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Wireless Home LANs Get Cheaper

Heavy hitters endorse HomeRF group's 10-mbps standard, which could cost just $100 per connection.

Lincoln Spector, special to PC World

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To network home computers, you must either crawl under the house installing wires, settle for very slow performance, or pay a lot of money for quality devices (or for someone else to crawl under the house). But a better option could be on the horizon.

Seven network vendors are announcing Monday that they will ship compatible wireless home networking products in the first quarter of 2000, and prices could get as low as $100 per system.

These products--which will include network cards, wireless-ready computers, and mobile services--are all based on the HomeRF Working Group's Shared Wireless Access Protocol (SWAP). The seven companies announcing HomeRF products are Cayman, Compaq, IBM, Intel, Mobilestar, Motorola, and Proxim. We're not talking bit players, here.

Performance has always been an issue with wireless networks, especially inexpensive ones. SWAP offers a respectable 1.6-megabit-per-second throughput. If you need a network to share fast Internet access, this should be enough; neither cable nor most home Digital Subscriber Line setups get anywhere near that fast. On the other hand, if you're trying to do two things at once--say, access the Web while printing a complex document--1.6 mbps could get slow.

A faster version, called Wideband, is expected to be available in new products late next year. It's based on proposed FCC changes that will allow wireless networks to increase their bandwidth, and HomeRF believes that Wideband will yield a whopping 10-mbps data rate. That means support for multiple voice channels, CD-quality audio, up to three MP3 streams, and decent video, at least if you're not hoping for DVD quality.

Of course, 10 mbps has already been surpassed by another wireless standard, 802.11b. Its 11-mbps data rate leaves the initial HomeRF offerings in the dust. Common wisdom states that 802.11b is inherently more expensive than HomeRF, and can't compete for the home market. But common wisdom can be proved wrong. At least one major network player, 3Com, is planning to release an inexpensive 802.11b-based home network kit in the near future, although the company would not commit to details.

We don't yet know whether SWAP or low-price 802.11b will be the better. Either way, you won't have to rewire your home.

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