SPECIAL ISSUE - The Des Lauriers's Home Page

www.pcmag.com 

Your Essential 

Guide to the 

SPECIAL ISSUE 

162 WIRELESS 

TIPS, TRICKS, & TOOLS 

HOW TO 

CONNECT 

AT HOME•IN THE OFFICE•AT SCHOOL•EVERYWHERE 

The Best 

Notebooks, 

PDAs, and 

Access Points 

FALL 2003

ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRYAN LEISTER 

MICHAEL J. MILLER 

Forward Thinking 

WELCOME TO THE WIRELESS WORLD 

TO SAY THAT PC MAGAZINE EDITORS AND 

labs staff are big fans of wireless technology is an understatement. 

We installed our first wireless network 

in our Manhattan office back in 1995 and have upgraded 

several times since then. Wireless access 

points are now placed throughout our office, and our 

notebooks with wireless connections are indispensable. 

We’ve tested and reviewed 802.11 products for 

many years, and we are the only magazine that tests 

laptops for Wi-Fi distance and throughput. 

This year has been a turning point for wireless. It 

has evolved from a toy for early adopters to a business 

necessity for mainstream users. And it’s 

becoming more prevalent every day. Already networks 

and businesses everywhere are realizing the 

benefits of wireless connections. 

In this special issue, we take a close look at the 

state of wireless technology at home, in offices, at 

school, and on the road. 

WIRELESS AT HOME 

HOME NETWORKS HAVE BEEN AROUND 

for years, but wireless technology makes them practical 

in new ways. And they’re much easier to set up 

than you might think. I live in a historic 

old house, and for many 

years I have resisted drilling 

holes in the walls to connect 

computers in various 

rooms. Thanks to 

wireless technology, 

the walls have been 

spared. I installed an 

access point several 

years ago and have 

been able to use my 

laptop on the living 

room couch, linking to 

a broadband connection 

from the desktop upstairs. 

Needless to say, this setup is 

incredibly convenient. 

Over the years, I’ve extended my network to 

include more desktop computers, which I’ve outfitted 

with USB Wi-Fi adapters. And I’ve stretched my 

network to more places in the house, first by using 

HomePlug power-line networking and more recently 

by extending the wireless connections with a more 

powerful access point and a better antenna. 

Lately, I’ve been trying out digital media hubs, 

which wirelessly stream photos and digital music 

from a computer to a TV or home theater system. So 

far, my favorite models are from Linksys, HP, and Prismiq. 

The Linksys system works well, but installation 

isn’t as smooth as it should be. I had problems because 

the system that contained the music files was running 

a software firewall. I am still waiting for a system that 

does a good job of transferring video wirelessly. 

Based on our latest reader survey, about half of our 

readers have home networks, and nearly half of those 

networks are wireless. Here are some tips I’ve found 

useful for making wireless work in my house. 

n Get a combination router/firewall/access point 

(typically an access point with a four-port Ethernet 

switch) instead of a separate access point and hardware 

firewall. That way, you can connect one computer 

with a wired connection, which is handy if you 

need to debug your access point. 

n Use WEP—or the more recent Wireless Protected 

Access (WPA)—for security when transferring data 

between your wireless computers. Although WEP 

makes setup more difficult, it’s worth the extra 

effort. I recommend using 128-bit WEP, storing 

your WEP key in an encrypted file on 

your laptop, because you may have to 

enter it often on another computer, 

and remembering a string with 13 

ASCII characters or 26 hexadecimal 

digits is really difficult. 

n If you don’t want to run WEP, 

make sure you turn off file and 

printer sharing on all of your connected 

computers. Otherwise, you’re 

leaving an open door for hackers. 

n If your wireless signal isn’t strong 

enough to reach a particular room, check 

out how close the signal gets. To do this, use 

a notebook configured with either Windows XP 

or Windows 2000—both have built-in wireless detection 

software—or use a product such as Network 

Stumbler. If the signal almost reaches the room, consider 

getting a directional antenna. If it’s not even 

close, you’re better off with a wired connection— 

either Ethernet or power-line. 

This year has 

been a turning 

point for wireless. 

It has 

evolved from 

a toy for early 

adopters to 

a business 

necessity for 

mainstream 

users. 

www.pcmag.com SPECIAL WIRELESS ISSUE 2003 PC MAGAZINE 7

8 

WIRELESS AT THE OFFICE 

OUR CORPORATE IT DEPARTMENT INITIALLY 

resisted wireless networks, but we rogue users (a.k.a. 

PC Magazine Labs) installed one years ago. Eventually 

the IT department decided it was a good thing, and 

now nearly everyone in our office with a laptop uses 

it. A wireless network is especially convenient for taking 

notes and looking things up during meetings. 

Here’s my advice for wireless 

network users at the office. 

n Just accept that IT will want security 

restrictions you won’t 

want. Remember, the restrictions 

are for your own good. 

n Don’t abuse the privilege by 

streaming lots of video over 

your connection. And when 

you’re in meetings, you still need 

to pay attention (read: keep instant 

messaging to a minimum). 

n If your employer hasn’t gone wireless yet, stress the productivity 

benefits to your IT department. 

Here are some suggestions for IT departments. 

n Determine which users would really be more productive 

on a wireless network. I find that wireless access is 

best for people who are frequently in meetings or aren’t 

attached to a desk all day. Even if most of your users have 

desktops, consider the high cost of moving them from one 

place to another. If they move often, wireless networking 

may be less expensive. 

n Make sure your network is secure. Turn off the broadcast 

of the SSID, turn on WEP or (even better) WPA, and 

consider RADIUS authentication to ensure that only 

authorized people can get to your network. Keep on top of 

security issues, and make sure all your servers are patched. 

n Watch out for rogue access points and wireless networks. 

You should check your network at least once a 

week and buy a professional tool such as AirDefense 

(www.airdefense.net) or AirMagnet Distributed (www 

.airmagnet.com) to check your perimeter for holes. 

n Consider installing dual access points or networks: one 

for your employees and another for customers and suppliers 

who need Internet access but not access to your network. 

This is a great setup but requires an additional level 

of administration. 

WIRELESS ON THE ROAD 

I OFTEN TAKE MY LAPTOP ON THE ROAD AND 

connect via a Wi-Fi hot spot. But all too often, the concept 

is more appealing than the reality. I have a good success 

rate connecting to public access points in airports, 

hotels, and coffee shops. But connecting in the various 

offices I visit is less reliable, and connecting via hot spots 

PC MAGAZINE SPECIAL WIRELESS ISSUE 2003 www.pcmag.com 

Forward Thinking 

MICHAEL J. MILLER 

in most public parks is—well, hopeless. 

Wi-Fi networks have tremendous potential, but they’re 

still in their infancy. Finding an open connection can be 

difficult. And although lists of hot spots are available, I find 

that many public hot spots are not in service, or else I cannot 

successfully connect to the Internet. (See page 100 for 

a discussion of these lists.) 

The biggest issues with paid hot spots are pricing and 

billing. Spending $10 for a connection may be worthwhile 

if you are staying at a hotel and need to do 

essential work, but spending the same amount 

when you’re just passing through an airport is excessive. 

You’ll end up needing different accounts 

for different hot spots, as most do not yet support 

roaming. If you frequent certain hot spots, a 

monthly contract is a better deal than paying by 

the day or by the hour. And if you travel a lot, consider 

a service such as iPass or Boingo, which aggregates 

hot spots and manages security. 

If you really want to connect anywhere reliably, consider 

a PC Card that uses one of the mobile phone networks 

from companies such as AT&T, Sprint, and 

T-Mobile. Although all the phone companies are talking 

about making their networks faster, for now you’ll have to 

settle for dial-up speeds. But even a slow connection is better 

than no connection. 

Here are some tips for taking wireless 

on the road. 

n If you plan to connect through 

a public hot spot, you should 

worry about security. Turn 

file sharing off on your laptop, 

and don’t transmit any 

sensitive information unless 

you’re running a 

virtual private network 

(VPN) or going through an 

SSL-based Web site. (For 

more details, see Solutions, 

page 48.) 

n If you run Windows XP, occasionally 

clean out your list of hot 

spots. (Right-click on the connection 

icon in your task tray and choose View available wireless 

networks.) To connect quickly, make sure the networks you 

connect to most often are at the top of the list. 

n Figure out where and how often you plan to connect, 

then choose the access plan that makes the most sense. 

n If you want to connect anywhere, consider a mobilephone 

technology and make sure the company offers 

coverage where you need it. 

MORE ON THEWEB: Join us online and make your voice heard. 

Talk back to Michael J. Miller in our opinions section, 

www.pcmag.com/miller.

SPECIAL WIRELESS ISSUE, 2003 

VOL. 22 NO. 18 

www.pcmag.com 

30 HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 M 

30 InFocus LP120 

31 Macromedia Studio MX 2004 

33 GoodLink Server 2.0 

34 OneBridge Mobile Groupware 4.0 

35 ActionTec Dual PC Modem 

36 Toshiba Portégé R100 

36 Maxtor OneTouch 

37 Xerox Phaser 6250 

37 Garmin iQue 3600 

� 

COVER STORY 

58 

Contents.1 

North America will contain over 53,000 public hot spots in 2005, according to Gartner Dataquest. 

26 First Looks 

26 Sprint PCS Connection Card AirPrime 

PC3200 M 

26 T-Mobile Sierra Wireless AirCard 750 M 

26 Verizon Sierra Wireless AirCard 555 M 

28 Magix Movie Edit Pro 2004 

Your 

Unwired 

World 

In rapidly growing numbers, we’re 

embracing the idea that you don’t have to 

plug in to log on. Our 35-page guide shows 

you how to stay connected wirelessly, 

whether you’re at home, in the office, at 

school, or on the road. We give you the 

lowdown on the best equipment to use, 

including access points, wireless client 

cards, notebooks, and PDAs. And we set 

you straight about the different wireless 

standards available out there. Want to join 

the unwired world? Read on. 

60 Unwire Your Home 

81 Unwire Your Office 

91 Unwire at School 

97 Unwire Everywhere 


Contents.2 

48 Solutions 

48 Wireless Security: WPA Step by 

Step. Here’s how to set up extrastrong 

WPA encryption on your 

network hardware. 

52 Security Watch: Wireless hot 

spots are all the rage, but their 

lack of encryption makes them 

unsafe. Don’t connect before 

following our suggestions. 

54 Internet Business: RealNetworks’ 

RealOne Rhapsody has everyone 

from record execs to music fans 

happy, thanks to a clever security 

technique that prevents piracy. 

55 User to User: Our experts show 

you how to position your wireless 

access points, how to conserve 

laptop battery life, and more. 

Opinions 

7 Michael J. Miller: Forward 

Thinking 

41 Bill Machrone: ExtremeTech 

43 John C. Dvorak 

45 John C. Dvorak’s Inside Track 

47 Bill Howard: On Technology 

16 

21 Pipeline 


21 Airgo Networks: Way-fast wireless. 

21 Microsoft Office 2003, coming up. 

21 Wi-Fi hot spots are a mystery to many. 

22 SoBig and August’s virus onslaught. 

22 Disney’s scheme for beaming movies. 

22 IBM researches a Google competitor. 

24 COMING ATTRACTIONS: Sony Cyber-shot 

DSC-F848; Gateway DC-T50. 

Personal Technology 

114 After Hours 

Gaming on the Cellular Level. You might 

not guess what the most ubiquitous 

gaming platform is: the mobile phone. 

Some of the newest games are so 

engaging you might forget to answer 

your phone when it rings. 

116 Gear & Games 

Sony Online Entertainment’s 

PlanetSide; Viva Media’s Learn to 

Play Chess with Fritz & Chesster; 

the Linksys Wireless-B 

Media Adapter; 

comparative reviews of 

game cheat sites. 

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 

39 Feedback 118 Backspace 

Online 

www.pcmag.com 

WIRELESS GUIDE 

If you want to know even more about 

wireless connectivity, check out our 

how-to guides for disabling file sharing 

and setting up a wireless hot spot for 

your small business. 

(www.wireless.pcmag.com) 

FIRST LOOKS 

New reviews every 

week! Coming soon: 

• Fujifilm FinePix F700 L 

• Handspring Treo 600 

• Presto! VideoWorks Platinum 

(www.pcmag.com/firstlooks) 

NEWS AND ANALYSIS 

The latest technology trends: 

• E-Books: Round 2 

• New directions for Wi-Fi 

• The year of the digital camera 

(www.pcmag.com/news) 

TOOLS YOU CAN USE 

• Discussions: Log on and participate! 

(http://discuss.pcmag.com/pcmag) 

EXCLUSIVE COLUMNS 

DVORAK ONLINE 

K Each Monday, John C. 

Dvorak gives you his 

take on what’s 

happening in high tech 

today. Visit www.pcmag.com/dvorak. 

ULANOFF ONLINE 

K And each Wednesday, 

Lance Ulanoff puts his 

own unique spin on 

technology. Visit 

www.pcmag.com/ulanoff. 

Coming up: 

• 64-bit Windows beta review 

• Bow-Lingual: Understand your dog 

• DVD content protection revealed 

(www.extremetech.com)

www.pcmag.com/pipeline 

Way-Fast Wireless 

A start-up aims to improve on Wi-Fi. 

If one is good and two is 

better, then six should be 

better still, right? When it 

comes to wireless networking, 

the answer is yes, according to 

start-up Airgo Networks. Airgo 

is preparing an alternative to 

the current class of Wi-Fi 

wireless networks, with products 

slated to arrive this year. 

By using multiple antennas, 

Airgo claims its technology can 

double the speed of the fastest 

Wi-Fi networks. Airgo’s wireless 

chipset is based on the company’s 

MIMO (multiple in multiple 

out) technology, which uses up 

to six antennas to boost wireless 

data speeds as high as 108 Mbps 

and more than double the range 

By using multiple 

antennas, Airgo claims 

its technology can double 

the speed of the fastest 

Wi-Fi networks. [ 

of existing wireless gear. 

Airgo’s chipset is also compatible 

with current Wi-Fi standards, 

supporting 802.11a, “b,” 

and “g” modes. With three 5- 

GHz and three 2.4-GHz antennas, 

an Airgo-equipped device 

can communicate on a network 

with a mix of older 802.11 equipment. 

It can even transmit information 

simultaneously to, say, 

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS & NEWS ANALYSIS 

an 802.11a device at 54 Mbps 

while sending data to another 

Airgo device at 108 Mbps. 

Only lab tests will prove the 

company’s claims, but Airgo 

officials say that slower Wi-Fi 

devices on the same network 

won’t degrade overall performance. 

“It goes further than any 

other product so far to be compatible 

with all the standards,” 

says Airgo CEO Greg Raleigh. 

Airgo’s chipset uses smart 

antenna signal processing. 

Some analysts see good 

things ahead for Airgo’s core 

technology. “MIMO is likely the 

only viable path to improved 

range and throughput in WLAN 

systems, both today 

and in the future,” says 

Craig J. Mathias, a 

[ 

principal with wireless 

advisory firm Fairpoint 

Group. 

According to 

Raleigh, the Airgo 

chipset and additional 

antennas will add only 

about $20 to $50 to the 

cost of access points and related 

products. He expects to see the 

first access points with Airgo 

chips appear this year. In the 

future, Airgo hopes that faster 

data speeds will mean including 

the company’s chips in consumer 

electronics gear—like 

HDTVs—to send video and 

audio streams throughout a 

home.—John R. Quain 

MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003 EDITIONS 

New-user 

price 

Upgrade 

price 

Standard Edition $399 $239 

Student and Teacher Edition $149 N/A 

Small Business Edition $449 $279 

Professional Edition $499 $329 

All prices are list. N/A—Not applicable: This product is not 

available as an upgrade. 

Source: Microsoft Corp. 

Debut for 

Office 2003 

OCTOBER IS A BIG MONTH FOR 

Microsoft’s application software. 

That’s when the company will 

ship all of the core products in 

Microsoft Office System, including 

four separate editions of the 

Office 2003 suite (see the table), 

featuring new versions of Word, 

Excel, FrontPage, Outlook, PowerPoint, 

Publisher, and Visio. 

Several new products are slated 

to be part of Microsoft Office 

System, including OneNote, an 

application designed to organize 

notes captured from various 

sources—from voice apps to 

tablet computers. One of the 

core features and biggest gambles 

in Office 2003 is XML 

(eXtensible Markup Language), 

which Microsoft hopes will 

enable intelligent searching. 

The company plans to roll 

out the new products on October 

21 in New York. PC Magazine 

will cover the debut online. Look 

for product reviews in our issue 

of October 28. For more information 

about Office 2003, 

see On Technology, page 47. 

—Sebastian Rupley 

What’s a Wi-Fi Hot Spot? 

Even as public wireless hot spots are spreading— 

from McDonald’s restaurants to public parks—many 

Internet-connected households report that they are 

unfamiliar with public wireless access points. 

For more information on hot spots, see our feature 

story “Unwire Everywhere,” page 97. 

Level of familiarity Percentage of 

with public hot spots respondents 

Have used but am not a subscriber 3% 

Familiar with but have never used 33% 

Have heard of but am not familiar with 30% 

Have never heard of 34% 

Based on a survey of 1,345 Internet-connected households. 

Source: Parks Associates, July 2003. 

ON THE HORIZON 

The next generation of Wi-Fi 

wireless networking is on the 

drawing board, as the IEEE’s 

802.11n Working Group gets 

rolling. Proposals for an 

802.11n draft standard reportedly 

call for speeds ranging 

from 108 Mbps to 320 Mbps. 

The proposals also aim to 

reduce current wirelessnetworking 

overhead caused 

by packet management, encryption/decryption, 

and error 

correction. A ratified standard 

isn’t expected until 2005 or 

2006, but previous flavors of 

Wi-Fi have been adopted 

before standardization. 

AOL GOES BLOGGING 

AOL’s newest service, part of 

AOL 9.0, aims to make life 

easier for bloggers. Web logs 

(or simply blogs)—sites 

where individuals share their 

opinions and personal musings—have 

been hot in 2003. 

The AOL Journals service 

offers templates for launching 

a blog, and you can update 

your blog by instant 

messaging or by phone. 

HAUNTED HOUSE 

What if your entertainment 

center could tell you that one 

of its shelves is overloaded or 

your refrigerator could announce 

that the milk is old? 

Applications like these are the 

goal of the Smart-Its project, 

part of the European Union’s 

Disappearing Computer initiative. 

Teams of university 

researchers are developing 

wireless sensor networks for 

monitoring household objects. 

Fifteen other projects under 

the auspices of the EU initiative 

are currently under way. 


ILLUSTRATIONS BY GINA TRIPLETT, PHOTOGRAPH BY REUTERS NEWMEDIA INC./CORBIS 

22 

SoBig a 

Problem 

PIPELINE 

August was a seismically 

active month on the 

security front. Multiple 

viruses and worms—and variants 

of them—with names like 

Blaster and SoBig not only 

spread like wildfire but demonstrated 

some of the new tricks 

virus writers are up to. SoBig’s 

ramp-up qualified it as the 

fastest-spreading virus or worm 

of all time, with virus-tracking 

officials at e-mail security 

companies MessageLabs and 

Postini reporting that some mail 

servers were generating 4 

million junk messages per day. 

SoBig has an unusual architecture 

that wreaks havoc primarily 

through mass message 

generation. “SoBig is unique in 

several ways,” says Shinya 

Akamine, president and CEO of 

Postini. “It creates seven 

instances of itself. It has its own 

SMTP mailer so it doesn’t have 

to connect to your corporate 

mail server to send messages 

out. It is also much more efficient 

at finding e-mail addresses 

than predecessors.” 

Rumors have been swirling 

that SoBig might have been 

intended as part of a future 

cyberterrorist or mass spam 

attack. “A potential risk is that 

the massive army of computers 

SoBig has infiltrated could be 

used to launch an all-out attack 

on large Internet infrastructures,” 

said officials at security 

firm Central Command. Autopsy 

results on SoBig aren’t complete 

yet, but it has already 

made clear how fragile security 

infrastructures are.—SR 


Send Me a Movie 

GET SET FOR A NEW EXPERIMENT 

in film distribution. Disney’s 

upcoming MovieBeam set-top 

box will feature a chip called ReX 

designed to datacast movies 

using an NTSC terrestrial analog 

television signal, according to 

Disney CEO Michael Eisner. 

Datacasting pushes data over 

the airwaves alongside television 

and radio. The technology has 

largely failed in the past; 

Intel and PBS tried 

unsuccessfully to 

drive demand in 

1998, but consumers 

balked. 

Disney and 

Dotcast are 

banking that 

the time has 

come for Dotcast’s 

dNTSC technology 

to beam 

movies at 4.5 Mbps 

of data per analog 

TV channel. A small 

antenna on the box 

will capture the 

movies and save them to an 

internal hard drive, according to 

Disney. 

Trial units will roll out in Salt 

Lake City and two other locations 

this fall. Pricing is not yet 

set, but the 24-hour rental fee 

should be comparable to renting 

Disney Chairman and 

CEO Michael Eisner has 

announced plans for 

datacasting movies. 

The Antisearch Engine 

Most of the time, looking for 

information isn’t simply a 

matter of finding the proverbial 

needle in a haystack. It’s also 

about getting intelligent information: 

Where the needle was before 

landing in the haystack, for example. 

For more than 3 years, researchers at 

IBM have been working on a way to 

deliver such contextual information 

in online searches. Now, 

they think they are getting close. 

Dubbed WebFountain, IBM’s experimental 

search platform brings together 

a host of state-of-the-art tools, including 

pattern recognition, natural-language 

processing, and Bayesian probability theory, to 

attack the problem. It crawls the Net and combines 

these different approaches to read what’s 

a video or a DVD at a retail store, 

Disney officials said. 

Given that the FCC has urged 

broadcasters to shift to digital 

television, the timing of the 

dNTSC launch is odd, acknowledged 

Siobodan Simovich, vice 

president of ASIC engineering at 

Dotcast. “We think it’s undeniable 

that DTV will prevail, but 

it’s very uncertain when that will 

happen,” he said at Silicon 

Valley’s recent 

Hot Chips conference. 

“[NTSC] is 

not a glorious 

success at 

this point, but 

we believe 

we can use 

this technology 

to do datacasting. 

We are developing 

a solution, 

however, that 

will do both NTSC 

and DTV.” 

Since the company 

believes 

dNTSC technology can transmit 

up to 25 GB of data per day per 

antenna, Dotcast is considering 

the technology for mobile 

devices, including cars and laptops. 

It might not be long before 

you get movies beamed to your 

PDA.—Mark Hachman 

Taking 

Names 

Worried you might be 

next on the Recording 

Industry Association 

of America’s (RIAA) hit list of 

music swappers? There’s a way 

to find out. The Electronic 

Frontier Foundation (EFF), an 

Internet public policy group, 

offers the Subpoena Database 

Query Tool for that purpose. 

An ISP may or may not 

inform subscribers of an RIAA 

inquiry before a subpoena is 

issued, says Jason Schultz, staff 

attorney for the EFF. But by 

entering your user name or IP 

address, you can find out if a 

subpoena was issued, though 

the database isn’t complete. 

The RIAA’s latest assurances 

that it will go after only people 

who share a “substantial” 

amount of copyrighted content 

shouldn’t diminish the database’s 

importance. “It’s very 

necessary, because we don’t 

know what ‘substantial’ means,” 

says Schultz. “They are purposefully 

being vague because 

they want to scare as many people 

as possible.” 

Users of the database don’t 

have to worry about a backlash. 

The site guarantees that no logs 

of user information are kept. 

—Sonya Moore 

online, find related information, and bring 

back intelligent answers to questions 

such as “What are people saying 

about PC Magazine, and why?” 

WebFountain can reveal what an 

online information neighborhood looks 

like by using a map with different colors 

and brightness points. 

Andrew Tomkins at IBM’s Almaden 

Research Center describes WebFountain as an 

antisearch engine. “It’s about trying to get 

answers to questions you can’t really answer 

in a traditional search paradigm,” he says. 

For the moment, WebFountain is confined 

to the lab and to a handful of projects 

that IBM is working on with large customers. 

In the future, however, the company sees 

it as a potential Google killer. The jury’s out on 

that for now, though.—JRQ

24 

PIPELINE 

Sony Looks to Reinvent 

Digital Photography 

The upcoming Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F848 will employ a groundbreaking 

8-megapixel CCD with an entirely new color system: red, 

green, blue, and emerald, instead of the traditional RGB CCD. Sony 

will pack this pro-level camera with a host 

of features, including a Carl Zeiss 28to 

280-mm lens, a new image 

processor, dual memory card 

slots (for Memory Stick as 

well as CompactFlash and 

MicroDrive media), fivearea 

multipoint auto-focus, 

NightShot infrared shooting, 

and 640-by-480 video recording 

at 30 frames per second. 

—Sally Weiner Grotta 

$1,200 street. 

Sony Electronics Corp., 

www.sonystyle.com. 

Better OCR 

Abbyy Software is 

upgrading its already 

first-rate OCR package. 

FineReader 7.0 will feature 

an enhanced recognition 

algorithm, as well as legal and 

medical dictionaries, automatic 

PDF creation, and support 

for 177 languages.—JMB 

Professional edition: $299 

direct; Corporate edition: 

$499. Abbyy USA Software 

House, www.abbyyusa.com. 


Epson’s Affordable 

All-in-One 

Photo-quality printing as well as scanning 

and copying capabilities—all at an attractive 

price—will make the Epson Stylus CX5400 

interesting to home and small-business 

buyers. The 5,760- by 1,440-dpi printer 

engine will deliver photo-quality borderless 

prints. The 1,200- by 2,400-dpi flatbed 

scanner will give you walk-up copy convenience, 

and Epson’s Easy PhotoFix utility 

can restore the color to faded photos.—JMB 

$150 street. Epson America Inc., www.epson.com. 

Bargain Projector 

The BenQ BP2120 will be 

the latest entry in the sub- 

$1,000 projector market. With 

a native resolution of 800-by- 

600 (SVGA), the DLP engine is rated 

at 1,200 ANSI lumens and should deliver 

a bright image even under normal 

indoor lighting conditions.—JMB 

Gateway Enters the 

Camera Market 

As it continues its expansion beyond 

PCs, Gateway is planning its foray into 

the digital-photography market. Its highend 

initial offering will be the aggressively 

priced 5-megapixel Gateway DC- 

T50. The 6.3-ounce, point-and-shoot 

model will feature a 3X optical zoom 

lens, an SD memory slot, and 320-by-240 

video at 15 fps.—Jamie M. Bsales 

$399.99 direct. Gateway, www.gateway.com. 

