To WiFi or not to WiFi

Date 17 February 2005
By Viji Rajasundram

It is becoming increasingly common to see broadband connections in urban homes. But now that we have finally been blessed by our local telco with these wonderful upload and download speeds, our thoughts begin to wander to other niceties. Like … how about having these speeds available at other locations within the home – namely at least at a laptop brought home from the office.

One way, would be to have a router, which will connect to the broadband modem. And have all the laptops or desktops connect to the router to access and share the one broadband Internet connection. This would be all right, if we had had the foresight to allow for the network cables to run between the router and the location of the laptops and/or desktops.

But most of us ( other than the seriously serious Geeks ) would not have laid conduits around the house to cater for network cables. So, there just has to be another way. And that brings us to WiFi, or connecting wirelessly.

Today, if you have broadband at home working on your desktop PC, and use a WiFi Ready Laptop also, there is almost no reason not to spring the RM300 or so to get a Wireless Broadband Router. The convenience that this relatively cheap hardware affords is incredible. No more trying to find space on the already cramped worktable housing the desktop to share the connection to the Internet. No more getting the kid off the machine in the first place! Just turn on the laptop anywhere within the range of the Wireless Router, and you will be cruising the net effortlessly in no time.

Next, we will look at the basic equipment required to set this up at home.