "last mile". Wi-Fi devices mounted on lampposts or telephone poles, with directional antennas to extend their range and avoid congestion, could provide real competition to telecommunications and cable companies. The economies of scale of a truly mainstream technology should make it far cheaper than other wireless options.

Wi-Fi has the potential to make broadband Internet access truly ubiquitous and to drive the development of new products and services like few technologies before it.

Then the only thing you'll need wires for is power.

Newbies

There are several ways to enter addresses into your Outlook Express Address Book. First, you can simply run Outlook Express and click the Address Book icon. When the Address Book opens, you can add or delete names. To add quickly a new address to the Address Book, you can right-click a message in the message body window and then select Add to Address Book. Yet another way is to set it up so that anyone you reply to is automatically added - go "Tools", "Options" and make sure the "Send" tab is selected, tick the box next to "Automatically put people I reply to in my Address Book", then click "OK" to finish.

For previous tips visit the Newbie Hot Tips page.

Power Users

A cool but fairly geeky thing to do is to change the Windows sounds for program events, like new mail notification. My Fave Wavs has a good range of sounds including Email Wavs. Once you've selected the one(s) you like go (instructions are for Win XP, but similar for other OSs) "Start", "Settings", "Control Panel", "Sounds and Audio Devices" and make sure the "Sounds" tab is selected. Then it's just a matter of selecting the sounds you want against the "Program Events" in the window. My mail notification is now Mike Myers as Austin Powers, "You've got mail baby, yeah!" :-)

For previous tips visit the Power Hot Tips page.

Another great Google enhancement, the Google Viewer displays the pages found as a result of your Google search as a continuous scrolling slide show. You can view your search results without using your keyboard or mouse and you can adjust the speed with which the images move across your screen. Each image of a page's contents is accompanied by a short "snippet" describing that page. No download required, just access it here.

If you subscribe to Popped Clogs they'll send you an email every time someone famous kicks the bucket (dies). Some people will find it bad taste, but personally I think it's quite clever! On the front page currently there is a quote from Mark Twain: " I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it", and under a "Coming Soon" headline: The Pope, Bob Hope and Bono!

We've added a great new article to our site called "Link Popularity - The 'Other' Business Benefits" which sets out why you should work hard at this part of your online strategy - worth a read.

To search through all the articles in our online database use the search function on any page of our Website.

"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea." Alain

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page of www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

To access previous newsletters visit our newsletter archive.

If you are reading this on the Web and want to subscribe, just visit this page..

Best wishes

Alex Garden

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