HP’s Wireless All-in-One 

The HP PSC 2510 Photosmart will be 

the first to embed a wireless print 

server in a personal MFP. Built around 

HP’s 4,800- by 1,200-dpi ink jet photo 

engine, the unit will include slots for 

most memory cards and a 1,200- by 

2,400-dpi flatbed scanner.—JMB 

$400 street. Hewlett-Packard Co., www.hp.com. 

$999 list. BenQ 

America Corp., 

www.benq.com.

26 

HANDS-ON TESTING OF NEW PRODUCTS 

Wireless Cards Give Your 

PC Access Anywhere BY BRUCE AND MARGE BROWN 

THE MAGAZINE 

WORLD’S LARGEST 

COMPUTER-TESTING 

FACILITY 

28 Magix Movie Edit Pro 2004 

30 HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 

30 InFocus LP120 

31 Macromedia Studio MX 2004 

33 GoodLink Server 2.0 

34 OneBridge Mobile 

Groupware 4.0 

35 ActionTec Dual PC Modem 

High-speed data services for accessing e-mail or browsing the Web with phones and PDAs 

have generated most of the buzz for wireless WAN solutions. But data cards from the same 

carriers that offer such services equip your notebook PC with the equivalent of a 56K dialup 

connection. That means anywhere you can get a signal, you can use your laptop to surf 

the Internet or catch up on e-mail, without having to fumble with the small screens and 

keyboards that make phones and PDAs less than ideal for these tasks. 

To be sure, the speed of Wi-Fi makes it the best mobile connectivity 

solution. But to use it, you must be within range of an access 

point you can connect to—be it in your home or office, or at a public 

hot spot with free access (say, a coffee shop), or access to 

which you subscribe (as in most airports). But if you often 

find yourself out of range of a usable access point, or 

if you travel to customer sites where network 

access is blocked to nonemployees, you 

need a Plan B. 

Four of the big five U.S. wireless 

carriers—AT&T Wireless, 

Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, and 

Verizon Wireless—sell Type II 

PC Cards that give you mobile connectivity 

when you’re out of range of 

Wi-Fi hot spots. Cingular Wireless, 

the fifth major carrier, sells twopiece 

solutions, in which you 

use a cell phone with your 

notebook (connected via 

cable or infrared) to access 

the Internet. 

Currently two technologies are 

in use, with a third expected later this 

year. Sprint and Verizon use CDMA/ 

1xRTT, which has a theoretical maximum 

data rate of 144 Kbps; typical realworld 

throughput speeds range from 40 to 

60 Kbps (slightly better than that of a 56K 

modem). AT&T, Cingular, and T-Mobile use GSM/GPRS network 

technology, which is a bit slower. This technology has a theoretical 

maximum rate of 110 Kbps, with realized speeds ranging from 20 to 

40 Kbps. By year’s end, AT&T will launch EDGE, a new technology 


that promises to boost real-world data rates to 100 Kbps. 

For this story, we the tested the Sprint PCS Connection Card 

AirPrime PC3200, the T-Mobile Sierra Wireless AirCard 750, 

and the Verizon Sierra Wireless AirCard 555. Rebates and 

special offers are often available, and all these devices 

require wireless data service. 

We didn’t test the AT&T Sierra 

Wireless AirCard 750, because it 

won’t be available after EDGE 

launches. AT&T’s current wireless data 

plans range from $30 a month for 10MB of data 

to $80 for unlimited connectivity. Until the end 

of October, customers who sign up for AT&T’s 

current GSM/GPRS unlimited 

wireless data service plan 

with a two-year contract 

will get a free Sierra Wireless 

AirCard 750 and also a 

$150 discount if they upgrade 

to EDGE cards when the nationwide 

service becomes 

available. (Pricing has not yet 

been determined for the EDGE 

service.) 

The carriers are still in the first phase 

of 2.5G and 3G high-speed wireless WAN deployments. 

During the next few years, expect speeds to 

increase dramatically. But don’t turn your nose up at the current 

GSM/GPRS and CDMA/1xRTT speeds. Even though they’re much 

slower than cable and DSL throughputs, the current speeds are practical 

for typical Web browsing and e-mail (especially since the alternative 

is having no connection). The deciding factor for potential buyers 

should be cost and coverage; each carrier has a state-by-state 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOM O’CONNOR

coverage map on its Web site. 

All the carriers are building 

out their networks as quickly as 

they can afford to. Consequently, 

in major metropolitan areas, 

coverage should be pretty 

good—although pockets of bad 

reception are to be expected. 

Your best bet is to choose a 

wireless data carrier with the 

best voice coverage in the areas 

where you need wireless access. 

You can find that out by asking 

friends and colleagues to see 

which carrier has the best realworld 

(as opposed to claimed) 

voice service in a given area. 

As the networks are going alldigital, 

there is no longer the disparity 

between voice and data 

service that was common with 

analog cellular networks. 

Wireless data service available 

Wireless voice service available 

No service available 

As this map from Sprint PCS shows, 

you’ll need to check to see if data 

service is available where you need it. 

Pricing for wireless data access 

is still prohibitive for casual 

users, but relatively low-cost, unlimited-access 

plans, such as $20 

a month (with an accompanying 

voice plan) or $30 a month (data 

only) on T-Mobile’s GSM/GPRS 

network, are a good bet for business 

users who can justify the 

cost through enhanced productivity 

while on the road. Data 

plans for Sprint and Verizon 

(both use CDMA/1xRTT networks) 

start at $40 a month for 

20MB of data, which should be 

enough for you to check your 

e-mail and the news and weather 

a few times a day. The tradeoff 

for their higher pricing is that 

CDMA/1xRTT networks are 

clearly faster than GSM/GPRS 

36 Toshiba Portégé R100 

36 Maxtor OneTouch 

37 Xerox Phaser 6250 

37 Garmin iQue 3600 

networks, given the same signal 

strength. But if you try to use 

today’s WAN carriers as your 

sole Internet connection, it can 

get quite pricey. These plans are 

meant to augment normal ISPs 

while you’re mobile, not to replace 

them for permanent locations 

like your home or office. By 

the end of the decade, we should 

see wireless carriers offering ser- 

Are You Covered? 

vices that compete in throughput 

with today’s cable and DSL 

services. But currently their best 

use is for keeping in touch while 

you’re on the go. 

Sprint PCS 

Sprint PCS currently has the 

widest selection of wireless data 

cards among the U.S. carriers, including 

Type II PC Cards from 

AirPrime, Novatel Wireless, and 

Sierra Wireless. Sprint also sells 

the only CompactFlash wireless 

data card currently available— 

the Yiso PCS Connection Card 

CF 2031 ($180 street). The Sprint 

PCS Connection Card AirPrime 

PC3200 ($200 street) we tested 

has a stubby antenna protrusion 

and looks like a wireless LAN 

card; the antenna extends for better 

reception and transmission 

and folds down into the end 

piece for protection. The PC3200 

does not support voice calls, although 

some of the other Sprint 

PCS Connection Cards do. 

Sprint’s wireless data service 

pricing for consumers and small 

businesses is $40 a month for 

20MB, $60 a month for 40MB, $80 

a month for 70MB, and $100 a 

month for 300MB. There is no 

unlimited data plan, which may 

put off hard-core users. 

In our testing, the PCS Connection 

Manager software installed 

without fault. Using a 

Dell Inspiron 8200 notebook 

loaded with Microsoft Windows 

XP Home Edition, we didn’t 

have to reboot the system after 

installation. We tested the card 

in an area with only marginal 

Sprint PCS coverage (as indicated 

by one bar of signal strength 

on the PCS Connection Manager), 

and the Internet connection 

www.pcmag.com/firstlooks 

WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN 

was usable. After we cleared our 

browser of cookies and temporary 

files, the PCMag.com home 

page loaded in 58 seconds. Overall, 

the installation and performance 

were good. The biggest 

downside of the Sprint PCS 

wireless data service is the cost; 

the company doesn’t offer an 

unlimited access plan for nonbusiness 

users. 

T-Mobile 

lllll EXCELLENT 

llllm VERY GOOD 

lllmm GOOD 

llmmm FAIR 

lmmmm POOR 

The T-Mobile Sierra Wireless 

AirCard 750 network card ($350 

street, before a $100 rebate) is 

a triband GSM/GPRS device 

that’s also voice capable (you’ll 

have to supply a separate earpiece). 

The big advantage for 

international travelers is that the 

support for the three major 

GSM/GPRS bands means that a 

single device can work in many 

parts of the world. The AirCard 

750, which has a detachable antenna, 

can be used with Microsoft 

Handheld PC 2002 and 

Pocket PC 2002 PDAs with PC 

Card slots, as well as with Win- 


28 

dows notebooks. This makes the 

AirCard 750 more versatile than 

a laptop-only card. You can add 

unlimited Internet access to a 

qualifying T-Mobile voice plan 

for $20 a month or get an unlimited-access, 

data-only plan for 

$30 a month. 

As with other GSM/GPRS 

products, a SIM card inserted in 

the AirCard 750 holds your subscriber 

and authentication information. 

As soon as we finished 

the installation, we were able to 

connect to the Internet. 

Loading the PCMag.com 

home page took 90 seconds in a 

relatively weak signal area, with 

only two of five signal-strength 

bars showing. We plugged a 

small earset into the AirCard 750 

to make voice calls. This worked 

but was a bit awkward, since you 

must first launch the utility and 

then type in phone numbers 

using your keyboard. Most people 

won’t give up their cell 

phones in favor of using a notebook 

PC for voice calls. 

Although the throughput 

speed was noticeably slower 

with the T-Mobile service than 

with the Sprint PCS network, the 

connection was stable. And 

T-Mobile’s lower monthly cost 

is an advantage for consumers 

or small-business users on a 

tight budget. 

Verizon Wireless 

Verizon Wireless sells two wireless 

data cards: the data-only 

Verizon Wireless AirPrime 

PC3220 and the Verizon Sierra 

Wireless AirCard 555 ($300 

street), which we tested. The 

AirCard 555 is a dual-mode data 

device with support for 14.4- 

Kbps and CDMA/1xRTT data. 

By adding an earset, you can 

also use this card for voice calls. 

The Verizon AirCard 555, like 

the T-Mobile AirCard 750, can 

be used with Microsoft Handheld 

PC and Pocket PC devices. 

The AirCard 555’s detachable 

antenna—the same style used 

on the AirCard 750—is easy to 

Movie Edit Pro: Mixed Signals 

BY JAN OZER 

Magix Movie Edit Pro 

2004 is a likable, capable 

video-editing program 

with features far beyond 

those offered by similarly priced 

packages such as Pinnacle Studio 

8 or Ulead VideoStudio 7 

(reviewed in our feature “Hot 

Shots, Cool Cuts,” October 1, 

page 105). Unfortunately, Movie 

Edit Pro (MEP) trails those programs 

in usability, making it a 

poor choice for beginners or 

users who want to complete relatively 

simple projects quickly. 

Unlike most other consumeroriented 

editors, which offer 

only fixed interfaces and limited 

timeline tracks, MEP offers up to 

16 tracks. It also has effects such 

as still image, video overlay, and 

picture in picture, as well as an 

eight-track real-time audio 

mixer for managing volume 

across audio tracks. MEP excels 

at the basics of capture and 

timeline trimming, with lots of 

accessible controls for resizing 

the timeline and quickly cutting 

and arranging your scenes. 

Some workflow decisions, 

however, left us scratching our 

heads. For example, you can’t 

create titles over the background 

video, nor can you drag 


FIRST LOOKS 

replace and does not protrude 

from a notebook’s PC Card slot. 

But you have to carry and protect 

the antenna in a bag or 

pocket. 

Verizon’s Express Network 

wireless data service has plans 

starting at $40 a month for up to 

20MB of data transfer, $60 a 

month for 60MB, or $80 a month 

for unlimited access. (Voice calls 

are billed separately under these 

plans.) Verizon bundles Telus 

Mobility’s Venturi Personal 

Client compression software 

with the AirCard 555. The software 

isn’t required, but it can 

speed up some Internet downloads. 

In our testing with the 

Venturi program loaded, the 

PCMag.com home page took 45 

seconds to load in an area with 

full signal strength (five bars on 

Sierra Wireless’s Watcher configuration 

and control utility). 

The versatility of the AirCard 

555 and the added boost of the 

Venturi compression software 

make this card an attractive 

text and drop it to the desired location, 

which complicates production. 

MEP’s tools for controlling 

motion and speed are very 

complicated and sprinkled with 

jargon such as “sawtooth decreasing 

rhythmic envelopes.” 

The program also lacks visual 

feedback in many key areas, particularly 

audio volume—a surprising 

feature gap on a 16-track 

video editor. 

choice. For small-business users 

or corporate executives who 

don’t want to concern themselves 

with surpassing a monthly datatransfer 

limit, the $80 unlimitedaccess 

plan has some appeal. 

Sprint PCS Connection Card 

AirPrime PC3200 

Street price: $200 plus monthly 

service plan. Requires: Type II PC Card 

slot; Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Me, 

2000, or XP. Sprint Spectrum LP, 877- 

510-3733, www.sprintpcs.com. 

lllmm 

T-Mobile Sierra Wireless AirCard 

750 


service plan. Requires: Type II PC Card 

slot; Microsoft Windows 95 or later, 

Handheld PC 2002 or later, or Pocket 

PC 2002 or later. T-Mobile USA Inc., 

800-937-8997, www.t-mobile.com. 

lllmm 

Verizon Sierra Wireless AirCard 

555 


service plan. Requires: Type II PC 

Card slot; Microsoft Windows 95 or 

later, Handheld PC 2002 or later, or 

Pocket PC 2002 or later. Verizon 

Wireless, 800-256-4646, www 

.verizonwireless.com. lllmm 

DVD-authoring capabilities 

are template based, with good 

control over design elements 

like text, background image, and 

window placement. But this 

module offers limited navigational 

capabilities, especially 

compared with Pinnacle Studio. 

In testing, MEP proved very 

competitive on our 2.4-GHz 

workstation, rendering our 7minute 

test project to DV in 7:42 

and to MPEG-2 in 14:50. That’s 

faster than Studio (7:44 and 

18:01, respectively) but behind 

VideoStudio (7:39 and 9:08). 

With Magix Movie Edit Pro 2004, you’ll 

notice the large preview window on the 

upper-left-hand side, the visual FX 

editor on the upper-right-hand side, 

and the audio mixer on the bottom left. 

Magix Movie Edit Pro 2004 

Direct price: $99.99. Requires: 450- 

MHz CPU; 128MB RAM; Microsoft 

Windows 98, 98 SE, Me, 2000, or XP. 

Magix Entertainment Corp., 888-326- 

2449, www.magix.net. lllmm

30 

BY JAN OZER 

The HP DVD Movie Writer 

dc3000 makes analog 

tape-to-DVD conversions 

extraordinarily easy. It 

provides a competent suite for 

video editing, DVD authoring, 

and other CD/DVD recording 

functions, and it’s ideal for nontechnical 

users who want to 

save their tape-bound memories 

to DVDs with minimal fuss. 

The dc3000 combines a 

DVD+RW/CD-RW recorder 

with analog-capture and MPEG- 

2 encoding capabilities. The 

dc3000 features S-Video, composite 

video, and stereo audio 

input, which lets you connect 

an analog camcorder or even a 

VCR. It does not support direct 

DV input, so it’s not a good 

choice for digital camcorder 

owners. 

The HP Transfer Wizard 

walks you through analog-to- 

DVD conversions, and it launches 

with the press of a button on 

the dc3000 or via the Windows 

Start menu. In five simple steps, 

you can configure your camera 

or VCR connection, choose your 

encoding parameters, and select 

your DVD menu. Then you press 

play on your input device and 

the software takes over—right 

down to prompting you to create 

a cover for your DVD case. It’s a 

very straightforward interface 

that should feel accessible even 

to complete beginners. 

Note that recording to disc 

does not happen in real time, as 

it does with products such as 

ADS Technologies’ Instant DVD 

2.0 (First Looks, August 19). It’s 

actually a two-step process of 

capture, then burn. On our 2.4- 

GHz HP xw4100 test bed, the 

dc3000 needed 90 minutes to 

create a 58-minute disc, though 

no user intervention is required 

during the process. 

If you want more control over 

your creations, the bundle includes 

Arcsoft’s ShowBiz, a likeable 

video editor with a great 

range of usable effects, such as 

frames that display your video 


FIRST LOOKS 

Converter and DVD Burner in One 

from a billboard, blimp, or 

through a keyhole. The only significant 

feature gap compared 

with programs like Pinnacle 

Studio or Ulead VideoStudio is 

the inability to overlay an image 

on a background video. 

HP’s all-in-one conversion 

device lets you save 

analog tapes 

to DVD. 

Big Projector, 

Small Package 

BY ALFRED POOR 

The 2.0-pound InFocus 

LP120 is about the size of 

a carton of cigarettes, 

yet it can fill a small wall with 

vivid computer and video images. 

Image quality is very good 

(especially considering its size), 

and you won’t have to pay up 

for such miniaturization: The 

$2,800 street price is competitive 

with other XGA (1,024-by- 

768) projectors. 

The remote control that 

comes with the projector has 

forward and back buttons for 

presentations, a status button, 

and a red laser pointer. That’s a 

fairly limited set, so you’ll need 

to use the projector’s top panel 

controls—with buttons that 

light up, thankfully—when you 

set up the projector. (InFocus 

sells remotes with more features 

if you desire). One unexpected 

touch, given the unit’s size, is the 

presence of a zoom control 

along with the lens focus. 

The LP120 uses a single DLP 

micromirror panel from Texas 

Instruments. We tested using 

images generated by the Display 

ShowBiz’s new DVD authoring 

module is easy to use, but 

the workflow needs some rethinking. 

Specifically, if you’re 

producing one long video, you 

must first output separate files 

for each major section in order 

mate utility (www.displaymate 

.com). Overall, image quality 

was very good. The projector 

has excellent focus throughout 

the image. Gray scale response 

was strong at both ends of the 

spectrum, color ramps were 

smooth, and color tracking was 

excellent. The contrast ratio 

measurement of 294:1 was excellent 

for a projector of any size. 

The projector also did well 

with video images, and while the 

internal sound system is not particularly 

loud or of great sound 

quality, it’s fine for a small audience 

around a conference table. 

Even better in tight quarters, the 

cooling fan is relatively quiet. 

The image quality wasn’t perfect, 

however. The LP120’s test 

image did show the muddy yellows 

common to single-panel 

to place each on its own separate 

menu, which takes time 

and disk space. Programs like 

Pinnacle Studio are much more 

flexible here. 

If you have a DVD burner, you 

may want to consider a less costly, 

converter-only alternative, 

such as Instant DVD 2.0 or Pinnacle 

Studio MovieBox USB 

(First Looks, August 19). But if 

you’re starting from scratch and 

have been waiting for an easy 

way to convert tape to DVD, HP 

has a winning answer. 

HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 

Direct price: $399. Requires: Pentium 

III/800 or better, 128MB RAM (256MB 

recommended), 550MB hard drive 

space for included software, 10GB free 

space for DVD video disc creation, 

1,024-by-768 video resolution, USB 1.1 

or 2.0, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP2 

or XP. Hewlett-Packard Co., www.hp 

.com, 888-999-4747. llllm 

DLP projectors. Another weak 

point was the projector’s brightness. 

Rated at 1,100 ANSI lumens, 

our evaluation unit measured 

just 649 lumens using our 

more rigorous test procedures. 

This is considerably less light 

than many portable projectors 

yield, and it means that the projector 

will not produce good 

contrast or saturated colors on a 

large screen under normal room 

lighting. 

So if you need a projector that 

can produce wall-sized images 

in a lit room, look elsewhere. But 

if small size is paramount, the 

LP120 delivers without compromising 

on the major factors. 

InFocus LP120 

Street price: $2,800. InFocus Corp., 

800-294-6400, www.infocus.com. 

llllm 

Slip the InFocus LP120 into the 

same bag as your laptop and 

go from two carry-ons 

to one.

BY LUISA SIMONE 

Not just a collection of 

disjointed apps in a single 

box, Macromedia 

Studio MX 2004 proves the old 

adage that the whole is more 

than the sum of its parts. Each of 

the main programs in this suite 

—Dreamweaver MX 2004, Fireworks 

MX 2004, Flash MX 2004, 

and FreeHand MX—dominates 

its niche of the Web development 

market. But together these 

programs offer synergies that 

help developers accomplish 

more with fewer resources. 

At only $899, Studio MX is an 

incredible bargain. It delivers not 

only the four stellar authoring 

programs but also ColdFusion 

MX 6.1 Developer Edition for 

building and deploying Web applications 

and services (First 

Looks, September 3, 2002). The 

only deal better is the Macromedia 

Studio MX 2004 with Flash 

Professional version, which for 

only $100 more delivers the 

more robust Flash developer 

(with advanced features such as 

support for forms, database connectivity, 

an enhanced video encoder, 

and more). 

Here we review the programs 

that have been updated for this 

release: Dreamweaver, Fireworks, 

and Flash (see First Looks, 

FIRST LOOKS 

Macromedia’s Suite Gambit Pays Off 

April 8, for our review of Free- 

Hand). All the programs now 

share a number of similar features 

and interface conventions. 

So, wherever possible, the programs 

preview formatting options 

to help users make choices 

intuitively and visually. For example, 

the Properties Inspector 

in Dreamweaver will preview the 

actual formatting of your CSS 

custom classes when you open 

the Styles drop-down list. 

Across-the-board features 

like Unicode support, improved 

CSS (cascading style sheets) 

handling, and Check-In/Check- 

Out file management functions 

help developers work more 

consistently. And the programs 

are more capable of sharing native 

objects or round-tripping 

code. So, for example, Fireworks 

will no longer choke 

on server-side code from 

Dreamweaver, and Dreamweaver 

can reformat prescribed 

features of a Flash element. 

MACROMEDIA 

DREAMWEAVER MX 2004 

At the moment, if you want to 

build a cutting-edge Web site 

using the full power of cascading 

style sheets, you still have to 

code it by hand. Macromedia’s 

Dreamweaver MX 2004 plans to 

Dreamweaver MX 2004 delivers a CSS-savvy workspace, including 

a revamped Tag Inspector (right) that displays editable attributes 

for CSS rules. 

change that by providing robust 

CSS features in a visual editing 

environment. 

Dreamweaver MX 2004 integrates 

support of CSS in a number 

of different ways. Most important, 

the Tag Inspector now 

displays style attributes, such as 

text size or padding. Edits made 

in the Tag Inspector are immediately 

reflected in the design view 

of the document. An improved 

CSS panel lets you jump directly 

to a specified style definition 

within the code. Even if you still 

prefer to hand-code, you’ll find 

that code hinting and auto-completion 

make you more efficient. 

Dreamweaver renders CSS 

code internally with a high degree 

of accuracy. During testing, 

however, we discovered that 

some fairly common constructs 

—like psuedo-classes or negative 

values—don’t render properly 

within Dreamweaver and 

still require you to preview your 

work in a browser. But even with 

this minor inconvenience, 

Dreamweaver’s visual editing 

environment will encourage 

Web developers to use CSS for 

complex page layout as well as 

text styling. 

The rest of Dreamweaver’s 

new features share a common 

theme: convenience. For exam- 

ple, you no longer need install 

different browsers for testing 

purposes, because Dreamweaver 

offers internal validation that 

can check for cross-browser 

compatibility. You can target 

specific browser or language 

versions and have Dreamweaver 

report on the tags or CSS rules 

that will prove problematic. 

Likewise, you are no longer 

forced to define an entire site in 

order to access and edit a lone 

HMTL page. 

And though you still have to 

launch an external program 

(like Fireworks) to perform 

complex image-editing tasks, 

you can make simple edits to a 

picture (such as cropping, resizing, 

or sharpening) directly 

within Dreamweaver. We were 

impressed with the new import 

filter for Word and Excel files, 

which creates clean HTML from 

formatted documents and preserves 

Word styles as cascading 

style sheets. 

Dreamweaver also boasts 

tighter integration with Flash. A 

new flavor of Flash (actually a 

variation of a Flash component 

object, or SWC) allows Dreamweaver 

users to modify attributes 

of a Flash element via the Tag 

Inspector. These new Flash elements 

must be parameterized 

within Flash, so that individual 

attributes (such as font family, 

background color, text strings, 

Flash MX 2004 makes animation more accessible with automated 

effects. Here the pie chart, which was created in Illustrator and 

imported as an EPS file, is set to fade out over 20 frames. 


32 

or image links) can be edited 

within Dreamweaver. 

But the ultimate convenience 

feature may prove to be a set of 

six templates that share a common 

aesthetic. The new “Halo” 

templates provide sophisticated 

CSS-based layouts, which only 

require that users import their 

text and graphics. 

Dreamweaver dominates the 

Web development marketplace, 

and for good reason. It supports 

an amazingly broad range of 

standard documents, including 

HTML, XML, PHP, ASP, Cold- 

Fusion—and now CSS. The new 

features streamline workflow by 

giving developers the ability to 

tweak CSS style sheets, images, 

and Flash Elements without 

ever leaving Dreamweaver. 

MACROMEDIA 

FLASH MX 2004 

With this release, Macromedia 

Flash has developed a split personality. 

The Flash product line 

now consists of Flash MX 2004 

and Flash MX Professional 2004. 

Don’t be fooled by the lack of 

the word “professional” in its 

name: Flash MX 2004 is clearly 

intended for high-end Web developers, 

with a number of new 

features that enhance efficiency. 

Chief among them are two timeline 

effects: Transform and 

Transition. 

These commands present 

you with simple point-and-click 

options to animate an object’s 

properties, such as position, 

size, or opacity. Their dialog 

boxes are much easier to use 

than the existing “Create Motion 

Tween” command, if only 

because you can return to the 

dialog box to further tweak the 

animation effect. 

Flash MX 2004 offers a slew of 

workspace enhancements. Spellchecking 

and search-and-replace 

functions are a real boon, because 

they work across an entire 

application including the stage, 

actions, frame labels, and text 

fields. The new History panel 

does double duty: It provides 

multiple undos (of up to 9,999 operations). 

And it allows users to 

save a series of steps as a custom 

command. New import filters 

save time by letting you incorporate 

a wider range of graphics 

formats, such as PDF and EPS, 

into a Flash composition. 

Flash has always let you configure 

output options for SWF 

movies, including the version of 

the Flash player required to view 

the content. Flash MX 2004 

makes this process more efficient 

in two ways. First, you can 

save your Publish settings for 

easy reuse. Second, with the help 

of the automated Deployment 

Kit, you can create a specialized 

SWF file that detects the Flash 

player version and redirects the 

visitor to appropriate content. 

The nitty gritty of coding is 

also improved in this release. 

Macromedia has upgraded 

ActionScript, making it more 

compliant with ECMA standards 

and therefore more familiar to 

Java programmers. You can also 

maintain visual consistency 

with Dreamweaver applications 

by applying a subset of CSS tags 

(for text styling) to HTML- or 

XML-formatted text fields. 

