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Bob Keefe

Novenber 21, 2003

Just about any weekend, you can find Mark Carter and his friends out by his front-yard picnic table along with all the barbecuing necessities - including a notebook computer.

Carter and his friends use the notebook, connected wirelessly to the Internet and to another computer inside his Austin, Texas home, to stream Jimmy Buffett songs, look at family pictures and check out Web sites.

``It's the only way to go,'' he said.

A growing number of home PC users agree. Sales of wireless networking gear are up 124 percent from a year ago, and the vast majority of that equipment has gone into homes, according to technology research firm NPD Group.

``Wireless networking is one of the top two or three things that people want today,'' said NPD analyst Stephen Baker.

Despite the demand, prices are coming down. Baker estimates that the cost of equipment to hook up two computers in a home has dropped about $30, to about $125.

Carter and his fellow wireless home networkers are still in the minority. Most computer users still use desktop machines that are hardly portable, and they connect to the Internet with an old-fashioned phone cord. Even people with portable PCs or who have two or more computers in their home face networking hurdles.

Setting up a home wireless network can be frustrating, partly because different computers often use different types of software and protocols. And security is also a concern, because any hacker with a laptop and a little knowledge can tap into an unprotected wireless network.

``Our whole focus (with wireless) has been about making this an incredibly easy, out-of-the-box experience,'' said Michael George, a vice president of PC leader Dell Inc. ``But - shame on us - I don't think that's something we could say we were doing a year ago.''

Now, those barriers to wireless networking are coming down. Companies are starting to respond to consumers' security fears and their frustrations with the complicated technology.

More important, the number of users converting to high-speed Internet access continues to grow, as does the number who are eschewing desktops for portable notebooks.

Currently, about 30 percent of home computer users - about 25 million households - have broadband Internet access. Of those, about half now have wireless connections, according to NPD's Baker and others.

Just as cordless and cellular phones changed the way those people communicate, wireless networks are changing the way they compute.

Among computer users today, ``the first great experience is when people go broadband,'' said George. ``The second great experience is when they go wireless.''

Once they're wireless, home users can log on to the Internet while sitting on the couch, do some work out on the patio when the kids are too loud inside, check recipes or e-mail in the kitchen or - like Carter and his neighbors - stream music from a desktop inside the house to a laptop by the picnic table.

``Wireless gets you flexibility,'' said Hewlett-Packard Co. vice president Jim McDonnell. Along with wireless networking gear, HP sells a wireless digital hub that can distribute music, movies and pictures to PCs and televisions throughout a home. ``Even people who have wired their homes (for computer use) know wireless gives them more,'' he said.

Computer makers like Dell and HP and other technology companies are certainly doing whatever they can to drive the move to wireless.

Almost every notebook computer that's sold today comes wireless-ready, and growth in notebooks is far outpacing the growth in desktop sales. Worldwide, PC sales rose about 14 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, driven almost entirely by sales of notebooks, according to tech research company Gartner Inc.

And since notebooks are already wireless-ready, many new notebook owners are realizing: Why not set up a wireless network at home?

Other tech companies are giving wireless the hard sell too. Intel Corp.'s heavily marketed new Centrino semiconductor chip makes using wireless easier. So does Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP software, which supports point-and-click wireless connections. Both come standard in portable computers today.

And that's just the beginning.

As computer makers continue to push their vision of a ``digital home'' on consumers - with everything from media-oriented PCs to portable music players and computer-connected big-screen TVs - the advantages and importance of connecting everything wirelessly become more important.

Along with several entertainment-centric PCs, Gateway recently began selling a DVD player that also serves as a wireless hub so home users can watch DVDs, view pictures or listen to music on any television or PC in their home. It also just started selling super-simple wireless gear that lets users hook up by simply plugging a wireless device into a power socket. Most other computer companies also sell different types of wireless networking gear.

One of the biggest consumer pushes at Microsoft Corp. - and in turn, most PC makers - these days is the Windows XP Media Center platform, designed to transform PCs into home entertainment centers than can be used to listen to music, watch TV or movies using a TV-style remote control.

``If you think about our vision of the Windows PC in the home being able to deliver great, compelling experiences, we definitely see wireless in the home as being a key part of that,'' said Joe Belfiore, general manager of Microsoft's Windows eHome division.

Despite the continuing hassles of getting different devices to work together, NPD's Baker said he doesn't think there's much standing in the way of wireless growth in the future.

``I think there are more people with home networks than we think there are,'' Baker said. ``And there's going to be a lot more.''

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(The Cox web site is at http://www.coxnews.com )

c.2003 Cox News Service

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