Imagine surfing, emailing and chatting from a laptop even as you move around the office from your desk to the conference room without ever having to disconnect and reconnect cables or phone jacks! Imagine having a home Wi-Fi network; imagine tapping away emails while lying curled up on the sofa instead of sitting hunched over the bedroom desk!

What cell phones did to our traditional landline phones; Wi-Fi is fast doing to Internet connectivity. It is freeing the connection from a socket in the wall and throwing it up in the air.

What's more, Wi-Fi is fast. Very fast. Faster than even broadband!

Wi-Fi has put the tech world in tizzy. Consortiums have sprung up and heavyweights like Microsoft, IBM and Intel are all gearing up to bring Wi-Fi to every street corner and home.

How does it work?

When any computer or a mobile device like a PDA is on a Wi-Fi network it is called a 'wireless client'. These wireless clients can use radio frequency to talk to a 'base station'. The base station then connects the wireless clients to the Internet. The wireless clients can directly talk to each other too. But everyone needs to be within the range of the base station, also called the 'hotspot'.

The devices and wireless networks use a wireless communication standard called 802.11b. To access the 'wireless Net' users need to get a wireless device equipped with an 802.11 wireless networking card and be in the area of a Wi-Fi base station.

Base stations can be established by setting up a Wi-Fi gateway that has a wireless transmitter and typically combines a cable/DSL router, an Ethernet hub or switch and an access point in one unit.

Typically, each base station has a range of only 100-300 feet. You could set up your own station, enabling you to access the Net anywhere in your home. Outsiders, like someone driving through your neighborhood, can also use your connection if you allow them to.

How can I log on?

Connection is established using Wi-Fi enabled devices. Laptops from manufacturers such as IBM and Dell integrate hardware 802.11b modems directly into laptops. Laptop models like Sony Vaio SRX77 and the Toshiba Portege 2000 also Wi-Fi ready. Alternatively, you can add a Wi-Fi PC card.

Besides, Microsoft Windows XP has built-in support for Wi-Fi.

A Wi-Fi enabled device is geared up to 'detect' a network or hotspot. You click on your choice of network, enter a password if needed and you're connected. Sometimes you can just take advantage of a network in the neighbourhood that has been left open for access.

Right now, it certainly isn't as easy as whipping out your Wi-Fi notebook or PDA, since hotspots are not commonplace yet. In the US there are about 3,000 access points. Mainly at hotels, airports, and coffee shops like those run by the Starbucks franchise and a few networks in areas such as Seattle, San Francisco and New York.

Who's building the hotspots?

A number of wireless network companies are building public commercial networks at airports, conference centres and coffee shops. There are a handful of private access points that can be freely used as well. Closed user networks can be accessed with a password. But there just aren't enough hotspots for seamless connectivity yet. If you signed up for the services of one network, you wouldn't be able to connect if you moved out of range. You will need to sign up with different hotspot operators.

Companies such as Boingo are working toward linking individual hotspot operators to provide users with 'roaming' Wi-Fi access. Companies like Vivato are working on new base station technologies that can provide wide area coverage with an operating range of up to seven kilometres for existing Wi-Fi devices.

Wi-Fi enthusiasts such as the Seattle Wireless Network and the San Francisco Wireless (SF Wireless) link individual access points installed at homes, offices and other places into a larger free community networks to conduct meetings, provide Web-based discussion forums and host mailing lists. Check out other free networks here.

The cost of deploying wireless networks has decreased considerably. There's cheap Wi-Fi gear that enables home users to set up hotspots and extend their broadband connection to their entire house for a little as $200. Business travellers can connect from airports, hotels or restaurants. Companies too are setting up wireless networks so that employees can be completely mobile within the workspace.

Locating a base station

The only way of knowing if a hotspot exists around you is to detect it yourself using your device or locate a 'chalked' hotspot. This process, called warchalking is an ad hoc method for people to discover Wi-Fi hotspots and then use chalk symbols on sidewalks and walls to signal where a decent wireless connection is available!

Of course, this process could end up detecting and marking private hotspots whose owners may not want to share their gateways publicly or those who haven't put security measures in place. Most warchalkers follow a few legal guidelines while marking up access points.

Challenges

One of the biggest hurdles in the way of rampant Wi-Fi adoption is the range limitation of only 100 to 300 feet from the base stations. Networks covering larger areas will need to be built before seamless wireless connectivity can be achieved. Other hurdles include security concerns, differing equipment standards, battery drainage on laptops and wireless interoperability problems.

Wi-Fi action in India

The MIT's Media Lab Asia is using Wi-Fi to bring internet connectivity to villages in the Lucknow-Kanpur corridor using 'mesh peer-to-peer topologies' to ensure greater reach and coverage.

Yet, India has posed a special challenge to adoption of Wi-Fi by demanding the purchase of a special license to use it.

Links: -- Wi-Fi: As big as Budweiser? -- Source for Wi-Fi business and technology -- News and updates

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