You’ll also want to take advantage 

of the new Flash player, 

which offers improved playback 

performance with a special emphasis 

on business application 

functions (such as connecting to 

a back-end database). Version 7 

of the Flash player, like its predecessors, 

will be available as a 

free download from the Macromedia 

Web site. 

In short, there is no doubt 


FIRST LOOKS 

that Flash MX 2004 is a musthave 

upgrade for serious Web 

developers. 

MACROMEDIA 

FIREWORKS MX 2004 

In the real world, professional 

graphic artists and Web developers 

choose programs for 

Fireworks MX 2004 offers new file management options, like 

the Dreamweaver-style Check-In/Check-Out functions shown 

here. Notice the new AutoShapes, which sport control handles 

for easy reshaping. 

power, efficiency, and integration 

with other essential applications. 

Macromedia Fireworks 

has always maintained an edge 

over competing products (like 

Adobe ImageReady) by offering 

the widest range of automated 

Web effects. The latest release— 

Fireworks MX 2004— leverages 

collaboration tools and integration 

with Dreamweaver to 

widen that lead. 

In a workgroup situation, 

artists can now safely share 

source PNG files, because Fireworks 

supports the same Check- 

In/Check-Out functions as 

Dreamweaver. This feature lets 

you easily FTP files to a remote 

server, and it locks a file to prevent 

team members from overwriting 

one another’s edits. Fireworks 

relies upon Dreamweaver 

to supply the necessary site definitions, 

so this feature won’t 

work with other HTML editors. 

Fireworks MX 2004 also improves 

its round-trip support 

with the ability to open files that 

have been modified in Dreamweaver 

with server-side code or 

nested tables. 

Extensions developers will be 

thrilled with Fireworks’ new- 

found ability to run in the background 

while accepting Action- 

Script commands from other 

applications. This powerful integration 

feature will enable Fireworks 

plug-ins to use custom 

Flash interfaces or Dreamweaver 

plug-ins to borrow advanced 

image-editing functions. 

This version of Fireworks 

adds a number of artistic tools 

that are nevertheless commonplace 

in other graphics programs. 

For example, FreeHand 

users will recognize contour 

gradients and dashed line styles. 

In the same way, the new image 

correction tools, such as red-eye 

removal or replace color, are 

ubiquitous in image-editing programs. 

Even Fireworks’ Auto- 

Shapes (which let you reshape a 

geometric object using special 

control handles) are similar to 

the AutoShapes found in Office 

apps. Incorporating these tools 

makes it easier to create complex 

illustrations entirely within 

Fireworks without importing 

images from external programs. 

Fireworks is well known for 

its Live Effects, which are nondestructive 

filter effects that remain 

editable. This version of 

Fireworks lets you create the 

illusion of movement or add texture 

by applying new effects— 

such as motion blur, zoom blur, 

or noise—to either vector or 

raster objects. Designers who 

develop graphics for handheld 

devices will appreciate the new 

text anti-aliasing options, which 

can utilize either customizable 

settings or OS support. The bottom 

line is that Fireworks text 

looks more legible at even smaller 

sizes. 

Fireworks MX 2004 has been 

optimized to improve performance. 

Faster response times 

are always appealing, but the 

real productivity boost comes in 

the form of better support for 

collaborative teamwork. 

Macromedia Studio MX 2004 

Direct price: $899; upgrade pricing 

available. Requires: Pentium/600, 

256MB RAM, 800MB hard drive 

space, Microsoft Windows 98 SE, 

2000, or XP. Macromedia Inc., 800- 

470-7211, www.macromedia.com. 

lllll

FIRST LOOKS 

Vying for a Slice of BlackBerry’s Pie 

BY RICHARD V. DRAGAN 

Today there are plenty of 

options for keeping up 

with your e-mail on the 

road using wireless handheld 

devices, namely connected 

PDAs and data-enabled phones. 

But since corporate e-mail, address 

books, and appointment 

information is usually stored on 

Microsoft Exchange or Lotus 

Notes/Domino servers, keeping 

your desktop and handheld in 

sync can be a real chore for a 

typical business user. 

Three recent software solutions 

make it easy to sync up 

with the home office and keep 

your server-resident and PDAresident 

data in step, without 

having to cradle several times a 

day. This push approach can ensure 

that you stay in touch all 

the time. 

First, Good Technology’s new 

GoodLink Server 2.0 builds on 

the company’s cradle-less push 

technology, with an emphasis on 

simplicity. The new version 

sports policy-based management, 

instant messaging on the 

client end, and other improvements. 

Good offers RIM Black- 

Berry devices that work with its 

system, as well as its own custom 

G100 hardware. The company 

has also announced a partnership 

with Handspring to 

bring new models into the fold. 

While it’s the most easily deployed 

end-to-end solution, it’s 

also the most restrictive when it 

comes to hardware choices. 

RIM BlackBerry Enterprise 

Server for Microsoft Exchange 

3.6 ($4,999 direct per server; First 

Looks, August 5) offers a solid 

messaging system that works 

with a growing line of BlackBerry 

PDAs. This package excels at 

fine-tuned policy management 

to stay on top of administration 

costs, and it provides excellent 

control of e-mail filtering. Black- 

Berry Enterprise Server gives 

you several more choices than 

GoodLink does for hardware, including 

the voice-enabled Black- 

Berry 6710 and the sleek 7210. 

The new GoodLink Server 2.0 lets administrators set companywide 

and user-specific policies. 

You can view a wide variety of stats for handheld users within 

the GoodLink Server admin console. 

Even more flexible in hardware, 

software, and connectivity 

options is Extended Systems’ 

OneBridge Mobile Groupware 

suite. This solution aims to support 

virtually every type of wireless 

handheld from most any 

vendor, including those running 

Microsoft Pocket PC, Palm OS, 

and Symbian. Better yet, you can 

connect any way you want— 

wirelessly over a service carrier 

or even via an access point 

(which is perfect for the warehouse 

or corporate campus). 

Best of all, the platform supports 

custom enterprise applica- 

tions (CRM, inventory, and so 

on) designed to run on a specific 

handheld, so your users can have 

access to more than just PIM 

data. Of course, you’ll spent a 

little more time administering 

all these different devices and 

apps, but this new offering earns 

points for letting users tap 

Exchange/Lotus data in different 

ways without having to buy new 

handhelds. 

Each of the three has its 

strengths. GoodLink Server 2.0 

wins on ease of use for administrators 

and end users alike, and 

it’s the most affordable of the 

three. That makes it a natural 

choice for midsize businesses 

just starting to roll out a push 

solution. 

BlackBerry Enterprise Server 

offers the most precise control 

over policies for mobile users, 

with dozens of available options 

for administrators. That, and 

RIM’s established relationship 

with a range of wireless carriers, 

makes it ideal for larger enterprises 

where control and coverage 

are paramount. 

For its part, Extended Systems’ 

OneBridge Mobile Gateway 

is the most device-independent 

of the three solutions. Its 

per-server deployment cost is 

higher than that of the others, 

but that can be quickly offset in a 

large enterprise that has already 

deployed handhelds to end 

users, since you don’t need to 

buy new devices for everyone. 

And the fact that users can run 

full-blown applications in a wireless 

environment is a bonus. 

GOODLINK SERVER 2.0 

Good Technology’s GoodLink 

Server 2.0 solution succeeds at 

keeping wireless corporate messaging 

simple for both IT administrators 

and users. The new release 

offers improved support 

for on-the-fly synchronization 

with Exchange and Lotus messaging 

systems, plus instant 

messaging and a new policybased 

approach to managing 

mobile users. Though it currently 

supports relatively few hardware 

choices, this end-to-end 

package strikes an appealing 

balance between simplicity and 

effective push e-mail administration. 

We installed GoodLink Server 

2.0 on Windows 2000 Advanced 

Server running against 

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5. 

(Support for Lotus Notes/ 

Domino is also included.) Setup 

was the simplest among the 

three. For example, the setup 

utility applied a required Exchange 

service pack to update 

our version of CDO, a really nice 

touch. As with RIM’s BlackBerry 

Enterprise Server, administration 

is accomplished using a Mi- 


34 

crosoft Management Console 

(MMC) plug-in. This tool doubles 

as a provisioning tool for 

new handhelds. 

Using a dozen simulated Exchange 

users, we set up several 

identities on Good’s G100 wireless 

handhelds. The vendor also 

offers support for the RIM Black- 

Berry 950 and 957, as well as the 

Handspring Treo 600 with integrated 

phone support. Good 

Technology plans to move from 

designing its own hardware to 

partnering with other manufacturers 

and carriers, especially as 

wireless devices get voice capabilities. 

Provisioning a new handheld 

in GoodLink was a veritable 

snap. We cradled, and the MMCbased 

admin console tool detected 

the serial number from each 

device. This handy built-in utility 

then downloaded the Good- 

Link client software onto each 

handheld, which took just a few 

minutes. 

New in Version 2.0 is policybased 

control for your handheld 

users. First, you can set a global 

policy for users, with options 

such as whether to require passwords 

(including type and 

length) and which applications 

to permit (such as the new 

instant-messaging application 

or solitaire). Generally, we like 

the new policy management 

here; it should be a good deal 

easier to master than that of Extended 

Systems and RIM. 

As we’ve said, the MMC admin 

console in GoodLink favors simplicity. 

There’s easy access to 

server status, usage statistics, 

and configuration options for individual 

users, including the 

ability to kill a user’s device remotely. 

(The other solutions 

here offer a similar option.) 

Like BlackBerry, GoodLink’s 

client application takes complete 

control of the handheld. 

Options for mail, contact information, 

and appointments run 

down the left side of the display 

on the G100 (and RIM 957). New 

features here include the ability 

to use global address books for 

your company and to synchronize 

Sent and Outbox folders. A 

side effect of this is that the first 

time you boot your handheld, 

you have to wait a few minutes 

while all this data syncs up. 

After this initial setup, you 

won’t often need or want to cradle 

again for synchronizing. The 

G100 handheld with which we 

tested ($349 direct) still earns 

points for its design, which permits 

scrolling and clicking using 

the same trackbar control near 

the middle of the device. Raised 

buttons on the keyboard, though 

still small, should allow successful 

two-thumb typing. 

The GoodLink e-mail client 


FIRST LOOKS 

With the OneBridge console, administrators can set synchronization 

options for Exchange and Notes content with 

support for all major handheld devices. 

By setting profiles for different user groups and types of 

handheld devices, OneBridge administrators get extremely 

fine control of virtually every aspect of this corporate 

messaging solution. 

simplifies typing further by 

using auto-complete wherever 

possible for addresses. We like 

that the new version adds a corporate 

history feature for accessing 

all previously used e-mail 

addresses, as well as access 

to public folders and address 

books. An instant-messaging 

application lets you send short 

text messages (which can be 

archived automatically) via email 

to other users. 

Our review caught Good 

Technology in the middle of 

several upgrades and a shift in 

corporate strategy. Besides 

planned support for Palm OS 

and integrated voice in the 

promising Handspring Treo 600 

model due out by the time you 

read this, the company plans to 

offer more carriers (right now 

Cingular is the only choice) in 

the near future. 

In this new release, what 

GoodLink does, it does very 

well. Though it still has a narrow 

range of hardware options when 

compared with its competitors, 

it offers a highly polished and 

very functional push solution. 

GoodLink Server 2.0 

Direct price: $2,000 per server, plus 

monthly carrier charge per user. Good 

Technology Inc., 866-723-4663, 

www.good.com. llllm 

ONEBRIDGE MOBILE 

GROUPWARE 4.0 

With the widest support for 

handheld hardware and connectivity 

options, Extended Systems’ 

OneBridge Mobile Groupware 

4.0 offers a powerful suite 

of mobile tools and an extremely 

flexible approach to serving 

all major PDAs and phones. 

Installing OneBridge Sync 

Server proved easy enough, although 

the setup utility used 

well over a dozen wizard screens 

(the most we’ve seen in any enterprise 

solution). Connecting to 

our Exchange 5.5 server was simple 

with the provided adapter 

module, though the installer 

complained when we tried to 

use Microsoft Outlook XP instead 

of Outlook 2000 for the required 

version of CDO. We also 

took a look at the One Bridge 

Real Time Server, which provides 

browser-based access to 

wireless content, available on the 

same setup program. 

A distinguishing feature in 

the Extended Systems solution 

is its powerful handheld client 

installation package. This tool 

creates installations for virtually 

all handheld platforms—including 

Palm OS, Pocket PC, 

Symbian, SyncML, and even 

desktop Windows accessed 

through a wireless (or wired) 

network. These setup modules 

can be used to provision differ-

ent devices by running a separate 

installer tailored to each device. 

This approach permits administrators 

and even end users 

to set up their devices for use 

with OneBridge quickly. 

Inevitably, this wide-ranging 

support for hardware means a bit 

more complexity on the administration 

side. In the standalone 

OneBridge administration console, 

we were at first a bit overwhelmed 

by the range of options. 

Multiple actions—like synching, 

backing up, and restoring content—can 

be defined at a precise 

level of granularity for each of the 

half-dozen supported classes of 

devices. This all makes for a 

somewhat cluttered console, listing 

dozens of options, with the 

actions exposed for each device. 

(You can streamline the clutter 

by selecting only the few types of 

devices found in your organization.) 

The bottom line is that this 

admin console will be a bit more 

difficult to master. 

Extended Systems does not 

market its own hardware. We 

tested OneBridge with several 

handheld models: a Palm OSbased 

Tungsten W and a Compaq 

iPAQ Pocket PC. The custom 

installers for these two platforms 

worked well, and we were 

up and running quickly. Unlike 

Good and (to some extent) RIM 

which take over the entire handheld 

client, the OneBridge client 

software integrates with the 

handheld’s existing software, 

presenting a few additional applets 

for e-mail. After we ran the 

installer, server settings were 

configured automatically on 

each PDA The provided desktop 

connector software manages the 

synchronizing when cradled. 

The communication options 

for OneBridge are admirably 

flexible and were simply the best 

we’ve seen. Using the Live Connect 

option, we could synchronize 

with Microsoft Exchange 

data via cradling or through 

T-Mobile’s GPRS network. 

Reading and writing e-mail 

on the Palm OS is done with Extended 

Systems’ custom Mail- 

Plus utility. We like the ability to 

scroll through messages quickly 

and view filtered messages separately. 

Contact and appointment 

information is displayed in 

the standard Palm Address and 

Data Book applets. 

There is no need for a custom 

e-mail app on the Pocket PC platform. 

E-mail, contact, and appointment 

data are displayed 

within the standard Pocket PC 

environment. On both Palm and 

Pocket PC devices, a OneBridge 

icon is added, enabling users to 

configure settings. We liked that 

you could choose a connection 

profile easily, which simplifies 

switching between faster and 

slower connections as you travel. 

A unique option with One- 

FIRST LOOKS 

Bridge is the ability to run a 

thin-client version of mail 

using its Real Time Server, 

which relies on your mobile 

browsers to display Exchange 

or Lotus data. But OneBridge 

trails the others in e-mail management 

for end users, since 

you can’t sort messages into 

subfolders on the handheld and 

have those changes propagate 

back to the server. 

Extended Systems’ philosophy 

of playing well with others, 

both in hardware and wireless 

carriers, means that OneBridge 

can fit the hardware requirements 

of most any organization. 

You don’t even need a wireless 

Share a Dial-Up Connection 

BY CRAIG ELLISON 

If you thought you needed 

broadband to be a part of 

the wireless generation, 

think again. The Actiontec Dual 

PC Modem is a simple hardware 

device that lets two computers 

share a dial-up Internet connection. 

Connect an access point to 

one of its two Ethernet ports and 

those machines can go wireless. 

The Dual PC Modem contains 

a V.92 modem and a DHCP 

server. That component assigns 

IP addresses to the connected 

PCs and performs network address 

translation, so that multiple 

PCs can share the Internet 

connection. 

Installation is simple. Connect 

the Dual PC Modem to 

your phone line, plug in Ethernet 

cables to each of your PCs, 

and you’re ready to begin a very 

simple setup process. If you 

want to use the modem with 

your wireless notebook or device, 

you can plug in a wireless 

access point to one of the Ethernet 

ports and share your dial-up 

network wirelessly. 

To configure the unit, you 

merely point your browser at 

the IP address of the Dual PC 

Modem (provided in the quick 

start guide) and fill in your logon 

name, password, and the 

phone number of your ISP. You 

can also perform all these steps 

with a setup wizard walking you 

through the process and testing 

the connection for you. 

The Dual PC Modem supports 

dial on demand (DOD). 

When you type in a Web address, 

the modem automatically 

dials your service provider and 

makes the connection. Unfortunately, 

in many cases, the Web 

page will time out before the 

modem has finished connecting 

service carrier for warehouse or 

campus deployments, as it can 

run over an 802.11x network, 

Bluetooth, or even a standard 

network when cradled. 

Though administration in 

OneBridge will probably take a 

bit more work than with the 

other packages, this all-around 

player offers an appealing solution, 

especially if your users have 

different types of handhelds. 

OneBridge Mobile 

Groupware 4.0 

Direct price: $10,000 per server, plus 

$215 per user (volume discounts available). 

Extended Systems Inc., 800- 

235-7576, www.extendedsystems 

.com. llllm 

to your ISP. To avoid this problem, 

you can use a system tray 

utility to connect and disconnect 

to your ISP manually. 

If dial-up service is all you 

have and you need to share—or 

if you want to add wireless capabilities 

to a dial-up PC—the 

Dual PC Modem could be a good 

choice for you. 

ActionTec Dual PC Modem 

Street price: $70. Requires: 64MB 

RAM, Ethernet port, Microsoft 

Windows 98 or later. Actiontec 

Electronics Inc., 800-797-7001, 

www.actiontec.com. lllmm 

The ActionTec Dual PC Modem lets you share a dial-up connection 

or add a wireless gateway to its Ethernet port. 


36 

Portégé R100: Nearly Flawless 

BY BILL HOWARD 

The dazzling Toshiba 

Portégé R100 is an 

impressive 2.4-pound 

ultra-ultraportable (most ultraportables 

weigh 3 to 4 pounds) 

with a full-size keyboard, 40GB 

hard drive, and 12.1-inch XGA 

display. The only flaw in this 

otherwise impeccable system is 

low battery life—an unavoidable 

trade-off given the system’s 

diminutive size. 

The R100 is Toshiba’s followup 

to last year’s breakthrough— 

the Toshiba Portégé 2000 family. 

The R100 continues the useful 

features found in those systems, 

such as a full-size keyboard (virtually 

unheard in notebooks 

under 3 pounds), an external 

switch that controls the internal 

wireless Ethernet, a bright polysilicon 

display, and an ultracompact 

1.8-inch hard drive 

(which is 40GB in the R100 versus 

20GB for the 2000 family). 

New to the R100 is a Presentation 

button that lets you 

quickly set up a PowerPoint 

show. And performance from 

the R100’s 1.0-GHz Pentium M 

processor (19.6 on Business 

Winstone 2002) trumps the 

Portégé 2010’s score of 13.9. Performance 

from the R100’s integrated 

Intel 802.11b wireless 

adapter was acceptable, though 

throughput was generally 

slightly below that which we’ve 

seen on larger notebooks. 

Although you can take the 

R100 anywhere, it may not run 

long enough to complete the 

journey. All you’ll get from the 

internal battery is 2 hours 20 

minutes, according to our Business 

Winstone BatteryMark 

2003 test. Travelers will have to 

make a constant companion of 

the included undermount 

battery, which brings total runtime 

to a laudable 7:25. This 

power pack, however, messes up 

the sleek lines of the R100’s 0.7by 

11.3- by 9.0-inch (HWD) magnesium 

chassis and brings its 

system weight to 3.1 pounds. The 

R100 does not include an optical 

drive, but Toshiba sells a Targus 

CD-RW ($149) and a DVD-RW 

($349) drive, which both connect 

to the R100 via the PC Card slot. 

Deciding between the sleek 

R100 and a heavier ultraportable—namely 

the classleading 

IBM ThinkPad X31— 

comes down to your priorities. 

The X31 is larger and weighs 

more (3.6 pounds) but runs for 

4:40 on its internal battery. The 

X31 also has more features, such 

as Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, 

and Bluetooth capabilities. But if 

you’re considering the 3.0-pound 

Dell Latitude X300 we recently 

tested (First Looks, September 16, 

page 42), the Toshiba model may 

be a better choice. The R100 deliv- 

Solve Your 

Backup and 

Storage Woes 

BY M. DAVID STONE 

Maxtor likes to emphasize 

how easy backing 

up your system is 

with its Maxtor OneTouch external 

hard drives. For us, an equal 

draw is that these drives are also 

the easiest way to add capacity 

to your PC (in chunks of 120GB 

to 300GB). 

Because the drives are external, 

you don’t need to open your 

PC’s case. With a Microsoft 

Windows XP system, you just 

plug in a OneTouch drive’s 

power cord, turn it on, and connect 

a USB or FireWire cable 

(both are included). The 120GB 

model supports USB 1.1 and 2.0, 

while the 200GB, 7,200-rpm 

250GB (which we tested), and 

300GB versions also each have a 

pair of FireWire connectors, 

which let you easily daisy-chain 

multiple drives. 

Windows XP automatically 

recognizes a OneTouch drive, 

which you can then use the same 

as any other drive—except you 

cannot boot from it. A wizard 


FIRST LOOKS 

ers similar runtime and a larger 

keyboard in a lighter package. 

If a full-size keyboard and 

the lightest weight going are 

crucial, the Toshiba Portégé 

R100 stands alone. 

Toshiba Portégé R100 

Direct price: With 1.0-GHz Pentium M, 

256MB DDR SDRAM, 40GB hard drive, 

Trident XP4m32 graphics, 12.1-inch 

XGA display, 802.11b wireless 

Ethernet, Windows XP Professional, 

$2,299. Toshiba America 

Information Systems, 

800-867-4422, 

www.shop 

toshiba.com. 

llllm 

The 2.4-pound 

Toshiba Portégé R100 

packs a full-size keyboard. 

guides you through the painless 

process of configuring the automatic 

backup settings. Pressing a 

button on the front of a One- 

Touch drive causes a monitoring 

utility to launch the backup 

software. By default, it’s set to 

use the included Dantz Retrospect 

Express 6.0. If you have 

some other favorite back-up program, 

you can set the Maxtor 

software to call it up instead. 

Over a USB 2.0 connection, 

a 620MB 

backup of 

5,192 files took 5 minutes 4 seconds, 

including a second pass for 

verifying the files. Subsequent 

backups are far faster, because 

Retrospect Express backs up 

only new and changed files. 

We also kept working while 

backing up with little to no effect 

on the performance of the foreground 

program. By comparison, 

it took almost 24 

minutes to back 

up a similar set of 

files with the previous-generation 

5,400-rpm One- 

Touch over USB 1.1 

In short, you get 

everything you 

could want in an external 

drive. The 

OneTouch button 

for easy backups and 

fine Dantz software 

give you a little extra. 

Maxtor OneTouch 

Direct price: 250GB, $349.95. 

Requires: 32MB RAM; USB 1.1 or 

2.0 or FireWire port; Windows 98 

SE, Me, 2000, or XP. Maxtor Corp., 

408-894-5000, www.maxtor.com. 

lllll 

The anodized aluminum case of the Maxtor OneTouch drive 

looks as good as it works.

BY M. DAVID STONE 

The Xerox Phaser 6250 

midrange color laser is a 

significant step up from 

the already admirable 6200 that 

it replaces. The easy setup and 

excellent network management 

tools are much the same, but 

under the hood is a new design 

that can blow the 6200 away— 

cutting print time in half or more 

on almost all of our tests. 

Physical installation is as easy 

as you’ll find for a color laser, as 

the printer comes with the toner 

cartridges in place. Xerox’s network 

administration tools are 

among the best available, starting 

with the tools for installing 

the driver. When you insert the 

CD, the setup routine gives you 

two choices for automated setup. 

You can let it search your network 

for printers, pick the ap- 

FIRST LOOKS 

New Phaser Delivers Stunning Speed 

Find-Your-Way PDA 

BY BRUCE BROWN 

Add-on GPS units were 

among the earliest and 

sexiest accessories for 

PDAs. A GPS could help you find 

out where you were and track 

your progress on trips, using the 

PDA’s display and software 

downloaded from a host PC. But 

adding GPS capability typically 

requires a bulky add-on or a 

CompactFlash card. 

Now Garmin, one of the most 

respected names in the GPS industry, 

has entered the PDA market 

with an intriguing convergent 

device, the Garmin iQue 

3600 ($590 street). While the 

Palm OS 5.0–based iQue 3600 

isn’t inexpensive compared with 

many conventional PDAs, it’s 

cheaper than buying a PDA and a 

GPS add-on. 

The iQue 3600 has 32MB of 

RAM for map data and other 

Palm applications. Conveniently, 

an SD card slot lets you save 

map files (which can be large) 

separately. The 6.6-ounce device 

propriate printer, and sit back 

while the software takes care of 

the installation. One minor installation 

issue is that if you 

want to share the printer and automatically 

make drivers available 

for downloading for additional 

operating systems, you 

have to pick an Options button 

has a 2.2- by 3.2-inch 320-by-480 

backlit 16-bit color display. 

The GPS unit itself is a WAASenabled, 

12-parallel-channel receiver 

with rated GPS positional 

accuracy within 15 meters and 

rated WAAS accuracy within 3 

meters. The GPS antenna fits 

into and folds out from the top of 

the back of the case. Close it and 

it turns off, conserving battery 

power. If you’re going to use the 

iQue in your car for long trips, 

it’s probably a good idea to buy 

the optional 12-volt car power 

adapter ($30 direct). 

The iQue includes a vibrating 

alarm and an MP3 player function, 

but its primary function is 

as a location and navigation device. 

Bundled software includes 

Garmin’s GPS clock, address 

lookup, mapping, tracking, trip 

computer, router generator, and 

turn-by-turn voice guidance 

programs. On our tests in the 

Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut, 

areas, the iQue 3600 

performed as well as any add-on 

and set that option. If you don’t 

know that you need to choose 

the button up front, you’ll have 

to go into the driver and make 

those changes manually later. 

Rated at 26 pages per minute 

for both monochrome and color, 

the 6250 is fast. On our tests, it 

printed a 2-page Excel work- 

The Xerox 

Phaser 6250 

delivers finequality 

output 

at a very good 

clip, making 

it ideal for 

midsize 

offices and 

workgroups. 

GPS unit we’ve tested. 

During installation a base 

map of major cities, roads, and 

state and county boundaries is 

loaded on the PDA. A license is 

included to use detailed map 

and POI data from a two-disc 

MapSource City Select. 

