CC Skywave SSB 2 With AM FM SW WX and Aviation Bands / Includes SW Wire Antenna Adapter

Wireless Networking More Affordable

Techstination feature for Thursday, April 12, 2001

A wireless network for your home. I'm Fred Fishkin with Bloomberg Bootcamp. Technology that lets you wirelessly network computers around your home to share files and Internet connections... as well as printers and games... .is getting more affordable. For households with high speed Internet connections and multiple PCs... it's a great option... .

"The markets today on home networking have dramatically increased with the low cost now of PCs. What we're finding is many of the homes are now using their existing PCs and passing them down to their children for homework use as they buy new PCs."

Peter Whitelaw, VP at Sohoware which is out with a wireless hub called the NetBlaster II. It sells for 249 dollars... .hundreds less than the technology cost a year or two ago. It uses an 11 megabit per second standard, common in many office environments, called 802.11B. That's a big advantage, says Whitelaw, over a competing standard called Home RF... .

"The Home RF was not adopted in the commercial environment, where the 11B was. So now we're giving the consumer the ability to use that same card and that same product in their office environment as well as home."

That means you can take a notebook computer equipped with a wireless card from the office to your home... .and connect easily. Sohoware promises and delivers plug and play set up. The standard also means the devices should work with those made by other manufacturers. Bootcamp, I'm Fred Fishkin, Bloomberg Radio.