Unwiring Your World: a Wi-Fi Primer

Everyone who's ever tripped over the wires from their computer can regard the advent of Wi-Fi with pleasure.

Wi-Fi, shorthand for the technology used in wireless local area networks, lets you unhook your PC from wires and surf the Internet from the seductive depths of the living room couch. As a consumer technology, it has much to recommend it: The networks are speedy and relatively easy to set up, and it's getting easier all the time to hook up to wireless networks at hot spots away from home.

Best of all, Wi-Fi doesn't demand a big cash outlay. In fact, the same convergence of competitive forces that have made life tough for small-fry WLAN-chip outfits have been a boon for consumers. As Intel(INTC Quote - Cramer on INTC - Stock Picks) and Texas Instruments(TXN Quote - Cramer on TXN - Stock Picks) have begun muscling their way into the arena, expect prices to keep dropping, further boosting Wi-Fi's popularity.

At the low end, Dell(DELL Quote - Cramer on DELL - Stock Picks) hawks a Centrino laptop for a mere $999 after rebate. By the end of this year, it aims to include Wi-Fi as a standard feature on all its corporate laptops.

By the close of 2004, IDC predicts two-thirds of all notebook PCs are likely to be tricked out with Wi-Fi capabilities, up from an estimated 42% by the end of this year.

Do-It-Yourself WLAN

You don't need to invest much time and money to set up a wireless network. If you already own a wireless-enabled laptop, you need to install an access point in the form of a router to get the network running. The router, which connects to your cable or DSL modem, transmits and receives signals from your computer. You can buy one for around $60 or $70 from the likes of Linksys and Netgear.

To outfit older hardware to become Wi-Fi capable, you'll need to buy both the access point and a WLAN card, available for around $40 or $50. Expect to set up a wireless network in your house for not much more than $100, around half the cost of a couple years ago. The process should take from a half-hour to a few hours, depending on your computer savvy and how old your computer is.

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