The iQue’s applications use 

moving maps; just move the cursor 

to any edge and the map 

moves to the next area. You can 

also easily zoom in or out for 

more or less detail. We tested 

routing to locations in the Hartford 

area, and the software quickly 

showed us the best way to get 

to our favorite pizza places. 

Integration with the Palm address 

book is helpful: Tapping 

the “Route to” button automatically 

generates a route to any address 

on your contact list. And 

the mapping feature quickly 

shows you how to get to the next 

appointment on your calendar. 

If you often travel in new 

areas, Garmin’s iQue 3600 is a 

handy single-device combination. 

Use it as a regular PDA 

when you’re not out and about, 

but when you need directional 

sheet with color charts in 14.4 

seconds, a 100-page Word file 

(with color on every page) in 4 

minutes 57 seconds, and an assortment 

of 8- by 10-inch photos 

in 13 to 33 seconds, depending 

on the photo. 

Even better, output quality 

was good to excellent across the 

board. Text and lines were appropriately 

crisp, photos were 

near photo quality, and graphics 

offered smooth gradients and 

saturated colors. 

All told, the Phaser 6250’s 

combination of ease of installation, 

network management features, 

fast performance, and output 

quality should put it high on 

anyone’s short list. 

Xerox Phaser 6250 

Street price: $2,000; as tested, with 

duplexer, network card, and additional 

memory, $2,500. Requires: Microsoft 

Windows 98 SE or later, or Mac OS 9.x 

or 10.1 or later. Xerox Corp., 877-362- 

6567, www.xerox.com. llllm 

help, flip up the back panel with 

confidence. 

Garmin iQue 3600 

Street price: $590. Microsoft Windows 

98, 2000, Me, or XP. Garmin 

International Inc., 913-397-8200, 

www.garmin.com. llllm 

The integrated 

GPS unit makes 

this the perfect 

PDA for 

travelers. 

www.pcmag.com SPECIAL WIRELESS ISSUE 2003 PC MAGAZINE 

37

“There is never a legitimate reason to communicate anonymously 

on the Internet. If you can’t put your name on 

something, don’t send it!” 

SMARTER SHOPPING 

AFTER I SAW YOUR story “Build or Buy” (September 

16, page 83), I checked out the prices you paid for the individual 

components. You spent too much! I surfed on 

PriceGrabber.com and looked up each of the components 

that were in your high-end system, and I was able 

to find lower prices for nearly all of them. The result 

was about $365 in savings! PC Magazine has carried advertising for 

PriceGrabber.com, so why don’t you use it? 

MATT ROLLICK 

COME ON OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF 

I DON’T AGREE WITH YOUR recent Security Watch story about 

anonymous e-mail (“Hiding Your Identity,” September 16, page 68). 

There is never a legitimate reason to communicate anonymously on 

the Internet. If you can’t put your name on something, don’t send it! 

I am so sick of people who hide behind screen names and AOL 

and Yahoo! accounts; they can say anything and spread as much 

misinformation as they like without repercussion. And your story 

shows everyone how to hide their IP addresses, too. Why not tell us 

how to create more destructive worms and viruses? 

ROGER HENSLEY 

UNSATISFIED IN VIRGINIA 

COX HIGH SPEED INTERNET earned an A+ in your “Broadband Scorecard” 

(September 16, page 102). Apparently, you didn’t survey Cox customers 

from northern Virginia (part of the greater Washington, D.C., 

metro area). If you had, the grade would have been a lot different. 

For starters, the cost for Cox’s service is a whopping $49.95 per 

month, unless you sign up for cable TV. The company advertises 

1,500-Kbps downloads and 192-Kbps uploads, but it rarely delivers 

that kind of speed. We also experience “unplanned outages” too frequently. 

Static IP addresses are the norm, as Cox has never been able 

to get dynamic IP addresses working properly. Report a service 

problem and Cox may or may not get a technician out to fix the 

problem within two or three days. Also, Cox does not provide even 

a reasonably good video signal, unless you like 1950s-style television. 

If this is considered A+ performance, we are all in serious trouble. 

RALPH L. SORRELL 

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www.pcmag.com/feedback 

DRIVING THE WRONG WAY 

IN “DRIVING THE FUTURE” (September 2, page 67), 

Bill Howard praises the technical elegance of the Audi 

A8 L’s electronic cockpit. But in reducing the multiple 

dashboard controls to a single Multi Media Interface, 

which requires the driver to read an LCD screen and 

navigate through different settings, Audi has taken a 

huge step backward for safety. A system so complex that it contains 

a Return key because “users sometimes make mistakes” will probably 

distract a motorist at 65 miles an hour. Does anyone really want 

drivers to be even less attentive than they are now? 

EVAN BRODY 

WIRELESS CONUNDRUM 

I HAVE ENJOYED READING John C. Dvorak’s column for years, but 

I think he’s becoming more entertaining than incisive or informative. 

In his editorial on Wi-Fi (September 2, page 63), he derides the 

current state of wireless standards as constantly shifting, hard to 

use, and incompatible. Then, in the closing paragraphs of Inside 

Track (page 65), he talks about how wonderful the D-Link AirPlus 

DWL-900AP+ access point is because it can operate at “an enhanced 

22 Mbps.” He doesn’t say that you must also buy one of D-Link’s proprietary 

Turbo cards to use that mode. He also does not state that 

several other manufacturers offer devices that achieve similar 

speeds, as long as you buy matching, proprietary components. 

These souped-up systems are clearly not standard. If he wants 

faster wireless performance, he should ditch 802.11b and move to 

802.11g, which is now fully ratified. So which is it? Innovation cannot 

be bad on one page and “the epitome of modern gear” on the next. 

STEPHEN F. HOULT 

Corrections and Amplifications 

n In our recent First Looks review of sales-force automation tools (September 2, page 35), 

we reported that Salesforce’s sales records are stored in XML files, “but the actual sales 

data is stored as machine-readable code to make it invisible to any intruder.” Although the 

data is invisible to unauthorized users viewing it in Web browsers and most popular text 

editors, it is visible within the XML code and can be viewed in an ASCII editor. 

n In a Quick Clips review of Visual Thesaurus (After Hours, September 16, page 137) 

we incorrectly referred to the product as Virtual Thesaurus. The price and URL we listed 

were also incorrect: The correct price is $29.95 direct, and the URL is www 

.visualthesaurus.com. We apologize for the errors. 

n In our recent review of SSL-based remote-access products (“Simpler, Safer Remote 

Access,” August 19, page 104), we indicated that the SafeWeb SEA Tsunami lacks support 

for legacy applications. In fact, legacy application support is handled in a fashion 

very similar to that of the Neoteris Access 1000. SafeWeb is currently revising both its 

printed documentation and its online materials to emphasize this important feature. 

n We also reported that “the Tsunami can leave the network open and vulnerable if a 

remote user forgets to log off.” This should have read “if a remote administrator forgets 

to log off.” SafeWeb reports that the next release of the Tsunami will convert the administrator 

log-on to a session cookie, alleviating this problem. 


www.extremetech.com • 

ExtremeTech 

You can do anything online. You can even 

give your car an extra 20 horsepower. If 

you have the right car and the right Internet 

connection, almost anything is 

possible, including remote diagnostics, 

performance enhancements, and service. 

Cars today have dozens of microprocessors. Some 

have utterly mundane jobs, such as controlling the 

speed of the windshield wipers or remembering 

your seat position. Others—the airbag controller, for 

instance—could save your life in an emergency. The 

engine control unit (ECU), by contrast, monitors 

more variables than a Florida weatherman with two 

hurricanes off the coast. 

The ECU looks at air and engine temperatures, air 

pressure, airflow, engine speed, vehicle speed, throttle 

position, flywheel rotation, and other variables. It also 

continually recalculates the rate of change of many of 

these variables to see whether you’re speeding up, 

slowing down, or driving at a steady speed. It then 

determines the precise amount of gasoline, spark 

advance, and other controllable factors that will give 

you the most performance or the best economy— 

within the engineers’ design envelope. 

An engine is a pump. To get more out of it, you reduce 

the intake and exhaust restrictions to get more 

air into it. Then you can add more fuel to get more 

power. Back in the bad old days of carburetors, we 

used to drill out the jets, small brass inserts with holes 

that metered the gasoline dispensed to the primary 

and secondary barrels—crude but effective. 

Then came fuel injection, and there were no more 

jets to drill but a rather stupid, analog, purpose-built 

computer that monitored a few variables and metered 

fuel accordingly. The early ones were in sealed cans, 

so there was no way to hack the programming. But 

you could lie to the computer and indicate, for example, 

that the engine was colder than it really was, and 

the computer would obligingly provide more fuel. I 

spent numerous evenings with my Heathkit oscilloscope 

balanced on the fender of my early BMW 530i, 

measuring the pulse width on the fuel injectors as I 

messed with the resistors and sensors. 

Engine management computers eventually went 

digital, as microcontrollers became absurdly inexpensive 

and allowed easy reprogramming and far 

more input variables than could be handled by ana- 

BILL MACHRONE 

Program Your Car’s Performance 

log computers. Since the microcontrollers were 

rugged variants of standard, off-the-shelf parts, it 

didn’t take long for tuners to disassemble the management 

program and analyze the variables. Thus 

began the era (which continues) of “chipping” 

cars—providing new performance levels by swapping 

the factory’s read-only memory for an EPROM 

(erasable programmable read-only memory) or installing 

a socket on the processor bus so that a highperformance 

program could be substituted for the 

factory program at will. Laptop computers live right 

alongside socket wrenches in the pits, as race crews 

fine-tune fuel-injection and spark-advance curves. 

In 1997, auto manufacturers standardized an onboard 

diagnostics interface, OBD II, which provided 

direct access to readable areas of the engine control 

unit, and manufacturers adopted flash ROM. Suddenly 

it was open season on the ECU, as tuners found 

ways to hack into the system. 

The state of the art today is amazing, especially on 

turbocharged cars. Turbos are well suited to a programmed 

soup-up, because the boost pressure is 

under computer control. So instead of a 5- to 7-horsepower 

gain, 25 horsepower or more may be on tap. 

That’s a difference you can really feel. 

No one is capitalizing on the boom more than 

Atlanta-based Audi Performance & Racing (APR), 

which has focused on Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen 

upgrades. The procedure is all but instantaneous: 

Connect a laptop with APR’s software to the 

OBD II port and press a key. APR’s top-of-the-line 

product loads the ECU with four different performance 

profiles, which you can select via the cruise 

control buttons. A competitor, Revo, keeps its software 

in a remote-control-like device. You press the 

button for the program you want, plug it into the 

OBD II port, and wait for the beep. Both solutions include 

lockout codes, low-power valet modes, and 

antitheft modes, among other features. 

The question, of course, is why manufacturers 

don’t provide more of this flexibility. Valet mode is 

great; why not a teenager mode, too? Fortunately, we 

can rely on the aftermarket to fill in the blanks. 

Bill Machrone is VP of editorial development for Ziff Davis 

Media. Visit his digs at www.extremetech.com. You can 

also reach him at bill_machrone@ziffdavis.com. 

Cars today 

have dozens of 

microprocessors. 

Some 

have mundane 

jobs; others 

could save 

your life in an 

emergency. 


John C. Dvorak 

Think Big 

Sometimes my family and I stay at our residence 

in Clallam County, Washington. 

When we’re there, I encourage my children 

to enter arts and crafts in the county 

fair. It’s great for their self-esteem when 

they win, and it’s fun. I enter something myself once 

in a while, and this year I decided to submit a spectacular 

digital image of a storm over the San Francisco 

Bay that I captured with an Olympus E-10. I won 

a blue ribbon, along with a surprise merit award and 

a gift certificate that more than paid for my effort and 

supplies. I printed this digital photo with a largeformat 

ink jet printer. Over 40 million digital cameras 

are expected to sell this year, but the overlooked variable 

in digital photography is printers. And I’m convinced 

I would not have won the county fair competition 

if I had not gone to a larger format. 

All photo hobbyists should consider large-format 

printers, which the professionals often use. Such models 

can print on 13-inch-wide paper (including roll 

paper). My photo, which was a stitched panorama, 

was about 7 by 17 inches. Printed on a normal 8-by-10 

printer, the photo would have been too small. 

Before the event, I chatted with Epson about its 

two best-selling large-format printers, which are the 

definitive models in this category: the Epson Stylus 

Photo 1280 (dye-based) and the Epson Stylus Photo 

2200 (pigment-based). I knew the 2200 would make 

a more permanent image, since pigments are less 

subject to fading than dye. But the color range of the 

dye-based printer was greater, and I was looking for 

an edge in image quality. So I got the 1280. 

I stitched the image with MGI PhotoSuite 4 and 

then moved it to Adobe Photoshop 7 for completion. 

This consisted of little more than an automatic level 

boost and scaling the picture to a printable size. The 

file was massive, because the stitched image was 

4,000 by 1,700 pixels. I sent it to the printer on a sheet 

of superglossy 11-by-17 paper with the printer set on 

vivid, which uses an amazing 2,880-dpi microweave 

pattern. Not one person in a million would think the 

final result was anything other than an incredibly 

well-done darkroom color print. In fact, the county 

fair used to have a digital-photography category and 

gave up on the idea: Since most serious amateur 

photographers have moved to digital cameras and ink 

jet printers, the category no longer makes sense. 

What makes sense is the larger format. When 

scaled properly, even a 2-megapixel image can easily 

be blown up to 11-by-17. And the Epson printers can 

also do edge-to-edge printing. The impact of a big 

print is formidable, but owning the large-format 

Epson doesn’t mean you can’t have one of the small 

snapshot printers as well. The Epson 1280 costs 

around $300 (street), and supply costs are standard. 

I figure that one big print costs between $2 and $3 for 

the paper and ink. 

This will be the year of the printer, and you can 

expect Epson and Hewlett-Packard to make the most 

noise. Epson has already done the impossible with 

the miniature pigment dot on the 2200, which 

experts said couldn’t be done. And HP is going to 

raise the bar with fade-resistant dyes that it claims 

can last as long as pigment. More important, HP is 

promoting new papers since the recent discovery 

that ozone fades printouts more than ultraviolet rays 

do. Superfast-drying, ultraglossy ink jet paper is as 

porous as activated charcoal, and ozone can permeate 

it and attack the ink from within. Even pigment 

ink can fade quicker on such paper. That’s why sealing 

the print under glass or plastic is recommended. 

HP will also bring out slower-drying, nonporous 

paper for archival prints (and print algorithms 

specifically geared to the paper). 

Epson has introduced a line of paper called 

ColorLife. As far as I know, only Canon is ignoring 

the issue. Canon is emphasizing faster speeds, which 

clearly require fast-drying porous paper. This 

strategy may be a blunder. I’m not convinced speed 

is an issue, although it does take around half an hour 

to produce a large-format print on the 1280. I think 

the real goal of higher speeds is to make people blow 

through supplies faster. I prefer quality and fade 

resistance over quantity, especially when I’m entering 

a competition. 

Considering what you’ll be hearing about printers 

in the next 12 months, you may decide you’re 

ready for an upgrade. All I can tell you is that if you 

take your photography seriously, you should think 

big. You won’t regret it. 

MORE ON THEWEB: Read John C. Dvorak’s column every 

Monday at www.pcmag.com/dvorak. You can reach him 

directly at pcmag@dvorak.org. 

All photo 

hobbyists 

should consider 

large-format 

printers, which 

the professionals 

often use. 


JOHN C. DVORAK 

High-Speed Wireless Dept.: 

While you were sleeping, 

the IEEE and the Ultra Wide 

Band (UWB) folks have 

been working on 802.15.3a. 

This is because we need more standards 

that have a lot of numbers and dots, with 

a few letters thrown in for good measure. 

802.15 is the number for so-called wireless 

personal area networks (WPANs), 

which are generally short-range piconetworks, 

or personal data clouds. 802.15.1 

is the best example of a WPAN standard. 

You know it as Bluetooth. 

Anyway, 802.15.3a is most interesting, 

because it’s a high-speed initiative that 

uses UWB—also called pulse radio. It 

broadcasts by sputtering a signal in a 

crazy way, unlike anything else out there. 

Because the pulses are all over the spectrum, 

the signals seem like noise. You can 

receive a signal only if you can decode 

the timing of the sputterings. In the past, 

the military has used this technology, calling 

it LPI (low probability of intercept) 

radio. Numerous companies, including 

Time Domain Corp. and Staccato Communications 

(formerly Discrete Time), 

have been perfecting this technology. 

UWB can also be used as a form of 

ground-penetrating radar, and construction 

companies use UWB devices to find 

steel reinforcement inside concrete. 

The technology is controversial. Some 

engineers say that the sputtering must 

cause interference with traditional waveforms, 

despite assurances that the pulse 

radio signals are below normal noise 

levels. I’ve heard rumors that illegal highpower 

UWB networks are already broadcasting 

and providing members of secret 

networks with very high bandwidth. 

Only military intelligence gear could find 

such systems. 

Papers on 802.15.3a clearly show wireless 

speeds up to 1.3 Gbps, although it 

looks as though the technology is optimized 

for about 480 Mbps. These are hot 

speeds for casual Internet connections! 

Inside Track 

The technology is revolutionary and 

more mature than you’d imagine, since it 

has been on the back burner for so long. 

Meanwhile, wireless networking is 

moving ahead rapidly with the almost 

universal deployment of 802.11g. D-Link 

now has “g” products that deliver 54- 

Mbps throughput. The company has just 

announced an inexpensive product called 

the D-Link DSA-3100 Express Ether- 

Network Public/Private Hotspot Gateway. 

Capable of serving 50 simultaneous, 

discrete users, this $599 gateway should 

be the perfect system for a coffee shop or 

hotel lobby. Its features include firewall 

protection and even the log-on page you 

get on public systems. 

While I’m on the subject, Netgear is 

back in the game and upping the ante 

with its new line of dual-band 802.11a/b/g 

access points/routers with 108-Mbps capability. 

Wow! Notice how real competition 

heats things up nicely. 

What’s in a Name? Dept.: I had high 

hopes that Transmeta was beyond this, 

but no. The company has decided to join 

the Wacky Processor Name Club. The 

next chips it releases will not have the 

Crusoe name; instead, they will have an 

Intel-style name—the Efficeon. Okay, 

we’ve got the Pentium, the Xeon, the 

Athlon, the Duron, the Itanium, and the 

Celeron—now this. 

Disregarding the first wacky name— 

the Pentium—all these names are quietly 

suggestive. Pentium suggests the number 

5 and lets the company move beyond the 

586 moniker. Since then, the approach has 

been to use a word that suggests reliability 

or performance. 

My question: Is this the best we can 

do? These names stink. And as far as I 

know, companies are paying consultants 

a lot of money to come up with the 

names, although Efficeon sounds as if it 

was developed by a bookkeeper (after 

Accountium and Financeon were eliminated 

by consensus). Hey, how about the 

Consensium? Or maybe the Commit- 

I’ve heard 

rumors that 

illegal highpower 

UWB 

networks are 

providing 

members of 

secret 

networks with 

very high 

bandwidth. 

teeon? Ugh. Good luck, guys. 

Interesting reader requests: I often get 

mail from baffled readers looking for 

help. For example, David Dreis writes: 

One thing I have wondered about over 

the years is the lack of any ink jet 

printer—or for that matter any other type 

of printer, except the now-not-availableanymore 

Alps printers—that prints in 

white ink. Evidently, every [printer company] 

thinks that everyone prints on 

white paper. Not so! I have a small business 

I operate at home evenings and 

weekends. Part of that business requires 

the purchase of decals where white paint 

is required. Unfortunately for me (and I 

know many others, both business and 

private persons), since I need the white 

paint on a clear background, I can’t print 

my own decals and save a bundle. If 

white-ink printers were available, it 

would add to immediate sales for the first 

[company] to do it. 

Any ideas? I didn’t think so. 

Unwanted Trend Dept.: If any of you do 

a lot of public speaking, then you’re starting 

to see a new and disturbing development: 

people in the audience using their 

laptops, often on wireless connections. 

Some even blog the event as a speech is 

given. This can change the way you organize 

your speech. It can also turn the 

speaker into background noise—like a 

TV show. 


Microsoft Outlook 2003, part of the 

new Microsoft Office 2003, lets 

you capture any block of text with 

address and e-mail information as 

a new contact by pressing Ctrl-C 

twice. This neat feature doesn’t require a Microsoft 

vCard, which hardly anyone uses anyway. It works 

because a tiny company called Anagram (http:// 

getanagram.com) makes a $20 add-in that does what 

Microsoft still hasn’t done. 

In other words, despite all the advances in Office 

2003, the software has shortcomings. Some needed 

enhancements were left out, while others are available 

as extra-cost add-ins from nimble third parties. 

In the case of Office 2003, the glass is half full and 

your wallet is half empty. 

Here’s my take on the public beta of Office 2003. 

This version heeds the doctor’s maxim: “First, do no 

harm.” Office 2003 is relatively robust. If (or when) 

it crashes, losing data is rare, though by no means 

impossible. And Office 2003 is backward-compatible 

with previous versions; there are no new Word or 

Excel 2003 file formats creating confusion when you 

upgrade and a friend doesn’t. Microsoft learned that 

lesson the hard way with Office 2000. 

The core products—Word, Excel, and Power- 

Point—have changed little. And in my opinion, Microsoft’s 

help screens and wizards haven’t come any 

closer to addressing usage hurdles for the average 

user. Excel provides lots of functions, but figuring out 

the right functions for a mortgage payments table is 

still a hassle. Common functions remain inconsistent: 

Ctrl-F may mean Find or Forward (mail), depending 

on the app. On the plus side, Word’s reading layout is 

useful for working your way through long documents, 

and the new Business Contact Manager is handy for 

even the smallest companies. Microsoft OneNote, a 

$100 add-in, is useful for ad hoc note taking. 

Office still looks online to perform some tasks 

that can be better addressed locally. When I went 

into the Outlook contacts database and clicked on 

the Display Map icon to look up a nearby address, 

Outlook ignored my installed copies of Microsoft 

Streets & Trips and DeLorme’s Street Atlas USA 

and attempted to make a Web connection to Microsoft’s 

MSN Maps & Directions. Until every computer 

is online at all times, that’s a silly feature. And 

BILL HOWARD 

On Technology 

Office 2003: The Lowdown 

even then you ought to have a choice. 

E-mail users will love and hate the new Outlook. 

It is superb at handling large quantities of mail and, 

if you wish, providing a single place for your personal 

and business e-mail accounts (not AOL Mail, 

though). When new messages come in, the first few 

lines appear briefly in a ghosted window in the lower 

corner. The Date view groups mail logically: Today, 

Yesterday, Last Week, Two Weeks Ago, Three Weeks 

Ago, Last Month, Two Months Ago, and Older. 

When you sort by size, there’s a splash of humor: 

The groups are called Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, 

Very Large, Huge, and (more than 5MB) Enormous. 

You’d better learn to like Outlook, though, because 

Microsoft says it has no current plans to enhance the 

free Outlook Express beyond Version 6. Plenty of 

users who managed to install OE6 successfully will 

be stumped by Outlook. (Microsoft’s reply, when 

asked what’s in store for OE6 fans: “Give more 

thought to Hotmail.”) 

If you do upgrade, which version of Office should 

you get? There will be more than two dozen available 

in retail, through volume licenses, in academia, and 

preinstalled on new PCs. For individuals, Office Pro 

will be about $500 ($300 for upgrades). 

Fortunately, even having a lowly copy of Microsoft 

Works installed on a PC you bought two years ago 

should qualify you for the upgrade price. The best 

deal for many of us may be one of the academiclicense 

editions, for $150 (these include Word, Excel, 

PowerPoint, and Outlook but not Access, Publisher, 

or Outlook Business Contact Manager, all included 

in the full Office Pro). You qualify if somebody in 

your family goes to school or teaches, and the license 

covers three PCs. 

But should you upgrade? If e-mail is your life, or if 

you spend a lot of time managing contacts, you 

should. Businesses will have more motivation to upgrade 

than individuals. New Office technologies 

such as InfoPath (XML forms) are geared to “team 

and organization productivity.” And there will still be 

a robust market for products like Anagram that fill 

in some of the gaps for individual users. 

MORE ON THEWEB: You can contact Bill Howard directly 

at bill_howard@ziffdavis.com. For more On Technology 

columns, go to www.pcmag.com/howard. 

In the case of 

Office 2003, 

your glass is 

half full and 

your wallet is 

half empty. 


www.pcmag.com/solutions 

Wireless Security: 

WPA Step by Step 

Here’s how to upgrade to the newest security standard for 

wireless networks. BY CRAIG ELLISON 

Odds are, your wireless network is not secure. Even if you’ve enabled WEP 

(Wired Equivalency Protocol) encryption, the flaws in that standard are well 

documented, and hackers can break WEP easily. You need WPA (Wi-Fi Protected 

Access), a far stronger protocol that fixes the weaknesses in WEP. For 

further discussion of WPA, see our wireless security story on page 88. 

Here we’ll take you through the process 

of upgrading your networking equipment 

and enabling WPA security for your home 

WLAN. To upgrade your wireless security 

to WPA, you must have three critical 

components: 

• an access point (AP) or wireless router 

that has WPA support; 

• a wireless network card that has WPA 

drivers available; 

• a client (called a supplicant) that supports 

WPA and your operating system. 

WPA replaces WEP in small-office or 

home routers, so moving to WPA is an 

all-or-nothing proposition. For you to 

consider an upgrade, every wireless 

device on your network must have WPA 

capabilities. This includes any wireless 

bridges you might use for your Microsoft 

Xbox (or other gaming device), digital 

camera, home audio gateway, and print 

server. 

If you haven’t purchased wireless 

hardware already, buying WPA-capable 

networking equipment is easy. The 

Wi-Fi Alliance began certifying products 

for WPA interoperability in April. In 

addition, all new products submitted for 

certification after August 2003 must 

have WPA capability. Any product 

that passes Wi-Fi WPA compatibility 

testing will have the Wi-Fi Protected 

Access box checked on its package label 

(Figure 1). 

You can also visit the Wi-Fi Alliance’s 

Web site and search for WPA-certified 

products (www.wi-fi.org/OpenSection/ 

certified_products.asp?TID=2). 

If you already own wireless networking 

hardware, upgrading may not be possible. 

You must check the Web sites of 

your hardware makers for WPA upgrades. 

WPA is designed so that legacy 

wireless hardware can be upgraded via 

drivers, but with the product cycles of 

wireless gear being about six months, 

most manufacturers do not provide WPA 

FIGURE 4: RUNNING THE AUTOMATIC UPGRADE UTILITY 

STEP 1: When the utility opens, click on Next. 

FIGURE 1: Look for the WPA label when 

you’re shopping for wireless equipment. 

upgrades for legacy products. If you find 

WPA support, it will probably be for relatively 

new products. If you don’t find 

driver upgrades for your hardware, you’ll 

either have to buy new equipment or live 

with WEP. 

