Buyers' Guide to Home Networking Gear

In general, a wireless home network offers more convenience than wired ones: You don't need to install cables, and notebook users can roam untethered. But wired networks are more secure and reliable, and using existing home wiring--either phone lines (HomePNA) or electrical wiring (HomePlug)--eliminates the expense and hassle of installing new cables. Combining elements of both types of networks is easy if you plan ahead.

Prices for networking gear based on the popular 11-megabits-per-second 802.11b (or Wi-Fi) wireless standard have plummeted in the past year, and Wi-Fi's 54-mbps sibling, 802.11a (Wi-Fi5), has arrived. On the wired side, the long-awaited HomePlug standard--which transfers data over existing electrical lines--has debuted, and 1-gigabit-per-second (1000-mbps) ethernet is starting to appear on desktops. As is usual with new technologies, initial prices for Wi-Fi5, HomePlug, and (especially) gigabit-ethernet products have been high. Expect price reductions as more vendors offer these products.

Also new: wireless access points (bridges that connect wireless networks to wired ones) that can communicate with both Wi-Fi5 and Wi-Fi adapters. Such products will appeal primarily to businesses that want to migrate to Wi-Fi5 without either stranding legacy 802.11b users or having to install two access points to serve the two camps. Even more recently, D-Link, U.S. Robotics, and other vendors have introduced so-called 802.11b-plus products based on a new Texas Instruments chip designed to improve network performance while maintaining compatibility with conventional Wi-Fi equipment. Our informal tests show that these products can boost speeds by up to 50 percent--but the increase is largely lost if even one conventional Wi-Fi adapter is on the network. We look at 802.11b-plus products in this month's "Double Wi-Fi Network Speeds?", and we review a network capable of supporting both 802.11a and 802.11b equipment in "Two Wireless Nets, One Box".

PC World Spotlight on Wi-Fi Routers (chart)