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Techno-files
Proliferation of wireless devices increasing mobility...finally

By Riley Gay

Can you imagine a world where all manner of useful knowledge and essential information would be available to you anywhere, anytime? Where you could send and retrieve email, access entertainment information and financial data and make transactions such as purchases and banking transfers whether on a bus, in a car or just walking down the street?

Some 15 years ago, researchers at Xerox PARC laboratories in Palo Alto, Calif., were asked to come up with a picture of where they envisioned computing to be heading in the years to come.

The scenario they foresaw described a world where, instead of having data imprisoned in a box on your desktop, information would be available when and where you wanted it. It would be invisible and, at the same time, always at your fingertips.

They called their model “ubiquitous computing”, and imagined that data would be transmitted without cables or wires, easily accessed by various readily available and simple devices that just about everyone would carry with them at all times.

These days, that world is becoming a little easier to imagine thanks to such devices as cellular telephones and PDAs -- with wireless networks that stretch across the country and even around the world, giving users access to a wealth of information.

Unfortunately, cell phones and PDAs, with their tiny screens and relatively slow bandwidth, aren’t the best way to tap into that vast and eclectic stockpile of data and information known as the World Wide Web.

A better choice that offers both mobility and high-speed Internet access might be a notebook computer, but accessing the Web from your trusty laptop has only been possible when it’s tethered to a network at home or at work.

Until now, that is.

802.11b, a wireless networking standard better known as Wi-Fi (for wireless fidelity), has brought the dream of those prophetic PARC researchers a step closer to reality.

Able to transmit data wirelessly at a radius of up to 300 feet, Wi-Fi is showing up in coffeehouses, bookstores, city parks and a number of other locations across the country, enabling laptop access to the Internet from a variety of places.

While it doesn’t actually provide access to the Internet, what Wi-Fi does is enable users to wirelessly share an existing broadband connection to the Internet, such as cable or DSL.

Several wireless Internet providers, such as T-mobile and Earthlink Wireless, have been striking deals with businesses to set up Wi-Fi “hot spots” in their stores that customers can pay to access on an hourly, daily or, in some cases, unlimited access, basis. At Starbucks, for example, customers with Wi-Fi-enabled notebook computers can log on, provide their credit card information and surf the Internet or access email while sipping a Macchiato or Caffé Mocha.

Borders Books is another company that has begun to offer wireless Web access in many of its stores, and Wi-Fi zones are even beginning to show up in public areas such as city parks in a few forward-thinking communities.

With many new laptops being sold today with 802.11b circuitry already included, taking advantage of these hot spots couldn’t be easier. Even older machines can be easily brought up to date by adding a relatively inexpensive Wi-Fi card.

Hotels and airport lounges, both familiar haunts of the business traveler, are jumping in to set up their own hot spots, as well.

But while it seems that business people may be the prime targets for this type of service, they’re not by any means the only ones who can benefit from it. For anyone without a broadband connection at home, being able to wirelessly surf the Internet from one of these locations over a high-speed line could be a very attractive prospect.

Being able to buy that access without having to pay a monthly service fee may also be a plus for some.

As intriguing as this new technology may be, the next step toward the goal of ubiquitous computing may be just over the horizon.

In many tech-savvy cities throughout the U.S. there has been a grassroots effort by community groups to set up wireless access points that can be freely accessed by neighbors and passers-by, much to the chagrin of commercial wireless providers. As yet, only token effort has been made by Internet providers to curtail this practice, but you can expect that to change soon enough. Even so, it indicates a desire on the part of consumers to take advantage of this technology, and may put pressure on wireless providers to come up with a business model to make it work.

In addition, some of the biggest wireless Internet providers are working together on a plan to create a nationwide Wi-Fi network. Called “Project Rainbow”, the plan would enable subscribers to roam on various wireless networks, much the same way that cell phone users are able to roam on cellular networks.

You might imagine those visionary researchers at PARC to be quietly chuckling right about now. What 15 years ago no doubt seemed, at least to some, like science fiction may just become a reality in the not-too-distant future.

Neighbor Riley Gay is Wrangler’s director of technical services.

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