For this article, we selected the Linksys 

WRT54G broadband router and the 

Linksys WPC54G client card. Both products 

are widely available and have online 

driver and firmware upgrades for WPA. 

STEP 2: Type in the router’s password. (You did 

change the default password, didn’t you?)

52 Security Watch: Hazardous hot spots. 54 Internet Business: Rhapsody music 

downloads. 

MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR YOU 

UPDATE YOUR OS 

The easiest part of the process is adding 

WPA support to your OS. Microsoft provides 

a free WPA upgrade, but it works 

only with Windows XP. If you are running 

an OS other than Win XP, you’ll need a 

third-party supplicant. The client software 

is available from either Funk Software 

(www.funk.com) or Meetinghouse 

Data Communications (www.mtghouse 

.com). For now, we’ll assume that you’re 

running Win XP. 

The WPA client is not available as an automatic 

Windows update. You can find it 

in the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 

815485 (http://support.microsoft.com/ 

default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;815485). Download 

the file into a new directory. Doubleclick 

on it to install it. (The file is selfextracting 

and self-installing) Once you’ve 

installed the update, reboot your machine. 

The software adds additional dialog boxes 

to the Network Control Panel to support 

STEP 3: Confirm the information and click on 

Upgrade. 

% of encrypted 

music file 

FIGURE 2: Make sure 

your WPA upgrade utility 

is installed by checking in 

Control Panel. 

128 Kbps 

Streamlet server farm 

the new authentication and encryption 

options of WPA. You 

can check to be sure that the upgrade 

has been installed by 

opening the Control Panel, 

double-clicking on Add or 

Remove Programs, and checking 

for Windows XP Hotfix 

(SP2) Q815485 (Figure 2). 

UPDATE THE 

FIRMWARE 

Now you must download 

the upgrades for your 

router and network cards. We 

recommend that you download 

everything before upgrading 

anything. For the Linksys router, 

go to the company’s Web site, click on 

Support | Downloads, select the product 

(WRT54G), and click on Downloads for 

this Product. When the page loads, click 

on Firmware and you’ll see the screen in 

Figure 3. 

From this page, you can choose to 

download the firmware file, manually 

update your router, or use an automatic 

update program. We’ll use the automatic 

utility. If you need to download drivers 

for your wireless adapter, follow the same 

procedure and enter the name of your 

adapter (WPC54G), then download the 

file Wpc54g_driver_utility_v1.21.zip to 

an empty directory, such as C:\ 

downloads\linksys. Click on the link to 

STEP 4: You’ll see a screen indicating the 

update and this screen showing its progress. 

SOLUTIONS 

55 User to User: Tips and tricks. 

FIGURE 3: Visit your vendors’ sites to get the latest 

WPA upgrade. 

download the utility and save the file on 

your computer. Once the download 

is complete, click on Open. Now follow 

the steps in Figure 4 to complete the 

upgrade. 

After your router reboots, log on to it. 

If possible, use a wired connection to 

change the security settings, because if 

you change the settings wirelessly, you 

won’t be able to communicate with your 

router until after you’ve configured 

your client. 

CONFIGURE WPA SETTINGS 

Your router’s home page will change as a 

result of the firmware upgrade. To set up 

the WPA encryption for your router, click 

STEP 5: This is the screen you should see if 

you’re updated properly. Your router will reboot 

when the upgrade is complete. 


50 

SOLUTIONS 

FIGURE 5: SECURITY SETTINGS: BEFORE AND AFTER 

BEFORE: This is the old, WEP-oriented router home page. 

AFTER: The new home page enables you to access WPA settings. 

on the Enable button and then Edit Security 

Settings (Figure 5). The following page 

has your WPA options (Figure 6). 

• In the Security Mode field, select WPA 

Pre-Shared Key (no authentication 

server required). 

• For WPA Algorithms, select TKIP. This 

is the approved and certified algorithm. 

Though some products support AES 

(Advanced Encryption System), inter- 

FIGURE 7: UPDATE YOUR NETWORK CARD’S DRIVERS 

STEP 1: Open the Control Panel | System 

dialog and click on Device Manager to 

locate your wireless card. 


operability among 

various vendors’ 

products hasn’t 

been certified. You could try AES on your 

router and client; if it works, AES provides 

even greater security than WPA. 

• For the WPA Pre-Shared Key, create a 

key that won’t be easily compromised. 

Write it down, as you’ll need to enter the 

same key when you configure your 

network card. 

• Leave the Group Key Renewal row set at 

3600, then click on Apply. 

FIGURE 6: CHOOSING YOUR WPA OPTIONS 

Pick a preshared key so you don’t need an authentication server. 

Choose TKIP, the certified algorithm for WPA. There are stronger 

options, but they don’t always work on everyone’s hardware. 

UPDATE YOUR NETWORK CARD 

Now you’re ready to update your 

network card. 

• Unzip the driver file you downloaded 

earlier. The directory where you 

unzipped the file contains the driver you 

need (Bcmwl5.sys) along with the INF 

file. Make a note of this location. 

Although you can uninstall the old 

drivers from the Add or Remove Programs 

applet and reinstall the entire 

package you’ve downloaded, it’s much 

easier to update the driver via the 

STEP 2: Find your wireless card and right-click on 

it. From the resulting context menu, click Properties 

| Driver. If your driver is dated before 

5/26/2003, you need to upgrade. 

STEP 3: Tell the wizard where to find the driver 

file that you downloaded earlier.

FIGURE 8: CONFIGURE YOUR NETWORK CLIENT 

SOLUTIONS 

Here’s how to set up WPA on the client side. Set the authentication for the preshared key. Type the name of your shared key carefully. 

Device Manager (Figure 7). 

• From the Control Panel, double-click on 

the System icon and click on the Hardware 

tab. Click on Device Manager. 

• Right-click on the wireless adapter. 

• Select Properties and click on Driver. 

If your card hasn’t been upgraded, you’ll 

see a driver date prior to 5/26/2003. 

If you driver is dated May 26 or later, 

it already supports WPA. You can click 

on Cancel and jump to the step that 

shows the Wireless Networks dialog 

(Figure 8). 

• Click on Update Driver. 

• Tell the wizard to search specific locations 

for the driver. Type in the directory 

where you unzipped the upgrade file. 

• Click on Next. 

• The updated driver will show a date of 

5/26/2003 or later. 

Don’t give up yet. We’re almost finished! 

• Open the Network applet in the 

Control Panel, right-click on your wireless 

card, and click on the Wireless 

Networks tab (Figure 8). 

• In the Available networks window, 

select the name of your network. This is 

the same as the SSID (network name) you 

configured in your router. 

• Click on Configure. 

• Under Network Authentication, select 

WPA-PSK. If you don’t select the correct 

authentication mode, you won’t be 

allowed to select the correct encryption 

mode (TKIP). If you leave network au- 

thentication set to Open, the only encryption 

options you’ll see are WEP or 

Disabled. 

• In Data encryption, select TKIP (or AES 

if you selected AES earlier). 

• In Network key, type in the same 

WPA Shared Key you entered into the AP 

configuration and type it again under 

Confirm network key. Then click on OK. 

Because you enabled WPA security on 

your AP previously, when you finish your 

client configuration, you should be able 

to associate with your access point and 

use the network as you did before. Only 

now you have a secure wireless link. 

Craig Ellison is the operations director of PC 

Magazine Labs.

52 

SOLUTIONS 

Hot-Spot Hazards 

Hot spots are the cool way to connect away from your home or 

office, but they’re not secure. Here’s how to use them safely. 

By Leon Erlanger 

Hot spots are hot. Located in 

thousands of airport lounges, 

hotels, cafés, and even public 

parks, they allow anyone with an 802.11b 

wireless LAN card to surf the Web, check 

e-mail, or even connect to the company 

LAN at broadband speeds. Before you experience 

the thrill of surfing the Net while 

nursing a latte at Starbucks, however, be 

sure you take the necessary precautions. 

All wireless LANs have security issues, 

but wireless hot spots raise unique concerns. 

As with any wireless LAN, signals 

can penetrate walls and ceilings. That 

means that anyone in range with a standard 

wireless card can connect, even if 

they’re sitting out in the parking lot. 

Hot-spot services are designed for 

maximum ease of use, so they generally 

don’t offer WEP or WPA encryption; if 

you connect to a hot spot, just about all 

the data you send is probably unencrypted. 

Since wireless LANs allow peer-topeer 

connections, the computer-savvy 

guy at the corner table may be able to 

connect to your notebook and mooch 

your Internet connection, look at your 

unprotected files, or hitch a ride as you 

connect to your corporate LAN. He can 

also eavesdrop the airwaves with one of 

the many wireless sniffers available on 

the Web and watch as you unintentionally 

reveal your corporate network log-on 

information, your credit card numbers, IP 

addresses of your connections, and even 

the contents of e-mails, instant messages, 

and file attachments. Anyone with mali- 

YOU CAN DIGITALLY SIGN and 

encrypt e-mail messages in 

Microsoft Outlook. 


cious intent can do lots of damage with 

this information, both to you and the company 

that employs you. And of course, 

you’re vulnerable to the same viruses, 

worms, and other attacks as you would be 

on any unprotected network. 

So what can you do? Here are several 

ways you can protect yourself. 

• Disable your wireless card’s ad-hoc 

(peer-to-peer) mode. You can do this via 

the adapter’s utilities or within Windows 

XP by clicking on Network Connections in 

the Control Panel. This will help prevent 

anyone from connecting to your notebook. 

• Remove or disable your wireless card 

if you’re working offline. 

• Install a personal firewall. Windows 

XP offers the rudimentary Internet 

Connections Firewall, but more advanced 

personal firewall products, 

such as Symantec’s 

Norton Internet Security 

and Zone Labs’ 

ZoneAlarm, can prevent 

others from accessing 

your notebook and even 

alert you when an attempt is made. 

• Install personal antivirus software 

from McAfee, Symantec, or another antivirus 

vendor, and enable automatic signature 

updates. 

• Take advantage of your e-mail client’s 

security features, particularly digital signatures 

and e-mail encryption. Digital signatures 

verify your identity to your recipients 

and ensure that messages are not 

tampered with during transmission. 

Microsoft Outlook lets you add digital signatures 

to messages and encrypt messages 

and attachments using S/MIME. If you’re 

using a Web-based e-mail service, make 

sure it offers some type of encryption. Be 

aware, however, that in many cases with 

such services only the log-on information 

is encrypted, while text is sent in the clear. 

You may want to use third-party e-mail encryption 

utilities, such as PGP Corp.’s PGP 

www.pcmag.com/securitywatch 

THE LOOKOUT 

BLASTER AND 

SOBIG MOVE IN 

The Blaster worm continued to tear 

through the Internet in August, followed 

almost immediately by an improved 

version of the SoBig worm, as security 

experts struggled to find and fix infected 

systems. Both worms present unique 

problems for security specialists because 

they are infecting a large number of PCs 

owned by home users, many of whom 

may be unaware that their machines are 

compromised. Even worse, SoBig may be 

laying in wait on infected machines, 

primed for a new attack on September 11, 

2003. Don’t miss our coverage of these 

worms and any other pests that crop up 

at www.pcmag.com/antivirus. 

Personal, which offers digital signatures 

and strong encryption for messages and 

attachments, as well as for files stored on 

your computer. 

• Make sure you submit credit card information 

only to SSL-protected Web 

sites (look for https:// in the address bar). 

• For the best protection, use a virtual 

private network (VPN) to provide strong 

authentication and encryption for all your 

hot-spot communications. This is particularly 

important if you’re connecting to 

your company’s network, in which case 

you’ll probably get VPN client software 

from your IT manager. Small-business 

users can install VPN-enabled firewall and 

router appliances from Netgear, Sonic- 

Wall, 3Com, or Watchguard at the office 

or use one of the many small-business 

VPN services available, for example, from 

Sprint or Verio. Individual users can take 

advantage of inexpensive consumer VPN 

services such as HotSpotVPN (www 

.hotspotvpn.com). Or they can limit themselves 

to protected hot spots, such as 

those from EarthLink and others that 

make up the Boingo Wireless network. 

• Keep your OS and software up to 

date with security patches. 

And of course, make sure nobody is 

looking over your shoulder as you enter 

vital information. Enjoy the freedom and 

convenience that hot spots offer, but 

make sure that hot spots don’t land you 

in hot water. 

Leon Erlanger is a freelance author and 

consultant.

54 

SOLUTIONS 

Rhapsody Gets Real 

Digital-music downloading is back on track. 

By Brad Grimes 

The music industry is moving forward 

in its all-out assault on illegal 

music downloads, with the 

Recording Industry Association of America 

(RIAA) throwing the book at individuals 

who share a “substantial” number of 

music files. At the same time, however, 

record companies are finally working 

with the tech industry to come up with 

ways to make music downloading legal. 

Although the well-received Apple 

iTunes service won’t be available on Windows 

until the end of the year, Windows 

users already have a handful of choices. 

One of the best is RealNetworks’ Real- 

One Rhapsody, an online service where 

subscribers can listen to legal downloads 

of more than 350,000 CD-quality songs 

and burn them to compact discs. Real- 

Networks has come up with an arrangement 

that’s making everyone happy— 

from record execs to music fans. 

The product of RealNetworks’ acquisition 

of Listen.com, Rhapsody is easy to 

use. For $9.95 a month, you can listen to 

any track in its database and burn tracks 

to CD for 79 cents each. For $4.95 a 

month, you can listen to Rhapsody radio 

stations or create your own with music 

from up to ten artists. 

You can also download a free applet 

that acts as a music player, library organizer, 

and window into the database. As 

you browse tunes—including rock, pop, 

jazz, country, classical, and comedy tracks 

from 5 major families of labels and 150 

independents—you can play the tracks 

and save them to a playlist or burn them 

to CD if the tracks have flame icons next 

to them. Because each track has its own 

set of rights and agreements, not every 

track is available to burn. 

Once you decide to listen to a tune, 

Rhapsody’s unique technology kicks in. 

Listen.com has created a hybrid caching/ 

streaming system across an army 

of Intel/Linux-based applications and 


streaming servers, which has improved 

music quality and minimized delays. The 

system is based on the premise that most 

music lovers listen to their favorite songs 

over and over, so why should they have to 

stream the songs each time? Such constant 

streaming is subject to network traffic 

and other hiccups that can disrupt listening 

pleasure. 

The first time you play a song, Rhapsody 

breaks it into two pieces, encrypts 

the pieces, and sends the larger part— 

about 99 percent of the file—to a cache 

on your PC’s hard drive. When you play 

the song, the remaining part is streamed 

to your PC, where it reunites with the rest 

of the file and begins playing. (Rhapsody 

can cache up to 1GB of data.) After the 

song plays, the 1 percent of the file is 

deleted, rendering the file unusable. 

When you want to listen to the song 

again, all you need is the missing 1 percent. 

Click on the Play button and the 

song starts playing again almost instantaneously. 

You can possess the entire file 

after paying to burn it. 

The site recommends broadband to 

Secure Music Streaming 

RealOne Rhapsody 

music database 

enjoy 128-Kbps CD-quality sound, and 

you should definitely use a broadband 

connection if you plan to burn CDs. But 

the service works pretty well with a 56K 

modem playing tunes at 20 Kbps. 

For music fans, all this technology is 

invisible, so they can concentrate on finding 

the music they want. But Rhapsody is 

good for music companies, too, meaning 

that happy record execs are likely to make 

more songs available through the service. 

Because the songs are broken up and 

encrypted, they’re very secure; the two 

pieces are useless by themselves. The 

larger pieces are merged into one huge 

cache so individual song data can’t be 

identified. 

Finally, record companies, performers, 

and songwriters all get their pieces of the 

pie. Once a month, the record companies 

receive huge database files or XML feeds 

detailing every one of their tracks played 

or burned in the preceding month. 

Recently, Rhapsody subscribers listened 

to upward of 11 million songs per month. 

“Imagine how many songs are called 

‘Love,’” says Sean Ryan, former CEO of 

Listen.com and a vice president at Real- 

Networks. “Tracking every single playback 

and reporting back to the record 

companies is a complicated process.” 

The process may be complex, but it’s 

necessary. And the more effectively Rhapsody 

can handle online music, the more 

record companies will delve into their 

massive archives to make songs available 

online. That’s music to everyone’s ears. 

RealOne Rhapsody uses a clever distillation process that breaks music files into two parts. When you choose to listen to a 

track, Rhapsody splits it into two pieces—one with 99 percent of the file and the other with 1 percent. After the track is 

played, the 1 percent piece is discarded. If you choose to burn the track to CD, the system streams the missing 1 percent. 

This technique protects music from pirates and enables immediate playback without hiccups. It also simplifies copyright 

and royalty tracking. 

350,000 songs from 

5 music companies 

1% of encrypted 

music file 

HTTP server farm 

Streamlet server farm 

$ 

Monthly royalty-tracking data 

99% of encrypted 

music file 

128 Kbps 

Music fan’s PC 

cache (up to 1GB) 

Listen to 

unlimited 

music for 

$9.95 per 

month 

Burn music for 

$0.79 per track

www.pcmag.com/usertouser 

Absolute and Relative 

References in Excel 

I am working on a spreadsheet with thousands 

of cells. When I’m summing, I’m able 

to replicate formulas by using the Fill | Right 

function from the Edit menu. But when I use 

the same method to replicate a formula for 

calculating proportions, I get an error 

message. How can I replicate the formula 

calculating proportions throughout the 

numerous worksheets I’m working with? 

FRED C. B. BANNERMAN-WILLIAMS 

The key here lies in understanding absolute 

and relative cell references. Here’s your opportunity 

to learn by doing. Launch Excel and 

follow along as we illustrate the concept with 

an example. In a new workbook, enter the 

column headings North, South, East, West, 

and Total, starting in cell B1. Enter the row 

headings Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, Total, 

A DOLLAR SIGN tells Excel that a cell reference 

shouldn’t change when you copy the formula. 

and Proportion, starting in cell A2. Enter some 

random numbers in the rectangle B2:E5. 

In cell B6, enter the formula =SUM(B2:B5) 

or just click in that cell and press Alt- to insert the formula automatically. 

Highlight the cells from B6 to E6 and choose 

Edit | Fill | Right. Note that Excel did not copy 

the formula exactly; it modified the cell 

references relative to the column. For example, 

the formula in cell E6 is =SUM(E2:E5). 

The same thing happens when you copy and 

paste a formula or copy it by clicking in the 

cell and dragging that cell’s fill handle. 

Now we’ll add row totals. Click in cell F2 and 

press Alt- to insert the formula 

=SUM(B2:E2) automatically. Highlight the 

range from F2 to F6 and choose Edit | Fill | 

Down from the menu. You now have row 

totals, with a grand total in cell F6. 

The next step is to determine what proportion 

each row total is from the grand total. 

Click on cell B7 and enter the simple formula 

=B6/F6. Now, as before, use Edit | Fill | Right 

to copy that formula into the other columns. 

This time, it doesn’t work! All the other 

columns display a #DIV/0! error message. 

When you click on the formula for one of those 

columns, you’ll see why. With each move to 

the right, Excel adjusts both cell references, so 

the formula in column C is =C6/G6. But G6 

and the cells to the right of it are empty, so 

dividing by them naturally causes an error. 

To fix the problem, go back to cell B7 and 

change the formula to =B6/$F6. The dollar 

sign here tells Excel that the column in the 

reference F6 is absolute, meaning it should 

not be changed when the formula is 

copied. Fill the remaining columns with 

the modified formula and they’ll all 

correctly display the proportions of the 

grand total they represent. Use the $ 

character in front of the column letter or 

the row number or both to make that 

portion of any reference absolute. 

—Neil J. Rubenking 

Tabs in Word Tables 

In Microsoft Word 2002, I generally 

prefer to use tables instead of tabs 

when creating columns of text. But 

sometimes I am forced to use tabbed 

columns, often because I need decimal 

alignment in one column. I haven’t found a 

way to put tabs in the table, because the 

Tab key takes me to the next cell. Is there 

some way to insert tabs in table cells so I 

can use decimal tabs in one column? 

JOSEPH KOENS 

The short answer is that you can insert a tab 

character in a table by pressing Ctrl-Tab. But 

you don’t need to insert a tab character to 

get decimal alignment in a table. 

Create a table and select all the cells in the 

column for which you need decimal alignment. 

Then set the button at the left-hand 

side of Word’s horizontal ruler for decimal 

SOLUTIONS 

PC MAGAZINE’S COMMUNITY OF 

EXPERTS AND READERS 

YOU CAN CREATE decimal-aligned tabs 

in Microsoft Word tables. 

tabs by clicking on it until you see the decimal 

tab icon (an upside-down T with a dot 

next to it). Finally, create the tab by clicking 

on the place on the ruler where you want the 

tab to be. If you already have numbers in the 

column, they will immediately align themselves 

with the decimal tab. If you enter new 

numbers, they will automatically align with 

the tab as well—without your having to enter 

a tab into each cell. 

This trick works with decimal tabs only. If 

you need the equivalent of left, right, or 

center tabs, format the column with left, 

right, or center paragraph alignment. If you 

need indented first lines or indents for subsequent 

lines only for paragraphs in a column, 

format the paragraphs with an indented or 

hanging first line.—M. David Stone 

Make a Default Custom 

Footer in Excel 

How do I get a custom header or footer 

into Microsoft Excel’s header and footer 

drop-down lists? I use the same custom 

footer on 80 percent of my Excel spreadsheets, 

and of course, it is not among the 

standard choices. I have to enter it manually 

each time. Can you help? 

BOB LEWIS 

You can get your footer to become a default 

by adding the desired footer to the default 

workbook template. In Excel 2002, the 

default template is typically found in C:\Program 

Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\XLStart 

(for other versions, look up template in the 

Help system). Open the file Book.xlt if it is 

present in that folder. If not, create a new file, 

select Save As from the File menu, choose 

Templates (*.xlt) from the Save as type list, 

and save your new blank file as Book.xlt. 

Use the $ character in a column or row reference to 

make the reference absolute. 


56 

SOLUTIONS 

Leaving wireless on all the time can certainly 

affect your battery life. 

One way or the other, you now have 

Book.xlt open for editing. Create your standard 

custom footer, save the template, and 

close it. Book.xlt is the default template for 

ADD a custom header to Excel’s drop-down list. 

new workbooks, so each time you create a 

new workbook your custom footer will be 

selected by default. For the other 20 percent 

of your spreadsheets, simply choose a different 

footer or none at all.—NJR 

Tracking Down a Better Signal 

I’ve set up an 802.11b access point in my 

home office to network with my notebook, 

which I carry back and forth to the office, 

and with another computer in my basement. 

The notebook has no trouble 

communicating or sharing an Internet 

connection—even when I carry it to other 

rooms. But the computer in the basement, 

which is directly below my office, has 

trouble getting a good signal. Is there 

anything I can do to boost the signal? 

JONATHAN PINZINO 

A number of factors can affect your signal 

strength, but given that the basement computer 

is directly below your office, the first 

thing to look at is the placement of the 

basement computer relative to the access 

point. If you have your access point’s antenna 

set vertically—which is generally the best 

orientation to use—the area with the weakest 

signal coverage is directly under the 

antenna. You can try repositioning the access 

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point, the basement computer, or both, so a 

straight line between them is at a significant 

angle to a perpendicular line running through 

the access point. 

Also, you can use your notebook to 

test the signal strength at different 

locations in your basement. Your notebook’s 

wireless card probably came with 

a utility that shows signal strength and 

quality. With the access point active, run 

the utility and move the notebook to 

different spots in the basement, leaving 

it in each spot for a moment or two. 

Keep an eye on the signal readings. You 

may find a significantly stronger signal 

just a few feet away from the basement 

computer’s current position. 

If this does not solve your problem, you 

can find more information on getting a better 

wireless connection in “Stretch Your Signal” 

(www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1161518, 

00.asp).—MDS 

Improve Battery Life 

I really enjoy the mobility my notebook/ 

wireless-network adapter combo gives me, 

but I am wondering about the effect of 

wireless on my battery. Am I draining the 

notebook’s battery when I leave the wireless 

on? Short of plugging in, what can I do 

to maximize my battery life? 

RICHARD KOLE 

It’s great to dispense with wires altogether 

and to be able to move around at will with 

your computer. But leaving wireless on all the 

time can certainly affect your battery life. 

With wireless on and not associated to an 

access point (AP), the wireless radio uses its 

full power to search constantly for an AP to 

associate to. Be sure to enable your wireless 

adapter’s power-saving mode. That way, 

once the radio associates with an AP, the 

adapter will go into its low-power mode. 

If you are someplace where there is no 

wireless connection, turn off integrated 

wireless. If you’re using a PC Card, simply pull 

it out of the slot. To be certain the integrated 

wireless is off, check to see whether your 

notebook has a hardware button or software 

(or both) to disable it. In many cases, a 

hardware button disables only the wireless 

radio, which is actually the biggest power 

draw (and the part of the device that the 

airlines want off). 

You may also have a software “switch.” If 

so, you should also disable this, as it will 

probably disable the mini-PCI card that 

contains the actual wireless components. 

Such measures will give you the maximum 

power savings.—Rich Fisco 

Put the Control Panel on the 

Quick Launch Toolbar 

I’d like to add a shortcut for the Control 

Panel to my Quick Launch toolbar. How 

can I do this? 

ROB ROACH 

Here’s one way. Locate Control.exe (normally 

found in the Windows folder or the system or 

system32 folder below it) and drag the file to 

the Quick Launch toolbar. A shortcut is created 

automatically using a generic icon. Right-click 

on the shortcut, click on Properties, and click 

on the Change Icon button. If you slide the 

scroll bar to the middle in the resulting display, 

the Control Panel icon should be visible. Select 

the icon and click OK, then OK again. 

There’s another way to add a Control 

Panel icon with some interesting features. 

Launch Windows Explorer and navigate to 

the folder whose contents define the Quick 

Launch toolbar. Typically, it will be something 

like C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application 

Data\Microsoft\Internet 

Explorer\Quick Launch. Right-click on the 

right-hand pane, select New | Folder from 

the menu, and name the new folder Control 

Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD- 

08002B30309D}. This will create a Control 

Panel shortcut that uses the correct icon 

(though it may appear as a simple folder 

icon until you restart Windows). As a bonus, 

it will also have a ToolTip appropriate to the 

Control Panel. 

PUT A MENU of 

all the Control 

Panel applets on 

your Quick 

Launch toolbar. 

But wait—there’s more! Resize the Quick 

Launch toolbar so the new icon doesn’t quite 

fit. A button with the >> symbol will appear. 

