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By Dermot McGrath

LET’S deal first with the hype. Wi-Fi (short for wireless fidelity) is another in a long wave of wireless technologies that will allow us to surf the internet while traveling, check our emails away from the office, make our daily work tasks that much easier to perform and deliver world peace into the bargain.

The reality, however, falls somewhat short of this hi-tech nirvana. Wi-Fi, for all its admitted advantages, is never likely to deliver world peace.
Yet joking aside, why should anyone, least of all a busy ophthalmologist, care about another so-called hot technology?

The answer, in short, is that Wi-Fi is not just another wireless wonder destined to follow many of its illustrious predecessors into the hi-tech bone yard.
This, for once, is a technology that actually does pretty much what it says on the tin. But don’t take my word for it – just witness the phenomenal growth of Wi-Fi networks around the world, especially in the US and Europe, to see how the technology is taking root in the real world.

Research firms expect the Wi-Fi hotspot market to grow rapidly over the next few years. One market research firm projects the number of hotspots available worldwide to climb from about 2,000 in 2001 to over 42,000 by 2006 – and those figures are probably a touch conservative.

Hotels, airports, coffeehouses, restaurants and bars are all jumping on board the Wi-Fi bandwagon – not because they are particularly susceptible to the honeyed words of the tech marketing gurus – but because they see a real opportunity to provide a simple-to-use, low-cost service that will directly benefit a large percentage of their customers.
And many businesses and organisations have already taken the plunge and bid adieu to their traditional networks of computers interconnected by tangles of unsightly cables.

Wi-Fi gives them fast and easy connections without the accompanying jungle of wires.
Yet seductive as the technology is, there are many questions to be asked before taking the Wi-Fi plunge. What’s the difference between Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and 3G? What kind of equipment do I need to set up a Wi-Fi network? How technically savvy do I need to be to set it up? How secure is a wireless network based on Wi-Fi? Will I be transmitting sensitive data for all the world to see? What are the pros and cons of Wi-Fi? What are its limitations? How much will it cost? Where can I learn more about it?

Let’s start with the technology. What exactly is Wi-Fi? Well, while "wireless networking" is more broadly used to describe connecting two or more devices such as computers, cell phones, pagers, printers and so forth without the use of cables, WiFi is a term used to describe a specific protocol to network your computer to another computer or network. The industry term for Wi-Fi is 802.11b and it is also known as ‘Airport’, an Apple branded name for the technology.

But, as ever in technology, there is a veritable alphabet soup of competing standards designed, it seems, for the express purpose of confusing the consumer. There are two main Institutes of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards (the regulatory body which decides on such matters) on the market today: 802.11a and 802.11b - aka Wi-Fi.

To muddle matters even further, there is yet another new standard, known as 802.11g, which is five times faster than conventional Wi-Fi. This new standard of Wi-Fi works on the 2.4gHz radio spectrum, like that of the previous 802.11b. Unfortunately, the much older standard 802.11a only works on the 5GHz radio spectrum, thus making them incompatible. For the moment, if you’re buying Wi-Fi equipment, make sure it’s 802.11b compatible.

A Wi-Fi network has two main components. The first of these is an "access point" or "hotspot" (or "base station" if you’re using Apple’s terminology). Secondly, you need a special network card installed in your computer or PDA to allow you to access the network. Access points generally run in the ¤250 to ¤300 price range, while the network cards will set you back in the region of ¤100.

The good news for end users is that technology companies are now taking measures to build Wi-Fi capability directly into their laptops or mobile devices. The recently launched Intel Centrino range is a good case in point. The laptop comes with integrated Wi-Fi capability so you can access information, collaborate instantly with colleagues across the globe or update documents on the fly and send revisions to the home office – provided you’re in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot.

How difficult is it to use? One of Wi-Fi’s main advantages is that, compared to traditional networking, it is relatively straightforward to configure and should, theoretically, at least, work out of the box. But problems can, and do occur, depending on the operating system version you’re using, the type of environment the Wi-Fi network is being deployed in and other compatibility issues with other computers on the network.

Properly configuring and setting up Wi-Fi’s in-built security controls may also require a certain level of technical knowledge, otherwise you’re leaving an open invitation to unscrupulous snoopers to access all the information on your network.
Bear in mind also that there are some devices – cordless phones and microwaves, for instance – that can interfere with Wi-Fi networking products. It is also advisable to find the path of least resistance from the access point to the computer going through the least amount of walls possible to ensure trouble-free operation.

Wi-Fi’s limited range is both its blessing and its curse. Because Wi-Fi is relatively localised, it is less regulated than other wireless or broadcast technologies. However that short range cellular nature also means that coverage of an area requires more access points and the ability to roam is very limited.

Where, then, does Bluetooth or 3G fit into the picture? Bluetooth is really a short-range wireless tool designed to connect different personal hardware such as mobile phones, digital cameras and PCs. It is not suited to establishing a communications network. 3G, meanwhile, refers to the collection of third generation mobile technologies that are designed to allow mobile operators to offer integrated data and voice services over mobile networks.

In some ways, 3G and Wi-Fi are competing technologies, yet it is possible the two will happily co-exist to provide road warriors with always-on connection to the internet. It is quite easy to foresee a scenario where millions of people will outfit their laptop computers with "air cards" which connect to 3G networks at speeds in the hundreds of kilobits per second when they are on the road or in public places.
But once in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot in a coffee shop, hotel or office lobby, their connection would shift over seamlessly to a dramatically faster 11-megabit Wi-Fi connection.

With all this emphasis on seamless, always-on, anywhere, anytime connection, the only real question left will be to ask if we really want to be always typing, always communicating, always contactable. Do you really want to sip your cappuccino surrounded by the insidious tap-tapping of keyboards? A better option might be to use the time more productively – thinking about epithelial defects or reading EuroTimes, for instance.

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