By MARYANNE MURRAY BUECHNER	Email this article to a friend

May 19, 2003

Freeing your house from extra   Internet cables is as easy as 1-2-3 ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY EDWIN FOTHERINGHAM

Your home has one high-speed Internet connection and several computers, and you'd like them all to share that fat pipe. But a home network? You can't bear the thought of pulling out the power drill and snaking cables around the house.

So go wireless. More and more consumers are doing it, buying nearly three times as many wireless-networking products in 2002 as they did the year before, according to Aaron Vance of Synergy Research Group. It's easy to see why. Not only does a wireless network give you the freedom to surf and send e-mail while roaming around the house or yard, but the equipment keeps getting cheaper and more reliable.

There are disadvantages. Wi-Fi is short-range radio, so you can get interference from microwaves, cordless phones and baby monitors. Such disruptions are usually temporary, but may be avoided altogether by simply moving your network hub out of a corner or onto a higher shelf. Range is generally between 150 ft. and 300 ft., but can be hampered by the number and thickness of your walls, or even a poorly-placed fish tank (water absorbs radio frequency).

Installing a wireless network has gotten easier, though it's still far from intuitive. Don't let that scare you off. When you see those little green lights blink on, indicating that your computers are finally talking to one another sans connecting cables, you'll know it was worth it.

STEP 1: Get the Gear

First, make sure everything you buy conforms to the dominant wireless standard known as 802.11b, or Wi-Fi (short for wireless fidelity). That way you can mix brands, operating systems, even network a Mac to a Windows PC and everything should still work together. There are two new, faster versions of Wi-Fi: 802.11a and 802.11g. "A" is for business use; "g" is for the home. Both bump networking speeds up from 11 megabits per second to 54 mbps. But unless you're moving around big video files or sharing other graphics-rich multimedia applications, "b" will be more than sufficient. If you still want "g," wait until the standard has been officially ratified this summer.

The heart of your network will be a wireless access point and cable/DSL router, preferably one device that does both, that plugs into your cable or DSL modem. The two-in-one units, available from Linksys, D-Link, Netgear and others, start at about $100; they often throw in a few Ethernet ports too, so you can connect a nearby printer or PC using a standard Ethernet cable.

To establish a wireless connection between a desktop PC and the wireless router, you need a wireless PCI card ($40 and up), which slides into a free slot inside the computer tower. Better yet, get a wireless USB network adapter ($70), which saves you the trouble of opening up the case.

To connect a notebook PC, you'll need a wireless PC card, a slim plate that slides into the laptop's PCMCIA slot ($50 and up). To connect a Mac desktop or notebook, get an Apple Airport card ($80). If you're buying a new notebook, most major manufacturers will sell you one with Wi-Fi capabilities built in. Notebooks with Intel's new Centrino chip, for example, are Wi-Fi-enabled (and, according to Intel, automatically connect you to Wi-Fi networks in airports and coffee shops — for more about hotspots, see next story). Linksys also makes a $129 wireless adapter for printers, a $79 Wi-Fi compact flash card for PDAs (goodbye cradle!), even a $199 digital media adapter for sending MP3s to your stereo and digital pictures to your TV.

Note that 802.11g is backwards compatible with 802.11b — meaning a laptop with a "g" card will talk to a "b" router, albeit at the slower speed — but 802.11a is not. If your office installs an 802.11a network, get a dual-band wireless PC card for your laptop so that it can connect both at home and at work. Linksys' Wireless A+G PC card sells for $99.

STEP 2: Install and Configure

The software that comes with your gear will walk you through the installation. The steps will vary slightly, depending on each computer's operating system. The older the OS, the trickier it can be; Windows XP is designed to detect and configure a PC card to talk to an existing network, as are most newer Macs.

Before you start, gather the following information: your broadband connection's IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS IP addresses. You can get these things from your Internet provider; your customer-service rep will know what you're talking about (or check the Properties tab, under Network Connections). Each is just a series of numbers (e.g., 123.43.2.1) that you'll be prompted to plug in during setup. (If your provider supports a protocol called DHCP, your router should retrieve these settings automatically when you plug it in.) You may also be asked to choose an SSID (service set identifier), work-group names and a wireless channel; keep these consistent for all of your machines.

STEP 3: Cut Your Losses

Say you've followed all the instructions, your wireless network still isn't working and you're getting nowhere with tech support. Don't beat yourself up. Networking snags are difficult for most home users to diagnose, let alone unravel. It's probably time to call in a pro. You could post your problem in one of the discussion forums on homenethelp.com. Or ask your cable guy for a referral — some do network installs on the side — or search fhome.com/dir. The house call could cost you a couple of hundred bucks. But if you don't tell, nobody has to know.

NEXT: A World Without Wires