Click on the button, and then click on the 

Control Panel menu item. You’ll get a menu of 

all the Control Panel applets without having 

to open the Control Panel window.—NJR

SPECIAL 

ISSUE: 

Your 

Un wired 

World 

Wireless networking has hit the 

mainstream, no doubt about it, and 

just gets better and better—and 

more complex. Come along on a 

tether-free flight through the ether.

REVIEWED IN THIS STORY 

60 Unwire Your Home 61 Deconstructing 802.11 Wireless 

62 Terminology for an Unwired World 62 Wireless LAN Time 

Line 64 Buyers’ Decision Tree 68 Performance Tests: 

802.11b/g vs. Centrino 70 Performance Tests: PCI vs. USB 

70 Performance Tests: Internal WLAN Card vs. PC Card 

71 Rock the House, Wirelessly 72 Wireless Notebooks 

74 Wireless Access Points and Routers 81 Unwire Your Office 

82 Tablets: Wireless, Finally 82 Enterprise Managed WLAN 

Products 85 Performance Tests: Wireless Access Points 

86 Corporate Access Points 88 Making Sense of Wireless LAN 

Security 91 Unwiring at School 93 Deploying Wireless on 

Campus 97 Unwire Everywhere 98 Choosing a Wi-Fi Provider 

99 Next Stop: 30,000 Feet 100 Quickest Way to 

a Hot Spot 101 Airport Hot Spots 101 Hotel Hot Spots 

102 Wireless Ways for Your PDA 102 Handhelds 104 Bluetooth 

Not too long ago, everyone was abuzz about the 

new wired world and this mind-boggling invention 

called the Internet. In that world you 

could get pretty much any information you 

wanted. But there was a problem: You had to be 

plugged in. So getting that information whenever and wherever 

you wanted it wasn’t an option. 

Times have changed. With wirelessly enabled portable 

computers and PDAs, you can roam your office, your home, or 

even a park and still be connected to your e-mail, to the Web, 

or to important corporate information. You have data at your 

fingertips when visiting customers or suppliers. And you can 

now stay connected in places you never dreamed of—from an 

airport terminal, between flights, to McDonald’s, between 

bites of your Big Mac. 

The benefits of wireless connectivity seem endless, regardless 

of what type of user you are. If you work in an office and 

take your laptop to meetings, a wireless network conveniently 

allows you to look up corporate information, for example, while 

with a client in a conference room. If you want to connect multiple 

computers in your home but don’t want to run cables, wireless 

makes networking easy. 

The exciting news is that wireless computing is finally hitting 

the mainstream. That’s because you can buy the basics for a 

simple wireless network for under $100, and the products have 

become very easy to install and configure. Of course, there are 

still issues: As the technology evolves, there are multiple new 

standards, and for many people security remains a big concern. 

In the pages that follow we look at all aspects of wireless technology, 

along with tips for better and more secure wireless computing 

wherever you go—at home, in the office, at school, or 

when you’re on the road. Unplug that laptop, and let’s go. 

By Michael J. Miller 

Illustrations by Bryan Leister 


60 

Unwire Your Home 

By Craig Ellison 

When New Yorker Greg Caruso 

decided to set up a home network in late 

2002, he was instantly drawn to the convenience 

of going wireless. But lacking 

firsthand wireless experience, he took 

care to investigate his options. 

Caruso’s requirements were straightforward: 

He needed to share cable Internet 

access among a desktop PC and two 

laptops, so he could check e-mail while 

his kids surf the Internet or play games. 

The laptops could be connected anywhere 

within his 900-square-foot loft 

apartment. He didn’t want to spend loads 

of time or money getting the system up 

and running. And if possible, he wanted 

to use his laptops at neighborhood hot 

spots as well as at home. 


He was surprised to find just how 

many products that met his needs were 

already on the market. Based on that, 

there seemed to be no reason not to go 

wireless. 

Caruso called his broadband provider 

for advice on setting up a wireless router 

with his cable modem, and he bought a 

Linksys 802.11b router and PCMCIA wireless 

network card for his notebook. His 

provider’s instructions: Plug everything 

in and turn on the power. And it worked. 

Since then, going wireless has given 

Caruso a new sense of what portability 

really means. “Instead of having to print 

e-mails and Web pages to read them later, 

you can read them online anywhere,” he 

says. “It’s great.” 

Like a growing number of people over 

the past couple years, Caruso has discov- 

ered the power of unplugging. Aside from 

being relatively easy to configure, wireless 

networks keep you from having to run 

cable around your house—an undertaking 

that can be pricey and a logistical challenge. 

Going wireless also lets you extend 

your network to previously overlooked 

areas in your home, such as the kitchen, 

laundry room, or even the backyard. 

But what is likely to prove even more 

of a driver in the near future is the ability 

to connect your PC network with your 

consumer electronics and entertainment 

devices. Many new products let you wirelessly 

connect your stereo system (see 

page 71) or gaming console to your computer—enabling 

you to stream audio and 

potentially video from your computer to 

your home theater system. 

The wireless-at-home trend is a natur-

al outgrowth of home networking in general. 

Fifty-six percent of PC Magazine 

readers have a home network, with an 

average of 3.3 computers per household, 

according to a recent survey of 13,000 

subscribers. Of those home networks, 48 

percent are wireless. 

While wired Ethernet networking has 

been around for 30 years, wireless networking 

remains relatively new to the 

home market. In fact, the first widely 

adopted wireless standard, 802.11b, was 

ratified by the Institute of Electrical and 

Electronics Engineers (IEEE) just four 

years ago, in 1999. At that time, wireless 

networking hardware was very expensive, 

and only corporations with big budgets 

and compelling needs could justify 

going wireless. An ac- 

cess point, or base station, 

which acts as a 

bridge between a wired 

and a wireless network, 

cost almost $1,000 in 

1999, while wireless 

client cards for notebooks 

were close to 

$300. Compare that with 

today’s pricing—$55 for 

a basic access point and 

$30 for an 802.11b client 

card—and it’s easy to 

see why wireless is 

catching on. Many notebook 

PCs—even lowend 

models—now have 

wireless-network cards 

built in, so there’s no 

need to buy a client card. 

THE TECHNOLOGY: 

802.11B, “A,” AND “G” 

If you’ve gone shopping 

for wireless-networking 

products, you’ve already 

been confronted by the 

maze of numbers, letters, 

and acronyms, 

which can make choosing the right product 

seem daunting. 

There are currently three wireless-networking 

standards approved by the IEEE. 

These are, in chronological order, 802.11b, 

802.11a, and 802.11g. The first, 802.11b, is 

currently the most popular choice for 

wireless networking; products began 

shipping in late 1999, and approximately 

40 million 802.11b devices are in use 

worldwide. “B” networks operate in the 

2.4-GHz radio spectrum, which is shared 

by other unlicensed devices such as cordless 

telephones and microwave ovens— 

potential sources of interference. 

“B” devices have an effective indoor 

range of 100 to 150 feet and operate at a 

maximum theoretical data rate of 11 

Mbps. But in reality, they reach a maximum 

throughput of 4 to 6 Mbps. (The 

remaining throughput is usually occupied 

by the processing of radio signal control 

and network protocol information.) 

While this is still faster than a cable or 

DSL broadband connection and adequate 

for streaming audio, 802.11b is not fast 

enough to stream high-definition video. 

The main advantage of 802.11b is the low 

cost of hardware. 

Deconstructing 802.11 Wireless 

In late 2001, products based on a second 

standard, 802.11a, began shipping. 

Unlike 802.11b and the new 802.11g, 802.11a 

operates in the 5-GHz radio spectrum (as 

opposed to the 2.4-GHz spectrum). Its 

maximum theoretical throughput is 54 

Mbps, with a real-world maximum of 21 to 

22 Mbps. Though this maximum is still 

significantly higher than “b” throughput, 

its effective indoor range at 25 to 75 feet is 

shorter than that of “b” products. But “a” 

UNWIRE YOUR HOME 

performs well in high-density areas: With 

an increased number of nonoverlapping 

channels in the 5-GHz band, you can deploy 

more access points to provide more 

total capacity in the same coverage area. 

The other benefit of “a” is that its higher 

bandwidth makes it ideal for streaming 

multiple video streams and transferring 

large files. 

802.11g is the most recently approved 

IEEE wireless networking standard (June 

2003). Products adhering to this standard 

operate in the same 2.4-GHz spectrum as 

“b” products but at much higher data 

rates—up to the same theoretical maximum 

of “a” products, 54 Mbps, with a 

real-world throughput of 15 to 20 Mbps. 

And like “b” products, “g” devices have 

Wireless standard 802.11b 802.11a 802.11g 802.11a/g 

Products began shipping* Late 1999 Late 2001 Mid-2003 Mid-2003 

Current cost of access 

point or router 

$55–$160 $100–$130 $130–$200 $300 

Current cost of PC Card $30–$90 $100 $80–$130 $100 

Frequency 2.4 GHz 5 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz 

Maximum theoretical throughput 11 Mbps 54 Mbps 54 Mbps 54 Mbps 

Usable throughput at 20 to 60 feet** 4–6 Mbps 15–20 Mbps 15–20 Mbps 15–20 Mbps 

Maximum usable indoor range** 150 feet 75 feet 150 feet “a,” 75 feet; “g,” 150 feet 

Signal modulation technique DSSS OFDM OFDM OFDM 

Compatibility Compatible with “g” Incompatible with “b” Backward-compatible “a” is incompatible with 

products if “g” products and “g” products but with “b” products but “b” and “g” but can coexist 

are configured to run in can coexist in the same only at “b” throughput. in the same device. “g” is 

mixed mode. 

device. 

compatible with “b.” 

Approximate maximum number 

of users per AP 

32 64 64 128 

Number of nonoverlapping channels 3 12*** 3 16 

Most popular environments and why Widely adopted in homes 

and offices; products are 

mature and inexpensive. 

Common in public hot spots and why Yes, because of widespread 

adoption and the 

low cost of APs and PC 

Cards. 

Adopted by offices and 

enterprises; higher 

throughput and larger 

number of channels can 

serve more concurrent 

users. 

No, because it is not 

widely adopted. 

* Products that are standards-based but not Wi-Fi Certified. ** Based on PC Magazine Labs testing. 

*** Currently about 12, depending on the manufacturer; could increase to 24, pending an FCC ruling. 

Still new but will be 

popular in homes, 

offices, and enterprises 

because of its greater 

throughput. 

No, because it is new. 

But “g” PC Cards can 

be used at “b” hot spots. 

Still new but will be popular 

in homes, offices, and 

enterprises; the combination 

of standards allows 

greater throughput and 

user density. Home use will 

pick up as audio and video 

streaming increases. 

No; “a” is not widely 

adopted, and “g” is new. 

But “a/g” PC Cards can be 

used at “b” hot spots. 

an effective indoor range of 100 to 150 

feet. The higher speed of “g” also makes 

it ideal for streaming video and audio and 

surfing the Web. 

802.11g was engineered to be backwardcompatible 

with 802.11b, and they share 

the same 2.4-GHz spectrum, making their 

products interoperable with one another. 

A notebook with a “b” wireless PC Card 

can connect to a “g” access point, for 

example. However, “g” products, in the 


presence of “b” products, drop to “b” 

speeds. While “a” networks are not compatible 

with “b” or “g” networks, products 

that include a combination of “a” and “g” 

radios on-board offer the best of both 

worlds. This is good news for 802.11a; in 

the home environment, where the radio 

signal needs to penetrate multiple walls 

and obstructions, “a” alone may be a poor 

choice because of its shorter range. 

Those considering a product based on 

just one standard should go with “g.” 

These devices often cost only a little 

more than “b” products, and because the 

two standards are interoperable, sales of 

“g” products are taking off more quickly 

than those of “a.” Both “g” and “a/g” combination 

products are well worth the 

investment, since they future-proof your 

home network for years to come. 

GETTING STARTED 

A wireless network connected to the 

Internet requires the following components: 

an Internet connection (preferably 

broadband), a modem, a router, a firewall, 

a wireless access point, and a wireless 

network adapter for your notebook 

(built in or PC Card) or desktop computer 

(PCI). Some or all of these components 

often come packaged together in 

one device. 

What you need to buy to “unwire” 

your network depends on what you 

already have and whether you have an 

existing home network. For starters, if 

you have a broadband Internet connection, 

then you already have the modem 

you need, most likely one provided by 

your ISP. This is the case for the majority 

of broadband subscribers, whether 

they are using cable, DSL, satellite, or 

fixed-point wireless. 

If you’re considering buying your own 

W I R E L E S S 

Access point (AP) A device that acts as a 

bridge between a wired and a wireless network. 

In this story the term refers to either a 

standalone AP or a router with an AP built in. 

Ad hoc mode A peer-to-peer connection 

method in which wireless PC Cards communicate 

directly with one another. 

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 

A federal information-processing standard 

that supports 128-, 192-, and 256-bit keys. It 

is part of the forthcoming 802.11i specification 

and has been approved by the U.S. 

government. 

Bluetooth A wireless technology that operates 

in the 2.4-GHz spectrum. It typically has 

a range of 30 feet and a maximum theoretical 

throughput of 720 Kbps. 

Centrino Intel’s wireless mobile technology, 

which integrates the company’s Pentium M 

chip, its 855 chipset, and the Intel PRO/Wireless 

2100, an 802.11b wireless solution. Only 

systems with all three of these products 

on-board bear the Centrino logo. 

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) 

A specification for service provided by a 

router, gateway, or other network device that 

automatically assigns TCP/IP network settings 

(including an IP address) to any device 

that requests one. 

DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface 

Specification) An industry standard that 

defines how cable modems communicate 

over cable TV lines. 

DSSS (direct-sequence spread spectrum) 

and FHSS (frequency-hop spread spectrum) 

Two incompatible technologies used to 

transmit data over radio waves. With DSSS, 

used in 802.11b, transmissions are spread 

across the spectrum via overlapping channels. 

With FHSS, which was implemented in 

early 802.11 products and cordless phones, 

transmissions jump randomly from one 

frequency to another. See OFDM. 

LAN Time Line 

1942 Composer/pianist 

George Antheil and actress Hedy 

Lamarr patent a frequency-hopping 

radio encryption technique (later 

called spread-spectrum technology) 

and donate it to the U.S. Navy, 

which classifies it but finds it too 

unreliable for use in WWII. 

T E R M I N O L O G Y 

1958 The U.S. Navy develops 

the first computer chip for radio 

communications based on the 

still-classified spread-spectrum 

technology. 

1985 The U.S. Navy declassifies 

spread-spectrum technology, 

making it available for commerce. 

1989 

The Federal Communications 

Commission (FCC) authorizes the 

use of spread-spectrum technology 

in three unlicensed radio bands. 

EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) 

A flexible authentication framework that 

lets wireless adapters communicate with 

back-end authentication servers such as 

RADIUS. The most common EAP types are 

EAP-TLS (EAP–Transport Layer Security), 

EAP–TTLS (EAP–Tunneled Transport Layer 

Security), and PEAP (Protected EAP). 

F O R 

802.11a, “b,” and “g” IEEE specifications 

defining wireless LAN technologies. 802.11b 

products operate in the 2.4-GHz radio spectrum 

and have a maximum data rate of 11 

Mbps. 802.11a products operate in the 

5-GHz spectrum at a maximum rate of 54 

Mbps. 802.11g products operate in the same 

2.4-GHz radio spectrum as 802.11b products 

(so the two are compatible) but at a data 

rate of up to 54 Mbps. 

802.11e A proposed IEEE standard that 

defines quality of service (QoS) for wireless 

networks. 

802.11i A proposed IEEE standard that would 

provide additional security specific to wireless 

LANs. Major components are TKIP, 

802.1x authentication, and AES. This standard 

is expected to be ratified in mid-2004. 

802.11n An IEEE WLAN standard proposed 

for release in 2005 or 2006 that is expected 

to reach speeds between 100 Mbps and 

320 Mbps. 

Encryption The process of scrambling data 

so that only authorized recipients can read it. 

Usually a key is needed to decrypt the data. 

ESSID (extended service set identifier) 

A type of unique identifier applied to both 

an access point and a wireless PC Card. The 

ESSID is attached to each packet of data 

transmitted between them and lets the 

access point recognize each wireless client 

and its traffic. 

54g A chipset made by Broadcom. Products 

bearing this label are 802.11g-compliant or 

can be upgraded to 802.11g compliance. 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BETTMANN/CORBIS 

1990 The Institute of Electrical 

and Electronics Engineers 

(IEEE) begins work on standards 

for wireless connectivity in the 

unlicensed Industrial, Scientific 

and Medical (ISM) spectrum. 

1997 The IEEE ratifies 

802.11 for “over-the-air interface 

between wireless clients and base 

stations.” It does not guarantee 

interoperability. 

The FCC adds a fourth band for 

unlicensed spread-spectrum use.

A N U N W I R E D W O R L D 

PHOTOGRAPHY JOEL W. ROGERS/CORBIS 

Gateway An all-in-one device that connects 

a wireless LAN to the outside world via the 

Internet. It includes a modem, router, wireless 

access point, and firewall. 

Hot spot A public or commercial area in 

which wireless Internet access is offered, 

either for free or at a daily or hourly rate. 

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics 

Engineers) An organization that establishes 

computing and communications standards, 

such as all 802.11 specifications. 

Infrared (IR) A basic, short-range wireless 

technology with a range of 10 feet and a 

maximum throughput of about 4 Mbps. It is 

used mainly to synchronize data between 

PCs and handheld devices. 

Infrastructure mode A connection method in 

which wireless PC Cards communicate with 

an access point. 

IP (Internet Protocol) address A numerical 

identifier for a device on a TCP/IP network. 

The IP address format is a string of four 

numbers, each ranging from 0 to 255, separated 

by periods. 

MAC (media-access control) address 

A hard-coded or permanent address applied 

to hardware at the factory. It uniquely identifies 

network hardware such as wired or 

wireless network cards or routers on a LAN, 

WLAN, or WAN. 

NAT (Network Address Translation) 

A mechanism that lets an entire household 

share a dynamic IP address. 

OFDM (orthogonal frequency division 

multiplexing) A modulation technique in 

which a radio signal is divided into multiple 

narrow frequency bands to transmit large 

amounts of data. Both 802.11a and 802.11g 

products use OFDM. 

Preamble A preliminary signal that network 

hardware transmits to control signal detec- 

1999 

September 

The IEEE ratifies 802.11b 

and 802.11a. 

The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility 

Alliance (WECA) organizes to certify 

802.11 interoperability, opening 

the door to global adoption. M 

Autumn 

802.11b products begin shipping. 

tion and clock synchronization in wired and 

wireless networks. 

PRISM Nitro A standards-based software 

technology developed by Intersil. PC Magazine 

Labs found that products using the 

technology showed some throughput 

improvement, especially in a mixed-mode 

environment. 

RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In 

User Service) An authentication and 

accounting system that verifies users’ 

credentials and grants access to requested 

resources. 

RC4 An encryption algorithm designed by 

RSA Laboratories. It is a stream cipher of 

pseudorandom bytes and is used in WEP and 

other forms of encryption. 

Roaming The ability to move from one 

access point to another in a WLAN with 

uninterrupted connections. 

Router A device that links two discrete 

networks and forwards packets between 

them. A router uses a networking protocol 

such as IP to address and direct packets 

flowing into and out of the network on which 

it sits. Many home and small-office routers 

include a four-port switch, which handles 

moving data inside the network from one 

device to another. 

Shared key An encryption key known only to 

the receiver and sender of data. 

Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) A type of 

firewall that uses either a predefined or an 

editable rule set to determine whether 

packets are to be forwarded or denied. 

3G Third-generation mobile-phone technology. 

Although still several years away, 

3G promises a throughput of at least 2 

Mbps. Current 2.5G phones use GSM/GPRS 

and CDMA/1xRTT technologies. Throughput 

rarely exceeds 100 Kbps and averages 

about 40 to 72 Kbps. 

November 

PCMagazine’s Award for Technical 

Excellence for network standards 

goes to the IEEE’s 802.11 high-rate 

standard and WECA. 

2000 

February 

Microsoft releases Windows 

2000 with WLAN sniffer ability. 

March 

WECA launches the Wi-Fi 

certification program for 

802.11b-compliant products. 

December 

Carlson Hotels Worldwide (owner 

of Country Inns & Suites, Radisson 

Hotels, and Regent International 

hotels) announces wireless service. 

2001 

January 

Starbucks launches wireless hot 

spots in coffee shops. K 

August 

Researchers Scott Fluhrer, Itsik 

Mantin, and Adi Shamir announce 

their finding that Wired Equivalent 


TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) 

A protocol for the 802.11i encryption standard. 

TKIP provides per-packet key mixing, 

a message integrity check, and a rekeying 

mechanism. A component of WPA, TKIP is 

designed to fix WEP’s security flaws. 

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) An architecture 

that allows easy connection between 

PCs and other devices using TCP/IP and a 

derivative of HTTP. It lets each device automatically 

acquire a network address and 

announce its presence to other devices on 

the network. 

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) An encryption-based 

security standard for WLAN technology. 

It has proved to be fundamentally 

insecure. 

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) A certification 

program created by the Wi-Fi Alliance to 

ensure interoperability among 802.11 products. 

Only devices that are Wi-Fi–certified 

may bear the Wi-Fi logo. 

Wi-Fi Alliance A nonprofit international 

association formed in 1999 to certify the 

interoperability of WLAN products based on 

the 802.11 specification. It was formerly 

known as WECA (Wireless Ethernet Compatibility 

Alliance) and currently includes 180 

member companies. 

WPA (Wireless Protected Access) An 

industry-supported subset of the forthcoming 

802.11i specification, using 802.1x authentication 

and TKIP. Many WLAN hardware owners 

will be able to download software or firmware 

that supports WPA from the manufacturers of 

devices they already have. 

Xpress A standards-based technology developed 

by Broadcom that is based on the 

Wireless Multimedia Enhancements (WME) 

specification, a key part of the IEEE 802.11e 

draft specification. PC Magazine Labs found 

that products using the technology showed 

some throughput improvement, especially in 

a mixed-mode environment. 

Privacy (WEP), the 802.11 security 

scheme, is fundamentally insecure. 


Buyers’ 

Decision Tree 

If you are new to setting up a 

wireless home network, the array 

of choices out there can be con- 

fusing. Use this chart to help you 

select the correct hardware for 

your home network. (You will also 

need wireless cards for the PCs 

on your network.) 

Buy a wireless 

router with an 

SPI firewall. 

No Does your 

router have an 

SPI firewall? 

Yes 

modem, understand that it generally 

must be approved by your ISP for network 

compatibility. And if you rent a 

modem from your ISP and it dies, or if 

the provider switches technology and 

needs to upgrade your modem, replacement 

is the ISP’s responsibility. If you’re 

using your own modem, however, you 

must purchase a replacement if the 

device fails. 

Configuring a new modem may also 

require coordination with your ISP. Cable 

companies allow cable modems on their 

networks based on the MAC (media access 

control) address of each device. 

When the cable guy shows up with a 

modem, its MAC address has already 

been registered. But if you purchase your 

Do you 

connect to the 

Internet via a broadband 

connection (like cable 

or DSL)? 

Buy a 

wireless 

access point. 

Do you 

already own 

a router? 



SPI firewall. 

W I R E L E S S LAN Time Line 

2001 

Autumn 

802.11a products begin shipping. 

May 

The FCC modifies its rules and 

clears the way for the development 

of 802.11g devices. 

2002 

September 

Lucent Technologies demonstrates 

a seamless handoff be- 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

Are you going 

to connect to 

the Internet 

via dial-up? 

Buy a modemsharing 

device 

(like the 

Actiontec Dual 

PC Modem, one 

of the few 

available; see 

First Looks). 

Buy a 

wireless 

router. 

own device, you must have your service 

provider authorize your cable modem’s 

MAC address before you can start using 

it. Our own informal testing of this 

process resulted in several phone calls 

and hours of wait time to have our selfpurchased 

modem activated, so be prepared. 

Unlike cable, which 

is a shared medium, 

DSL doesn’t have 

modem authentication 

issues. DSL providers 

have to put DSL signals 

directly onto subscribers’ 

phone lines, so if you have a signal, 

no further authentication is needed 

for the modem to connect to the network, 

tween Wi-Fi and 3G cellular networks, 

enabling users to roam 

between the two without interrupting 

their Internet sessions. M 

No 

Yes 

No 

10 million 

Americans surf from 

cell phones or PDAs 

October 

WECA becomes the Wi-Fi Alliance 

(WFA), begins 802.11a certification 

tests, and rolls out Wi-Fi Protected 

Access (WPA) to replace WEP. 

First 802.11a/b products ship. 

2003 

(SOURCE: COMSCORE NETWORKS INC.) 

January 

WFA launches the Wi-Fi ZONE to 

certify and brand public-access 

hot spots, much as it does with 

Wi-Fi products. 

Contact a 

broadband 

provider to 

arrange service. 

Will you be 

using a modem 

supplied by your 

ISP? 

No 

Buy a wireless all-inone 

home gateway 

that has a modem, 

router, SPI firewall 

switch, and wireless 

access point built-in.* 

Yes 



SPI firewall. 

* A small but growing 

number of providers 

offer such gateways. 

Check with your 

provider prior to 

purchase. 

though you’ll still have to log on—most 

likely over PPoE. 

GATEWAYS 

So why would you bother buying your 

own device, given the potential headaches 

you could experience in making it compatible 

with your ISP? 

First, you’ll avoid a 

monthly modem rental 

fee. Second, products are 

entering the market that 

consolidate equipment 

and simplify the home 

networking process. So if 

you’ve had your modem for more than a 

year and are ready for an upgrade, or if 

you’re getting broadband for the first time, 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NAJLAH FEANNY/CORBIS SABA 

March 

Intel introduces Centrino mobile 

technology. 

McDonald’s rolls out ten hot spots 

in Manhattan and promises 300 

by year’s end. K 

First “prestandard” draft-compliant 

802.11g products begin shipping. 

April 

The WFA certifies the first WPA 

products, including chipsets from 

Atheros, Broadcom, Cisco, Intel,

PHOTOGRAPHY (BOTTOM) BY BERND OBERMANN/CORBIS; (TOP) JOHN SHOTWELL/GETTYONE; (BOTTOM RIGHT) DAVIS D. JANOWSKI 

you may want to consider a gateway. Such 

a product acts as a modem, router, firewall, 

and wireless access point—or some combination 

of these devices—all in one box. 

Major networking hardware manufacturers, 

such as Netgear, Linksys, and D-Link, 

as well as some ISPs, are beginning to offer 

gateways, so check with your provider 

before buying your own. 

WIRELESS ROUTERS 

If you want to go wireless but don’t want 

the hassle of configuring a new modem, 

and your computer is plugged directly 

into your cable modem, you should buy 

a wireless router with a built-in firewall. 

