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Ancestry Daily News
6/27/2002 - Archive
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Rootsworks: Wireless Home Computer Networks |
Rootsworks: Wireless Home Computer Networks
Books, magazines, and newspapers are so portable. You can read them
in just about any chair in your house. If the weather is nice, you can even
read outdoors. Books are also very versatile in the respect that they can cover
any topic that you can describe with words and pictures - history, genealogy,
current news, sports, and science fiction.
A computer is not so portable. You can only read the computer screen in the
chair that's in front of the screen. A laptop is more portable, but you still
have to have the power cable and the network cable to connect to the world.
You can read it in any chair that the cables will reach, assuming that you have
your wife's permission. And a computer is more flexible than a book in one important
way - it can change stories. To paraphrase an old TV show, "There are a million
stories in the naked city computer, and the naked city book only has one of
them."
Imagine owning a book that could be about anything you wanted to read about.
You could learn about anything you are curious about, to the limits of human
knowledge, sitting in any chair in your house or even out in the yard, assuming
that you get out there and cut the weeds down a bit first. Well, that day is
here, and it's a hot one. If you have a laptop connected to a wireless home
network (WHN), you will be holding in your hands a miraculous fountain of information,
and you will be free to read it anywhere that you like.
What Is It?
In a recent article on home networking, I said, "I like to think of the basic
approach as connecting two Dixie cups with a piece of string." With WHN, the
string is replaced with radio signals. It's new and cool and confusing as can
be. For example, you have two devices, called a transmitter and a receiver,
but they both transmit and they both receive and they do it like crazy, thousands
of times a second.
Whereas your typical network setup calls for a network adapter in your computer,
in this case your network adapter is also a radio. They come in a variety of
flavors and prices. And instead of a hub, you have a "base station," also known
as an "access point." Most of the wireless gear that you can buy today allows
you to mix wired and wireless networks. This makes sense - I'm not sure why
I'd put a wireless connector into a desktop unless I just couldn't get permission
to run the wires all over the floor the way I like.
Name Two of Them
There are three wireless networking protocols. I think that a committee
stayed up late into the night making up these unforgettable names: 802.11a,
802.11b, and 802.11g. In the beginning, was 802.11a. It was really cool on paper
but no one knew how to make products that worked with it. So, most early manufacturers
made and sold products to work with 802.11b (also called Wi-Fi). After a while,
802.11a (also called Wi-Fi5) gear started to come out, and it is incompatible
with the Wi-Fi gear. And soon we'll see 802.11g gear, and it will likely be
compatible with both -a and -b gear, but I'll be the last guy I know to go out
and buy hardware for a new wireless networking protocol. Give me the oldest
and most stable one, even if it's slower. And bring coffee with it, please.
And it is slower. You can get 4-6 Mbps (megabits per second) with Wi- Fi, and
about 22 Mbps with Wi-Fi5. The new -g protocol will be about the same speed
as Wi-Fi5, since the nominal speed is the same. I've used them, and honestly
it's still a lot faster than my internet connection (cable and DSL are often
in the neighborhood of 384Kbps, about 1/10 the speed of the 802.11b network).
It would cost you some time if you copied a gigabyte of files at a time, or
if you backed up your whole laptop over the WHN, but you can do that with a
wired connection if you absolutely have to use up a lot of bandwidth. I never
missed it.
Because there are several protocols, it's also a bit more complicated to mix
and match components. For that reason, genealogists who are interested in experimenting
should consider buying a complete kit instead of the parts. You can buy these
kits for about $170 for the base unit and $100 for each of the wireless cards.
"PC Magazine" recommends the Linksys WAP11. If you want a combination router,
switch, and firewall, you might spend up to $250. One example: Hewlett Packard
recently released the hn200w, which goes for about $220.
If you have a mixture of Macintosh and Windows PCs, you might want to try the
Apple Airport. PCs can use it for Internet access very easily. If you want to
share files between PCs and Macs, whether you have a wired or wireless setup,
you will need to use some additional software, which will cost between $150
and $200.
What's the Down Side?
When I was young and impulsive, stodgy old people would tell me that you can't
get something for nothing. I would reply, "Dad, why are you always holding me
down? Don't you know that this is the '60s?" But darned if he wasn't right about
that, at least when it comes to WHN. The good news is that you don't need wires
to connect. The bad news is that no one else in range does, either, and you
just put your whole network on the air. We're talking security, people. I'm
not saying that your neighbors could read your e-mail - heck, if they know your
dog's name, they probably are already hacking your mail servers - but I'm saying
that they could read your hard drive. And your quicken files. The ones with
the credit card numbers. And they could rename files. And delete them. And copy
files to them. The ones that have viruses in them. Some people drive around
with laptops, looking for unprotected networks. You don't want to be found by
such people.
It's not that bad, because all of the gear that is for sale will support encryption.
It's the one thing you'll have to learn that's a bit complicated. Allow a little
extra setup time to be sure that you are using 128-bit encryption. Let them
try to hack that. Another security protocol you might consider is to use the
Southern Security Service, or SSS: Look out at the street. If you see a dork
with a laptop parked in front of your house, open the screen door and let the
dogs out.
What's the Genealogy Connection?
There are not many genealogists who aren't using a computer to do research and
to stay connected with other researchers and relatives. Whatever you can do
with a wired network, you can do with greater ease and comfort with a wireless
one. You can surf Ancestry.com from a comfortable chair, while chatting with
your friends from Ohio. Also, genealogists are often on a limited budget, and
you might find that using a wireless network is less expensive than buying and
running cables.
Like most of the technologies described in RootsWorks, wireless networks don't
make genealogy, they make genealogy better.
Link Me Up (more stars is better)
PC Magazine - The Lay of the Wireless LAN ****
www.pcmag.com/article/0,,s=1474%26a=26048,00.asp
A review of the current wireless LANscape.
HomeNetHelp ****
www.homenethelp.com/
This site has basic networking how-to, do-it-yourself, and links to find local
installers.
IEEE - the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ***
standards.ieee.org/wireless/
This technical professional association sets the standards for wireless networking.
Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance ****
www.wi-fi.org/
These are the guys (and gals) that certify that wireless gear works together.
They call it interoperability, but that's what it means. They also have a jones
for promotion of standards, especially the IEEE 802.11 standard.
Beau Scarborough's Website ***
www.sharbrough.net/genealogy/homenet.htm
Contains some pages of basic information that expand on this article.
What Else?
Many families don't allow newspapers, magazines, or books at the table for meals.
It's a good idea not to bring the computer to the table, unless you're planning
to share it with everyone. If you have any questions about what is allowed,
just ask the Chief Protocol Officer in your house. She'll tell you.
Also, think about where to locate your base station. It should be as close to
the spatial center of your network as possible - put it in the middle of the
house, not at one end. You'll get better signal and higher speeds that way.
If you put a Wi-Fi card into your laptop, you will have the opportunity to connect
to the Internet (and check mail, etc.) from many airports, Starbucks, and friend's
homes. There are occasionally fees associated with this access, but it's often
so convenient that you will want to know more about it, and make an informed
choice about using it.
The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for
generic technologies. Beau would like to hear from you at mailto:rootsworks@sharbrough.net,
but due to the volume of e- mail received, he is unable to answer every
e-mail message received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual
computer problems, as he is generally busy in the summer following the woes
of the Texas Rangers. Visit Beau's website for links to previous articles and
updates on the season in progress.
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