A wireless router typically includes a 

four-port Ethernet switch so that you 

can connect your wired computers to 

the wireless access point, which in turn 

connects to your wireless-enabled 

computers. 

Routers let you share a single IP 

address provided by your ISP with multiple 

computers on your network through 

a mechanism called Network Address 

Translation (NAT). NAT provides you 

some security on the Internet because 

the router assumes the public IP address 

assigned by your ISP, and your computers 

are each assigned a private IP address via 

a DHCP server built into the router. Those 

private addresses aren’t visible on the 

Internet. For improved security, make 

sure the router’s firewall uses Stateful 

Packet Inspection (SPI) technology in 

addition to NAT (see our glossary on page 

62 for more detailed definitions of many 

of these terms). An SPI firewall inspects 

each incoming packet to ensure that it 

corresponds to an outgoing request. 

Unsolicited requests are prevented from 

entering your network. For reviews of 

several wireless routers, see page 74. 

and others. Over 40 million 802.11based 

devices are deployed worldwide. 

First multimode 802.11a/g 

product (with draft-compliant “g” 

on-board) ships. 

MORE on 

theWEB We show small-business owners how to start 

their own wireless hot spot. To read this and all 

our coverage of the wireless industry, visit us 

online at wireless.pcmag.com. 

Our contributors: Michael J. Miller is the 

editor-in-chief of PC Magazine. Bill Howard 

and Bruce Brown are contributing editors. 

Craig Ellison is director of operations at PC 

Magazine Labs. Matthew D. Sarrel is a PC 

Magazine Labs technical director. PC Magazine 

Labs project leaders Oliver Kaven and Joel 

Santo Domingo oversaw all testing for this 

story. Daniel S. Evans and Laarni Almendrala 

Ragaza are staff editors. Jim Akin, Carol 

Ellison, Andrew Garcia, and Sonya Moore are 

freelance writers. Executive editor Stephanie 

Chang and associate editors Jenn Defeo and 

Davis D. Janowski were in charge of this story. 

ACCESS POINTS 

If you are one of the many readers who 

already has a fully functional wired network, 

and you’re happy with your existing 

modem, router, and firewall, then all 

you need to go wireless is an access point 

(AP). A dedicated AP simply has an 802.11 

May 

Verizon Communications announces 

150 Wi-Fi–enabled phone 

booths in Manhattan and promises 

1,000 by year’s end. 

June 

The IEEE ratifies 802.11g. 

July 

First 802.11g products receive Wi- 

Fi certification. 

865 products from 112 companies 

have received Wi-Fi certification 

since the program began in 2000. 


radio on-board and little else. The radio 

in this device serves as the bridge 

between your wired and wireless networks, 

receiving a wired signal and transmitting 

it wirelessly. You merely plug the 

AP into the existing wired router on your 

network, configure the device to add 

security, and you’re set to go. See page 74 

for reviews of some APs. 

DESKTOP EQUIPMENT 

To connect your desktop to a wireless 

network, you have two choices. First is a 

PCI card, but to install one you need to 

open the case of your computer. For some 

users, this is not intimidating; for others 

it’s as scary as a trip to the dentist (see 

our how-to tips on page 66). Also, the 

antenna is generally located on the back 

of the PCI card, so if your desktop PC sits 

under your desk, you may get poorer 

reception than you would if the system 

were on top of your desk. Some manufacturers 

offer an external antenna that 

connects to a PCI card via a coaxial cable. 

This enables you to place the antenna on 

your desk, where the signal from your 

access point might be stronger. 

The other option is a USB adapter. 

Installing one requires simply plugging 

the adapter into a USB port on your computer; 

power will be supplied by the bus. 

One of the most obvious advantages of 

USB adapters over PCI cards is the simple 

installation process. Another is the 

ease of placement; you can put your USB 

wireless adapter anywhere, limited only 

by the length of the USB cable (up to a 

maximum of 15 feet due to the limitations 

of USB). This lets you move the device— 

and consequently its antenna—to get the 

best reception. And the same adapter 

will work on either a desktop computer 

or a notebook. 

September 

WPA security becomes mandatory 

as part of the Wi-Fi certification 

process. 

2005 Conservative estimates 

suggest that at current rates of 

adoption, almost half a billion 

802.11-based devices (including 

access points, cell phones, desktops 

PCs, DVD players and 

recorders, MP3 players, NICs, 

notebooks, PDAs, TV sets, and 

other products) will be sold in this 

year alone. 


65

66 


How to Set Up a Wireless Home Network 

There are a few different setup scenarios for wireless home networks, depending on whether you already have a modem and a 

wired router. In this step-by-step tutorial we’ll assume that you already have a broadband connection with a cable or DSL 

modem but don’t yet have a router, and that your computer is currently plugged directly into your modem. We will also 

assume you want to keep a desktop PC wired to the network and to set up either a notebook or a second desktop PC for wireless 

access. (It’s a good idea to keep one of your PCs wired during configuration, in case security settings are lost in the 

process and you can’t get back on the network.) You’ll need to buy a wireless router, a wireless PCI card for your desktop PC, 

and a wireless PCMCIA card (also known as a PC Card) for your notebook.—Craig Ellison and Daniel S. Evans 

1 

3 

Connect Your 

Wireless Router 

a. Turn off your cable modem and 

your wired PC. 

b. Unplug the Ethernet cable from 

your cable modem and plug it 

into one of the four LAN ports on 

the back of the wireless router. 

The other end of the cable should 

remain connected to your PC. 

c. Connect a second Ethernet cable 

between your 

modem’s Ethernet 

port and the 

wireless router’s 

WAN port. (The 

Cable modem 

Install a Wireless PCI Card 

in a Desktop PC 

a. Refer to the card manufacturer’s 

quick-start guide. If necessary, run 

the software installation program. 

b. Shut down the PC. 

c. Remove the cover. 

d. Locate an available PCI slot and 

remove the corresponding slot 

cover from the back of the PC. 

e. Carefully route the antenna 

through the open slot in the 

back of the PC, insert the card 

in the slot, and secure it. 

Replace the cover. 

f. Power up the PC. It should recognize 

and enable the new hardware. 

g. Go to the Control Panel, select 

Network, select Wireless Networking 

connection. Click on Properties. 

Click on Wireless Networking tab. 

Select the wireless networking 

name (see step 2e above). Click on 

Configure. Adjust your security 

settings to match those on your 

wireless router. 

WAN port is separate from the 

four grouped LAN ports.) 

d. Turn on the modem and wait for 

the status lights to indicate that 

it’s connected to your service 

provider. This may take up to a 

minute. 

e. Plug in the router. The status 

lights will blink as it goes 

through its own diagnostics; 

this may also take up to a 

minute. 

f. Boot up your wired PC. 


Router 

Wireless PCI card 

LAN ports 

2 

a. Refer to the router’s 

printed quick-start 

guide, launch your 

Web browser, and 

type in the address 

indicated in the guide. 

b. Follow the on-screen 

setup wizard, which 

should guide you step 

by step through the process. 

c. Enable your router’s security functions. The options will be WEP 

and WPA. (See page 88 for more information on enabling WPA.) 

Both will ask you to enter a key. Depending on your router’s manufacturer, 

you may need to go to Advanced Settings to handle 

this step and the next two. 

d. Change the default administrator’s password, which is often 

known to hackers. 

e. Change the SSID—the name you give your wireless network. 

Again, hackers know many of the default SSIDs and can use them 

to join your network. 

External antenna 

Wireless 802.11a/g PCI card 

Configure 

Your Router 

4 

Wireless PCMCIA card 

Install a Wireless PC Card 

In a Notebook PC 

Many notebooks have built-in wireless 

cards. If yours doesn’t, follow these 

instructions. 

a. Follow steps “a” and “b” in number 3. 

b. Plug your wireless PC Card into 

an available slot on the side of your 

notebook. 

c. Follow steps “f” and “g” in number 3. 

www.pcmag.com ISSUE DATE, 2002 PC MAGAZINE 000

68 


The vast majority of USB adapters on 

the market employ USB 1.1 technology and 

are limited to approximately 802.11b performance 

(12 Mbps) because of the 

throughput bottleneck of the slower USB 

1.1 technology. At press time, only one 

manufacturer was shipping an 802.11g/ 

USB 2.0 product: the Buffalo AirStation 

54Mbps USB Adapter-G. (For results of our 

performance tests on PCI cards and USB 1.1 

wireless adapters, see page 70.) 

NOTEBOOK EQUIPMENT 

Many new notebooks—even the relatively 

inexpensive models—come equipped 

with a built-in mini PCI wirelessnetworking 

card. But before you buy, 

you should know a few things. If you 

buy a Centrino notebook, you’ll be purchasing 

802.11b technology, not the 

newer and faster technology, 802.11g. 

Currently, Intel is offering manufacturers 

only a “b” solution, with support for “g” 

coming later this year. Also, Centrino 

notebooks aren’t just about wireless 

technology. 

Centrino represents a three-part solution: 

an Intel Pentium M processor, an 

855GM (graphics memory controller 

hub) or 855PM (memory controller hub) 

chipset, and Intel’s 802.11b solution, the 

Intel PRO/Wireless 2100. Non-Centrino 

notebooks, on the other hand, are at liberty 

to offer any wireless solution the 

manufacturer wants, and many offer the 

new “g” solution for the added benefits 

at not much additional cost. 

Your best bet if you’re buying a new 

notebook is to purchase one with a 

“g” solution or an “a/g” combination. It 

will save you a PC Card slot and ensure 

that you’ll have wireless capabilities 

wherever an 802.11 network exists. That 

includes “b” networks, since “b” and “g” 

are interoperable. 

If you want to upgrade your existing 

notebook to include wireless connectivity, 

you could use a USB adapter, as indicated 

above, but those are somewhat 

awkward to travel with. A better solution 

would be a PC Card that you install in the 

PCMCIA slot on the side of your notebook. 

Both “a/g” and “g” cards are available 

in the $80 to $100 range, and though 

that’s more than what you’d pay for a “b” 

card, you’re future-proofing your home 

network for just a little extra money. (See 

our home access point and router reviews 

on page 74.) 


LOOK FOR THE WI-FI LABEL 

Whatever devices you choose, you want 

to make sure that they can all work 

together, regardless of the brand. If you 

have a Linksys wireless router, for example, 

you want to make sure it talks to the 

Cisco wireless PC Card you use at work. 

PERFORMANCE TESTS 

802.11b/g vs. Centrino 

That’s where the Wi-Fi label comes in. 

Wi-Fi is short for Wireless Fidelity. 

Although the term is frequently used to 

talk generically about wireless networking, 

Wi-Fi is actually a registered trademark 

of the Wi-Fi Alliance (www.wifi.org). 

This nonprofit international 

When Intel introduced Centrino in March, anyone who wasn’t 

tech-savvy may have thought that Centrino was the birth of the 

wireless revolution. And although Intel has done a lot to propel 

wireless into the mainstream, it is not the first wireless player— 

and its products don’t include the newest wireless technology, 

802.11g, though the company plans to add that later this year. 

To test Centrino against its competition, we used two Dell Latitude X300 

notebooks, which were identical except that each contained a different wireless 

mini PCI card offered by Dell. In one case it was a Dell TrueMobile 1400 

(an 802.11a/b/g solution, which uses a Broadcom chipset); in the other, an 

Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 802.11b adapter (a Centrino component). 

We tested the X300 with the TrueMobile 1400 in both “g” and “b” modes. 

At 1-foot and 60-foot ranges, the throughput in “g” mode was more than twice 

that of “b” mode. At 160 feet, the signal degraded to the point where all of our 

configurations were operating at similar throughput rates. 

Though Centrino retained a usable signal throughout our entire 160-foot 

wireless testing range, the TrueMobile 1400—even in “b” mode—again 

provided equal or better throughput across the board. The difference was 

noticeable at ranges of 1 foot and 60 feet from our access point. The Intel 

solution is still in its first generation, however, and like many first versions, 

it still needs a little work. 

Those thinking of buying a notebook with built-in wireless capability 

must consider the unit’s wireless performance, because right now there is no 

easy way to upgrade an internal wireless solution. Intel plans to offer 802.11g 

support in future versions of Centrino (due by the end of the year), which 

we’ll test as soon as they 

are released. For now, go 

with a “g” solution, which 

is more powerful (at close 

range) than a “b”-only 

solution like Centrino, yet 

still compatible. 

We used our radiointerference–freewirelesstesting 

area for all the 

products in this story. 

We ran all the 802.11b tests 

using a Linksys WRT54G 

router in “b”-only mode. 

The 802.11g tests were run 

with the same router in 

“g”-only mode. 

—Analysis written by 

Joel Santo Domingo 

802.11b/g vs. Centrino 

1 

Dell TrueMobile 1400 

(802.11a/b/g, “g” mode) 


(802.11a/b/g, “b” mode) 

Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 

(Centrino, “b” mode) 

60 

120 

Distance (feet) 

Throughput 

(Mbps) 

160 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

BETTER

70 

association was formed in 1999 to certify 

the interoperability of wireless local area 

network (WLAN) products based on the 

IEEE’s 802.11 specifications. The Wi-Fi Alliance 

has a suite of interoperability tests 

that members’ products must pass in 

order to qualify for certification, and 


Wireless Options 

For desktop PC users who want to go wireless 

but don’t want to punch holes in the walls to 

string Category 5 or 6 Ethernet cable around 

the house, there are two primary choices: a PCI 

card and a USB adapter. For notebooks, the 

choices are an internal WLAN card or external 

PCMCIA (PC) card. 

The advantage of the USB 

adapter is that it can be installed 

easily on any desktop or notebook 

with a spare USB port. The 

placement of the adapter is also 

more flexible than with a PCI 

card; you can put the antenna on 

top of the case or the desk, avoiding 

the signal-blocking metal in 

the desktop’s case—a plus when 

the access point is far away. On 

our tests, the Linksys WUSB11 

adapter outperformed the PCI 

card in “b” mode at distances of 

120 and 160 feet. 

At testing time, no 802.11g USB 

adapters were available, though 

by press time, the Buffalo Technology 

AirStation 54Mbps USB 

Adapter-G was shipping. This 

product and others soon to arrive 

support USB 2.0 (which has a 

maximum throughput of 480 

Mbps), unlike the 12-Mbps bandwidth 

of USB 1.1, which limits 

devices to 802.11b speeds. If your 

USB wireless adapter is plugged 

into a USB hub, the performance 

will degrade with each additional 

device attached to the hub, as the 

devices will all share the same 

bandwidth. 

If you’re comfortable opening 

up your desktop’s case, a PCI 

card is another choice. Such a 

solution is best if your access 

point is close. Our tests showed 

PCI vs. USB 


there are tests for products based on each 

IEEE wireless standard (and products 

combining more than one), as well as Wi- 

Fi Protected Access (WPA), which is covered 

in our security sidebar on page 88. 

We recommend buying only products 

that have the Wi-Fi–certified label. 

1 

60 


Internal WLAN Card 

vs. PC Card 

1 

60 

better throughput for the “g” and “b” PCI cards at 1 and 

60 feet than for the USB adapter. A PCI card’s main drawback 

is that either you or a repair technician must install 

it in the desktop case. 

As for notebooks, one of the big questions when you’re 

shopping for one is, Do I have to buy a wireless option 

now, or can I add it later? You can 

Linksys WMP54G 

(PCI, 802.11g) 

Linksys WMP11 

(PCI, 802.11b) 

Linksys WUSB11 

(USB, 802.11b) 

120 


Throughput 

(Mbps) 

160 


(802.11a/b/g, “g” mode) 

Linksys WPC54G PC Card 

(802.11g, “g” mode) 


(802.11a/b/g, “b” mode) 

Linksys WPC54G PC Card 

(802.11g , “b” mode) 

120 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

Throughput 

(Mbps) 

160 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

BETTER 

MAKING IT ALL WORK 

Once you’ve settled on the equipment 

you need, you’re ready to install your 

wireless network. Whether you’ve chosen 

an access point, gateway, or router, 

depending on your needs, you want to 

find a prime spot for your wireless device 

BETTER 

purchase a wireless option, but 

make sure you understand the 

trade-offs. 

Upgrading an internal wireless 

solution is tricky, thanks to FCC 

regulations, so if you know your 

office is using “b” and will upgrade 

to “g” in the future, you 

might as well get a “g” solution. 

On the other hand, you can buy 

a PC Card down the road if your 

company switches from “b” to 

“a/g,” or if you don’t purchase an 

internal solution. (Be sure to first 

find out which flavor of 802.11 

your company uses.) 

Most PC Cards stick out from 

the side of a notebook, and some 

have external antennas for better 

reception. Since a PC Card usually 

has only a single antenna, it 

is subject to signal fluctuations 

when you turn the antenna away 

from a wireless access point. 

As shown in our bottom chart, 

the internal wireless solution 

(a Dell TrueMobile 1400) outperformed 

the PC Card almost across 

the board. This is in part because 

manufacturers like Dell have had 

time to develop dual internal 

antennas and usually place them 

somewhere in the upper lid of 

each notebook, where they receive 

potentially stronger signals 

than a single antenna low in the 

system would pull in.—JSD

so that the antenna is centrally located 

relative to the area you plan to cover. 

If you have a two-story home with a 

basement and want to cover all three 

floors, you should consider putting the 

device on the first floor. For practical reasons, 

most people place the device in the 

same room that has their broadband connection. 

Just make sure that the device 

isn’t hidden behind other objects; the 

antenna needs to be in clear view for 

optimum performance. 

What if you’re not getting the coverage 

you need? Depending on the size of your 

house, as well as things like construction 

materials and number of walls, you may 

need to plug a second access point into 

your wired Ethernet connection to provide 

coverage in hard-to-reach areas, such as the 

backyard, or to improve performance in 

areas where the first device’s signal is weak. 

But the vast majority of wireless users find 

one device sufficient for a house. 

If you plan to use your wireless network 

for traditional purposes, such as sharing a 

printer and broadband access, a “b” device 

should suffice. In the next few years, however, 

demands on the home network will 

grow to include things like streaming 

audio and video. If you fully expect to do 

such things with your network, an “a/g” 

device may be worth the investment. 

INSTALLATION, SECURITY 

Installing wireless equipment used to be 

a complicated experience, but in the past 

few years, manufacturers have managed 

to simplify it significantly. In fact, many 

products will work properly when you 

take them out of the box, read the 

instructions, plug the right cables into the 

right connectors, and reboot your equipment 

in the correct order. The majority of 

wireless-networking hardware manufacturers 

provide easy-to-follow wizards 

that walk you through the installation 

process, and many offer tech support 24 

hours a day, seven days a week. 

To make setup as easy as possible, most 

manufacturers ship their products with all 

security options turned off. So out of the 

box, home networks are completely 

unprotected. At an absolute minimum, 

you should change the default network 

name (SSID) and administrator’s password—both 

of which are well-known 

among hackers—and enable the highest 

level of security that the products support. 

Wired Equivalent Protection (WEP) is 

currently the most widely used security 

feature in home devices. But soon, all new 

products will support WPA instead. (For 

more on these security standards and 

information on how to set them up, see 

our security sidebar on page 88 and “WPA 

Security Step-by-Step,” page 48.) 

ROCK THE HOUSE, WIRELESSLY 


Once your security is set up and your 

network is up and running, you’ll be 

ready to join the legion of wireless converts 

like Greg Caruso. You may find that 

a world without wires is, well, a less tangled 

one. And roaming your home will 

never be the same. 

F O R 

the price of a new multihundred-disc CD changer, you can 

stream hundreds or even thousands of CDs wirelessly from your PC to 

your home audio system, using a digital media hub, also called a digital 

media receiver, digital media adapter, or entertainment hub. Some 

such devices can also show digital photos and, in one case, video. 

Prices range from $100 to $300. 

A media hub sits near your audio amplifier. It’s easy to set up: You 

plug it into a set of unused input jacks and control it using a supplied 

remote, viewing content on your TV set. 

The hub looks like a home-networking switch or router and receives 

wireless Ethernet signals. Client software installed on your PC receives 

requests and sends out the files via 

wireless Ethernet, typically still 

compressed in MP3 or WMA 

format to save on the network 

overhead. If you have 

playlists set up on your PC, 

the hub can use them. This beats 

pressing the All Discs–Shuffle 

button on a CD player. 

Most media hubs have wired Ethernet 

capability as well as wireless. But for the 

most part, even with 802.11b, there is enough bandwidth 

and memory buffering to keep the music playing uninterruptedly. 

Two products stand out. The Swiss Army media player of the bunch 

is the Prismiq MediaPlayer ($249.95 direct), which transfers music, 

photos, and PC-based MPEG video. With a $50 wireless keyboard, it 

also lets you browse the Web and instant-message from your TV set. 

The base unit comes with a PC Card slot; just add an 802.11b or 

802.11g wireless card for $25 to $100. While the Prismiq unit does 

more than the others, it’s also more daunting to set up than the 

Linksys and HP hubs. (888-880-1583, www.prismiq.com. lllll) 

The price/performance leader is the Linksys Wireless-B Media 

Adapter ($200 street). Besides transferring music, it displays photos 

on your TV set. The remote is well labeled. The only knock is minor: 

Support for album art is not available with this first version. (949-261- 

1288, www.linksys.com. llllm) 

The HP Wireless Digital Media Receiver ew5000 ($300 street) is 

easy to use but not competitively priced, now that Linksys is on the 

scene. Its features are essentially the same as those of the Linksys 

model. (800-752-0900, www.hp.com. lllmm) 

If you just want to send music from your PC to your stereo and can 

limp along without a TV set displaying what the remote does, the RCA 

Lyra Wireless RD900W ($100 street) is a bargain. The proprietary 

900-MHz signal has a greater range than Wi-Fi’s 2.4 GHz. You do have 

to dedicate a USB jack to a wireless transmitter, though. (317-587- 

4450, www.rca.com. lllmm)—Bill Howard 



The following is a sampling of notebooks with built-in wireless 

capability. Our testing focuses on wireless performance and 

battery life—two priorities for mobile computing—and for our 

rating, we also include the system weight, because anyone who 

has run through O’Hare Airport trying to make a connection 

Wireless 

knows that every ounce of a laptop counts. 

That’s not to say heavier notebooks don’t have a purpose: 

For infrequent travelers, who want a lot of power 

and portability for short distances, say couch to patio, 

the mobility factor is not as much of a concern. 

All products were tested in the wireless testing area 

of PC Magazine Labs. (For details on the lab setup, 

Notebooks... 

visit www.pcmag.com/wirelesstestbed.) For notebook testing, 

we used a Linksys WAP55AG 802.11a/g access point and tested 

(when appropriate) each notebook in both “b” and “g” modes. 

72 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

Apple PowerBook 

G4 (17-inch) 

Wireless solution: 802.11g; 6.8 lbs. 

system weight; DVD playback: 2:22; 

$3,299 list. 800-692-7753, 

www.apple.com. lllmm 

This was one of the first 

notebooks to move 

to the 802.11g 

wireless standard. 

Though incompatible 

with our standard 

PC-based wireless tests, in 

informal testing its signal reached 

up to 140 feet, and its DVD playback 

lasted 2:22, which is enough for most movies. 

This system isn’t really meant to be carted around 

daily. As a desktop replacement, it’s a rock-solid system. 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

eMachines 

M5310 

802.11g; 6.6 lbs. system 

weight; BatteryMark: 2:19; 

$1,199 list. 714-481-2828, 

www.emachines.com. llmmm 

Just a bit smaller than the Apple 

PowerBook G4 (17-inch), the eMachines 

M5310, with its 15-inch-wide screen, is still a 

hefty notebook that won’t travel often far from the 

office or home. The M5310’s wireless performance was 

a bit weaker than that of our other “g” notebooks but still satisfactory. The 

power drain from its wide-screen display led to less than 3 hours of battery life. 

Performance: 802.11b mode (Mbps) Performance: 802.11g mode (Mbps) 

1 foot: 6.4 

60 feet: 5.9 

120 feet: 2.8 

160 feet: 0.4 

20.8 

14.5 

2.8 

0.3 


8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

Dell Latitude 

X300 

802.11g; 3 lbs. system 

weight; BatteryMark: 

2:20; $1,985 direct. 800- 

388-8542, www.dell.com. 

llllm 

The Dell Latitude X300 is a very 

good choice for those who want 

prime performance with premium 

portability. On our tests, its wireless 

performance held strong out to 160 feet, and 

its battery performance was decent. 


1 foot: 6.1 

60 feet: 6.0 

120 feet: 4.6 

160 feet: 1.7 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

Fujitsu LifeBook S2000 

802.11g; 4.3 lbs. system weight; 

BatteryMark: 3:17; $1,990 street. 877- 

372-3743, www.fujitsupc.com. 

llllm 

This 4-pounder has a 

built-in optical drive—a 

rare find in an ultraportable 

category. Wireless performance 

was impressive, particularly its 

throughput at 120 feet. Add to that a 3hour-plus 

battery life and this is a top 

choice for any executive who travels frequently. 

1 foot: 6.3 

60 feet: 6.2 

120 feet: 5.1 

160 feet: 1.3 

20.8 

14.4 

3.5 

1.6 


21.1 

16.2 

6.9 

1.6 


8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

Gateway 450X 


BatteryMark: 4:18; $1,620 list. 800-221- 

9616, www.gateway.com. llllm 

The thin and light Gateway 450X’s 

wireless throughput scores 

were solid, holding an 

especially strong signal at 

120 feet in “g” mode. Our recent 

Editors’ Choice winner (“Back to 

School,” August 19, page 90) is an outstanding 

choice for the business executive or college 

student on a campus with good wireless coverage. 


1 foot: 6.3 

60 feet: 6.2 

120 feet: 4.4 

160 feet: 1.5 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

HP Compaq Presario X1000 

802.11b (Centrino); 6.5 lbs. system weight; 

BatteryMark: 3:39; $1,599 direct. 800-752- 

0900, www.hp.com. lllmm 

The HP Compaq Presario X1000 is an 

admirable system, yet you may want to 

wait for the upgrade. Since it’s “b” 

only, its wireless performance 

was sub par. And though its 

battery life was decent 

at 3:39, its 6.5-pound 

system weight doesn’t 

scream portability. 

Performance: 802.11b mode (Mbps) 

1 foot: 4.5 

60 feet: 3.7 

120 feet: 1.1 

160 feet: 0.1 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

21.1 

16.4 

5.1 

1.4 

Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-S405 

802.11b (Centrino); 6.7 lbs. system weight; 

BatteryMark: 5:29; $1,849 list. 800-867-4422, 

www.csd.toshiba.com. lllmm 

The Toshiba Satellite Pro M15-S405 offers a good 

blend of power and performance. It posted an 

impressive 5:29 for battery life, so you don’t 

need to tote an adapter around, which 

is good since the notebook 

weighs in at 6.7 pounds. Its 

throughput held up quite 

strongly up to 160 feet, despite 

its “b”-only wireless solution. 


1 foot: 4.9 

60 feet: 4.6 

120 feet: 2.6 

160 feet: 1.3 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

HP Pavilion zd7000 


BatteryMark: 2:17; $2,399 direct. 

800-752-0900, www.hp.com. 

lllmm 

Like the Apple and eMachines notebooks, 

the HP Pavilion zd7000 will probably never 

commute farther than from the bedroom to 

the den. Its wireless performance was very solid 

at the 120-foot and 160-foot range, which makes it 

better if there’s only one access point shared in a smalloffice 

or home environment. Note that this is a preproduction unit; look 

for an updated review of this model in our issue of November 25, 2003. 


1 foot: 5.4 

60 feet: 5.4 

120 feet: 4.7 

160 feet: 2.3 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

HP Pavilion ze5300 

802.11b; 8.1 lbs. system weight; 

Battery Mark: 1: 50; $1,749 direct. 800-752- 

0900, www.hp.com. llmmm 

The HP Pavilion ze5300 is an 8.1-pound 

heavyweight that is meant to 

stay plugged in and 

on your desk. Its 

battery performance 

was less than 2 hours, 

probably due to its desktop 

processor, and its wireless 

signal was unimpressive. 


1 foot: 5.0 

60 feet: 4.9 

120 feet: 1.8 

160 feet: 0.3 

8 0 2 . 1 1 A / B 

IBM ThinkPad R40 

802.11a/b; 6.4lbs. system weight; 

BatteryMark: 5:28; $2,249 direct. 888-740- 

7426, www.ibm.com. llllm 

The R40 delivers high quality and sturdy 

design, and its 5:48 battery life is 

one of the best we’ve 

seen. It is also one of 

the few notebooks to 

incorporate an “a/b” 

wireless solution, so no 

matter what network you’re 

near, you’ve got wireless covered. 


1 foot: 6.5 

60 feet: 6.4 

120 feet: 1.9 

160 feet: 0.4 

21.0 

16.5 

6.1 

1.7 


74 


The following is a sampling of 802.11g, 802.11a/g, and 

802.11b routers and access points. Some of the “g” products were 

on the market prior to the IEEE’s ratification of the 802.11g standard 

in June and were categorized as draft-compliant devices in 

our June 30 roundup “The Wireless LANscape.” We have retested 

these products, all of which are now standard-compliant, and 

we tested some new standard-compliant “g” and “a/g” devices. 

...Wireless 

Access Points and Routers 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

Belkin F5D7230-4 

$130 list. 877-736-5771, www.belkin.com. llllm 

Since our June roundup, Belkin has improved the 

throughput on its F5D7230-4 router and 

dropped the price by $60. The unit is 

still chock full of 

features like 

parental-control Web 

filtering and provides 

convenient multiple fields for 

entering WEP hex keys (rather 

than one field, which can easily 

lead to errors). 

Performance: 802.11g mode (Mbps) 

1 foot: 20.2 

60 feet: 12.8 

120 feet: 2.3 

160 feet: 0 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

Buffalo AirStation WBR-G54 

$69 list. 800-456-9799, www.buffalotech.com. lllmm 

Since our June roundup, performance of the Buffalo 

AirStation WBR-G54 wireless router has 

improved dramatically, taking the top spot 

in “g”-only mode at the 1-foot and 60-foot 

markers. Consider this product if you want 

excellent throughput and a low price 

but don’t mind a minimal feature set and 

a client software interface that is not as 

polished as those of its competitors. 


1 foot: 21.1 

60 feet: 15.8 

120 feet: 1.2 

160 feet: 0 


8 

0 

2 

D-Link AirPlus 

Xtreme G 

DI-624 

. 

G 

$149 list. 800-326-1688, 

www.dlink.com. lllmm 

This wireless router is easy to install and 

has an array of features for home and 

small-office applications. Its remote 

management and packet traffic statistics go 

beyond the usual home-focused software. And D- 

Link has added a “g”-only mode to the unit, making 

it better suited for densely populated environments. 


1 foot: 16.0 

60 feet: 10.2 

120 feet: 0 

160 feet: 0 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

1 

Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G 

$120 list. 800-546-5797, www.linksys.com. 

llllm 

The Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G provides very 

respectable throughput at 1 foot and 60 feet in “g”only 

mode. Its interface remains much the same as 

in previous models, and the included setup utility 

makes the unit 

very easy to 

configure and use. 

1 


1 foot: 21.0 

60 feet: 15.5 

120 feet: 1.3 

160 feet: 0 

Netgear WG602 

$130 list. 408-907-8000, www.netgear.com. 

llllm 

If you are in the market for your first 

wireless LAN product and need 

only an access point, try this 

one. The attractively priced 

Netgear WG602 offers 

impressive security 

features but only average 

performance. We especially like 

the comprehensive yet easy-tounderstand 

client configuration software. 


1 foot: 15.3 

60 feet: 13.7 

120 feet: 0 

160 feet: 0 


8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

SMC Barricade g 

SMC2804WBR 

$130 list. 800-762-4968, 

www.smc.com. llllm 

This wireless router packs 

a lot of features appropriate 

for a small to midsize 

business into a home-friendly 

device. The router’s AP can be secured by 

802.1x authentication with an external RADIUS 

server. To widen your coverage area, you can 

boost the signal strength with a high-gain 

antenna sold separately. 


1 foot: 20.0 

60 feet: 13.6 

120 feet: 2.8 

160 feet: 0.5 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

Linksys WAP11 

$99 list. 800-546-5797, www.linksys.com. 

lllmm 

The term venerable can now be applied to 

the Linksys WAP11, since this is the 

third iteration of this popular 

802.11b access point. It should 

appeal to wireless LAN 

novices who need only an 

access point to connect to a 

router. Installation is easy, and its 

straightforward, browser-based management 

interface is simple to navigate. 


1 foot: 4.9 

60 feet: 4.7 

120 feet: 2.1 

160 feet: 0 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

Netgear ME102 

$89 list. 888-638-4327, www.netgear.com. lllmm 

The Netgear ME102 is another no-frills 

home or small-office AP, but it can also 

act as a wireless bridge to connect a 

LAN to a wireless LAN. The unit 

doesn’t have a browser-based 

interface, but Netgear’s USB 

Manager software lets you 

configure the device via a USB 

connection to your PC. 


1 foot: 4.5 

60 feet: 4.2 

120 feet: 1.8 

160 feet: 0.4 

8 0 2 . 1 1 A / G 

Netgear FWAG114 

$459 list. 408-907-8000, 

www.netgear.com. llllm 

While the Netgear FWAG114 might seem to come 

at a premium, Netgear’s first dual-band wireless 

firewall VPN combines a lot in a single 

product. The device’s “g” 

performance was impressive 

at both 1 foot and 160 feet. 

The firewall provides airtight 

security with denial-of-service 

protection and intrusion detection 

using SPI. 


1 foot: 19.8 

60 feet: 15.7 

120 feet: 4.7 

160 feet: 1.6 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

D-Link AirPlus Enhanced DI-614+ 

$80 list. 800-326-1688, www.dlink.com. llllm 

The D-Link AirPlus Enhanced DI-614+ wireless broadband 

router comes with a novice-friendly management 

interface and plenty of extra controls beyond the basic 

configuration settings. It also offers the most specific 

access control of any home or small-office router, 

including MAC address 

filtering, IP address 

filtering, and URL 

blocking based on keywords 

and domains. 


1 foot: 5.8 

60 feet: 6.4 

120 feet: 3.7 

160 feet: 1.5 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

ZyXEL ZyAIR B-2000 

$109 list. 714-632-0882, 

www.zyxel.com. llllm 

The ZyXEL ZyAIR B-2000 wireless router 

was named the Editors’ Choice among 

802.11b products in our last roundup. It 

offers the most comprehensive 

security package of any “b” device 

we’ve reviewed. A 32-user 802.1x 

authentication server, turnkey 

installation, decent throughput, 

and a reasonable price make this 

a tough product to beat. 


1 foot: 4.6 

60 feet: 4.5 

120 feet: 2.0 

160 feet: 0 

E 


Unwire Your Office 

By Craig Ellison 

Lifespan, a Providence-based 

health network, has found great value in 

instant, untethered access to information 

that can be used anywhere, anytime to 

support group decisions—whether it’s a 

matter of life and death or not. 

The company manages patient-care 

and administrative services at four Rhode 

Island hospitals. And wireless technology 

has brought greater mobility to both 

its medical front line and its back office, 

says David Hemendinger, Lifespan’s chief 

technology officer. 

Taking advantage of their wireless LAN, 

staffers can use laptops, PDAs, and even 

custom-built mobile workstations to view 

patient records and issue care instructions 

from any of the hospital’s 1,167 bedsides, a 

capability that will soon extend to the hospital’s 

operating rooms as well. 

While wireless LAN technology certainly 

reduces paperwork and saves time, 

the biggest advantage for Lifespan may be 

enabling what Hemendinger calls “productivity 

cells,” ad hoc decision-making 

conferences that can be convened anywhere 

to take advantage of up-to-theminute 

data, whether on the clinical or 

the business side. 

The company’s wireless LAN success 

depends heavily on technical measures 

that provide data security, flexible network 

management, and seamless integration 

with the wired network, Hemendinger explains. 

Perhaps equally important is the 

care taken to be sure mobile applications 

actually make users more effective. 

“We’re not just interested in putting access 

points in the ceiling,” he says. “We’re 

interested in changing business processes 

to take advantage of new capabilities that 

mobility provides.” 

THE BIZ WORLD GOES WIRELESS 

Corporations everywhere are finding 

compelling reasons for deploying wire- 

less networks as part of their IT infrastructures. 

The largest benefit, as Lifespan 

and others have found, is improved 

employee productivity. With access to 

corporate data, e-mail, IM, and the Internet, 

workers can stay productive and 

available even while mired in meetings 

and away from their office desktops. This 

improved accessibility also promotes 

more collaboration. 

There’s the cost-savings factor too. 

Most new corporate-class notebooks have 

built-in wireless adapters, and wireless 

cards for older notebooks cost as little as 

$30 each. And in a new office space, it can 

be thousands of dollars cheaper to network 

clients with wireless than to install 

wiring in every office and cubicle. 

Employees who have experienced the 

benefits of wireless networking at home 

are also demanding it at work. If the company 

doesn’t respond, some will even 

plug their own sub-$100 access points 

into the corporate network and create an 


82 

ad hoc departmental wireless network. 

This might be convenient, but such rogue 

APs can create a huge security breach. 

IT managers who have to deploy corporate 

wireless networks face significant 

challenges that are different from 

those associated with wired networks 

or even home wireless networks. Of 

course, security is probably the first 

concern. But managers also have to 

worry about which technology to 

choose, where they need to provide coverage, 

and how to monitor performance. 

Finally, the networks have to be reliable, 

scalable, and manageable. 

“A,” “B,” OR “G”? 

One of the major challenges of deploying 

a corporate wireless network is choosing 

Enterprise Managed 

WLAN Products 

As wireless LAN devices proliferate throughout larger companies and 

organizations, the demands on a wireless network’s reliability, availability, 

and mobility increase exponentially. Between fear of security vulnerabilities 

and an unwieldy distributed architecture, the early generations 

of wireless LAN hardware and software have been incapable of 

handling the current rigors of management. In response, an array of 

products have come to market with the promise of bringing full control 

of the large wireless network. Note that the distinctions between categories 

are already blurring, as manufacturers realize that management 

and security issues are actually intertwined. 

Software management products give you control over your 

existing access points from a central console, while providing additional 

monitoring and lockdown capabilities. The products offer centralized 

key management and security policy distribution, as well as 

a mechanism for detecting unauthorized radio activity. Centralized 

channel management and reporting metrics increase radio performance 

and reliability. Unfortunately, each of these products has limited 

AP support, so your buying decision will depend on your existing 

hardware. 

Switch-based systems are end-to-end solutions, each combining 

a centralized aggregation switch with a new generation of “thin” access 

points, plus embedded software to manage everything. The switch 

performs roughly the same security functions found in security gateway 

products, though with tighter integration into the wired network. 

It also serves as a point of control over the thin APs, letting you automatically 

deploy and adjust configuration data, radio settings, and 

security parameters—including coordinated rogue detection—while 

simultaneously providing Power over Ethernet to the APs. 

Security gateways intercept wireless traffic as it passes from the 

AP to the wired network, forcing authentication to a back-end RADIUS 

or LDAP server. Integrated Stateful Packet Inspection engines then allow 

you to create user- and time-based access policies for reaching network 

services. Using IPsec encryption for privacy, these devices process 

and hand off sessions between APs seamlessly to increase user mobility 

and improve reliability as a user walks from one AP’s range to another. 

The products work equally well with your existing 802.11a/b/g 

APs, but they are only beginning to offer management control of and reporting 

on the wireless network itself.—Andrew Garcia 


TABLETS: WIRELESS, FINALLY 

F O R more than three decades, the vision of the digital tablet—capable of 

recognizing and recording your handwriting and, more recently, even your voice— 

has always seemed to be five or ten years away from realization. But this time 

around, we may be almost there. Manufacturers have learned that to ensure widespread 

acceptance, wireless networking—both local and wide-area—is crucial for 

most tablet users, as is a more powerful and energy-efficient CPU. 

Two tablet genres hold center court now. One is the lightweight (2- to 3-pound) 

slate, which has no integrated keyboard and is used mostly in vertical markets or as 

an adjunct to your primary PC. The other is the convertible notebook PC, which has 

a stylus-enabled screen that rotates and folds to hide the keyboard. When you’re in 

a meeting with either model, integrated wireless technology makes it possible to 

access the Web. Three leading examples are listed below; read on to see which 

tablet-computing model suits you. 

Motion Computing, formed by ex-Dell execs, has one of the best slate devices in 

the Motion 1300 Tablet PC ($2,099 direct). The 3-pound unit gets a performance 

boost from the newest Centrino (Pentium M) 1-GHz ultra-low-voltage CPU. It inte- 

y YES o NO 

All prices are list. Product and price Supported access points 

SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT PRODUCTS 

AirWave Wireless Inc. 

650-286-6100 

www.airwave.com 

Cirond Technologies Inc. 

866-824-7662 

www.cirond.com 

Cisco Systems Inc. 

800-553-6387 

www.cisco.com 

Perfigo Inc.* 

415-431-8900 

www.perfigo.com 

Wavelink Corp. 

888-699-9283 

www.wavelink.com 

SWITCH-BASED PRODUCTS 

AireSpace Inc. 

408-635-2000 

www.airespace.com 

Aruba Wireless Networks 

408-227-4500 

www.arubanetworks.com 

Extreme Networks 

888-257-3000 

www.extremenetworks.com 

Symbol Technologies Inc. 

800-722-6234 

www.symbol.com 

Trapeze Networks 

877-359-8779 

www.trapezenetworks.com 

SECURITY GATEWAY PRODUCTS 

Blue Socket Inc. 

866-633-3358 

www.bluesocket.com 

Nortel Networks Ltd. 

800-466-7835 

www.nortel.com 

ReefEdge Inc. 

201-242-9700 

www.reefedge.com 

Vernier Networks Inc. 

650-526-2600 

www.verniernetworks.com 

AMP Lite (up to 25 APs), $5,000; AMP Professional 

(50–500 APs), $15,000; AMP Enterprise (2,000+ APs), 

$50,000 

WiNc Manager, with 25 client licenses, $995; 

additional licenses, $20 each; 100 licenses, $1,295 

SecureSmart Server, $4,990; SmartManager, 

$7,490; SecureSmart Server Pro, $7,490; 

SmartManager Pro, $12,490 

Mobile Manager, $500; AP licenses, $110 each 

(volume discounts available) 

AireSpace 4000 Wireless Switch, $10,800; VPN 

concentrator, $1,800; AireSpace 4100 Wireless 

Appliance, $14,995; ACS software, $1,000 and up; 

AireSpace 1200 Access Point a/b, $400 

Aruba 5000 Switching System (24 ports), $12,000; 

Aruba 50 a/b/g Access Point, $500 

Extreme Summit 300-48, $6,995; Altitude 300 

wireless port, $695 

Symbol WS5000 Wireless Switch (6 ports), $2,895; 

WS5000 Wireless Switch (30 ports), $6,191; AP100 

Access Port (802.11a), $249; AP100 Access Port 

(802.11b), $249; PoE Hub, $1,099 

Trapeze Mobility Exchange, $7,495; Mobility Point 

a/b, $679; Mobility System Starter Kit (with 1 

exchange, 2 MPs, 5 Ringmaster licenses), $9,500 

Blue Socket WG-1100-SOE (1–3 APs), $3,495; 

WG-1100 (1–20 APs), $5,995; WG-2100 (10–50 APs), 

$12,995 

Nortel WLAN Security Switch 2250, $7,995; WLAN 

Access Point 2220 a/b, $899 

ReefEdge Connect Server 100, $7,500; Edge 

Controller 100, $5,000; AirMonitor, $4,490 

* Spans categories: software management and security gateway. 

CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solutions Engine (WLSE) 

2.0, $8,495 

Vernier CS-6500 Control Server, $6,650; AM-6500 

Access Manager, $3,790; with PoE, $5,440; IS-6500 

Integrated System, $8,245; with PoE, $9,895 

Avaya, Cisco, Colubris, Dell, 

Enterasys, HP/Compaq, 

Proxim, Symbol, 3eTI 

Cisco, D-Link, Hawking, Intel, 

Linksys, Netgear, Proxim, SMC, 

3Com, U.S. Robotics 

Cisco Aironet 

For management: Cisco, 

Enterasys, Proxim; for 

security, any 802.11a/b/g 

Cisco, Dell, D-Link, Ericsson, 

Nortel, Proxim, Symbol, 3Com 

AireSpace, Cisco, Proxim, 

anything supporting LWAPP 

(Lightweight Access Point 

Protocol) 

Aruba 

Altitude 300 

Symbol 

Trapeze 

Any 802.11a/b/g 

For management, Nortel 2220; 

for security, any 802.11a/b/g 

Any 802.11a/b/g 

Any 802.11a/b/g

grates an Intel 802.11b chipset and includes a standalone keyboard for desktop use. 

One drawback is the 12.1-inch color display, which may be tough to view at certain 

angles, a possible scenario when you’re holding any tablet device. Gateway sells an 

essentially unmodified version called the Gateway Tablet 

PC. (866-682-2538, www.motioncomputing.com. llllm) 

The NEC Versa LitePad ($2,400 list) fits a full-featured 

Windows Tablet PC into a superthin package weighing 

just 2.2 pounds that’s easy to slip into your bag and take 

anywhere. It includes a 20GB hard drive, 802.11a/b 

wireless (most competitors have only “b”), a 900-MHz 

PIII-M, and a 10.4-inch XGA display, which may be 

difficult to read at some angles. (888-632-8701, 

www.necsolutions-am.com/mobilesolutions. 

llllm) 

The Toshiba Portégé 3500 ($2,149 list) does 

the best job of adding Tablet PC features to an 

Rogue detection 

Via AP (wire-side data from routers 

and switches) 

Central AP 

configuration/ 

firmware control 

Central 

WEP key 

distribution 

IPsec 

termination 

Stateful 

Packet 

Inspection 

firewall Notable features 

the right technology. With the ratification 

in June of the IEEE 802.11g standard, a 

third choice of technology became viable 

for business use. 

As we’ve discussed previously, “g” 

products operate in the same 2.4-GHz 

band as the earlier 802.11b products but at 

a significantly higher data rate—up to 54 

Mbps, as compared with 11 Mbps for “b” 

products. The “g” standard also provides 

that “b” and “g” products must interoperate 

using their different modulation 

techniques, yet not interfere with each 

other. Simply stated, 802.11g products are 

backward-compatible and interoperable 

with 802.11b products. 

That’s good news for organizations already 

heavily invested in “b” technology, 

because they can gradually add “g” 

yy y o o Products detect rogues by culling radio-channel usage data from specially 

deployed sentries. 

Via clients yo y o o Self-healing RF capabilities with unique four-channel allocation pattern in 802.11b. 

Significantly cheaper than its rivals, but it doesn’t offer firmware version control. 

Via SecureSmart-enabled clients or 

via RogueCrawler and router/switch 

ARP caches 

Toshiba 

Portégé 3500 

ultraportable notebook. The 4.1-pound unit has a 60GB hard drive and a 12.1-inch 

XGA display that’s adequate for day-to-day notebook computing. It includes integrated 

802.11b. Expect a Centrino version later this year. (800-867-4422, 

www.toshiba.com. llllm)—Bill Howard 

UNWIRE YOUR OFFICE 

Via AP, client cards, or sentries yy y o o Cisco provides a turnkey solution for managing the entire Cisco Aironet wireless LAN 

infrastructure. It provides for active detection of rogues and a graphical depiction of 

their locations. 

yy o y y The only gateway to provide native support for third-party access points. 

Concentrating on educational markets for now. 

Via clients yy y o o Wavelink has the longest experience with wireless management among 

companies listed. Has added rogue detection capabilities through unique 

partnerships with AirMagnet and D-Link. Administrators can upgrade legacy Cisco 

products to new IOS software versions. 

Via AP yy y y o AireSpace has in-depth understanding of the RF side of WLAN, with unrivaled RF 

performance and self-healing coverage capabilities. The 4100 controls and talks 

to all APs connected to your network via existing switches, thus eliminating 

the need to replace switches. 

Via AP yy y y y Aruba can provide distributed packet-sniffing capabilities from all its APs. 

Provides both PoE and Serial over Ethernet directly connected APs for out-ofband 

management. 

Via AP yy y o o Standardizing on AES for privacy encryption. 

Via AP yy y o y First to market with a switch-based product, Symbol has the largest market 

share. Thin APs do no processing but encapsulate RF signals in 802.3 packets 

to forward to the switch. The Wireless System is not yet compatible with legacy 

Symbol APs but soon will be. 

Via AP yy y o o RingMaster software provides an off-line site survey using an AutoCAD diagram 

and an internal database of RF attenuation factors. 

None oo o y y Transparent authentication to WLAN for Windows users. 

Via AP yy y y y Trim APs may be deployed alone or with security switches for two-tier protection. 

Via specially deployed sentries yy y y y The software’s open architecture allows third-party plug-ins. ReefEdge partners 

with Wavelink to provide AP management capabilities. 

None oo o y y The new IS-6500 offers a full suite of features for small offices in a single chassis; 

larger networks require a Control Server (for policy management) and multiple 

Access Managers. Optional encryption acceleration card for IS and AM models. 


84 

products to the mix. Companies that do 

mix these technologies should note that 

when the two types share a network, the 

performance of “g” products can be reduced 

to that of “b” products. 

New technologies now available in 

current “g” products based on chipsets 

from Broadcom and Intersil should alleviate 

this problem (see the definitions of 

Prism Nitro and Xpress in our glossary, 

page 62). Firmware upgrades are also 

available from manufacturers of “g” 

products sold prior to these features’ 

availability. While we did note performance 

improvement in testing products 

with the technologies on-board—twice 

the throughput in mixed mode—we did 

not see the amount of improvement suggested 

by the chipset manufacturers. 

The third technology, 802.11a, has data 

rates up to 54 Mbps, just like 802.11g. 

While 802.11b/g products generally have 

better range than 802.11a products, only 3 

nonoverlapping channels are available to 

them in the 2.4-GHz spectrum. 802.11a, 

which is in the 5-GHz spectrum, has 

about 12 nonoverlapping channels to 

choose from; the precise number depends 

on how the manufacturer divides 

up the spectrum and how its modulation 

technique varies. A pending FCC ruling 

could raise the number of channels for 

“a” products to 24. 

What this means for a densely crowded 

office setting is that you can pack more 

802.11a APs into a smaller area where a 

high concentration of clients are in need 

of good performance, without worrying 

about signals overlapping and canceling 

each other out. But remember that 802.11a 

products tend to have a shorter range, and 

their radio signals are weakened more by 

walls and ceilings than products in the 2.4- 

GHz spectrum. 

The good news is that multiband APs 

that support 802.11a/b/g are becoming 

available. And on the client side, the trend 

is also toward 802.11a/b/g PC and PCI 

cards. Chipset manufacturers and analysts 

say that by this time next year, most 

wireless networking shipped in corporate 

notebooks will be “a/b/g.” 

The bottom line: If you’re on a tight 

budget and don’t expect that you’ll need 

to accommodate a lot of clients in a small 

space, 802.11g may do the job for you. If 

you want to future-proof your network, 

consider “a/g” access points, which will 

work with any wireless client. 


THE SITE SURVEY 

Early in your planning process, you 

should arm yourself with a floor plan and 

perform a site survey of the area you intend 

to cover, keeping in mind that each 

AP will need a connection to the wired 

network and power. Many manufacturers 

of business-class APs now provide Power 

over Ethernet (PoE), which uses an extra 

pair of wire within Category 5 (or better) 

Ethernet cable to send power to an AP. 

This can save you the cost of installing 

electric circuits or outlets. 

The physical security of the AP must 


also be considered. Most models are small 

enough that anyone could unplug one and 

walk away with it if it’s not bolted to the 

wall. You might even consider installing 

the AP in a dropped ceiling so it is obscured 

from sight; just make sure the device 

and the cabling is “plenum-rated,” 

meaning it is not a fire hazard. 

Your site survey should also include an 

analysis of the airwaves. Using your notebook 

and a shareware program like Network 

Stumbler (www.netstumbler.com) or 

a commercial product such as Wild- 

Packets’ AiroPeek (www.wildpackets.com) 

Access Point Performance 

In the PC Magazine Wireless Testing Lab we measured the throughput 

of all the wireless products we reviewed on pages 74 and 86. 

During testing we placed a laptop PC on a turntable 30 inches in diameter, 

spinning at a rate of approximately 20 rpm, while measuring 

the throughput of each AP/PC Card (or AP/embedded wireless notebook) 

combination using NetIQ’s Chariot (www.netiq.com), a software 

tool that evaluates the performance of networked applications and devices. We 

put the turntable on a cart, which we placed first at 1 foot, then at 60 feet, 120 feet, and 

finally 160 feet from the AP we were testing. Each product was tested at least twice to 

ensure the reliability of our results. 

THE TESTS 

We attached each wireless client card to a Dell Inspiron 600M, a notebook running 

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition and using the card’s latest available native 

driver. Our stationary endpoint was a Dell Dimension 4100 running Windows 2000. For 

each AP we left all fine-tunable settings at the manufacturers’ defaults, and we configured 

an open network with automatic fallback for the wireless connection rate. We ran 

our tests in two modes. First was “g”-only mode, which offered maximum throughput 

for “g” clients by excluding any nearby “b” clients from the network. We then ran the 

tests in mixed mode, in which “b” and “g” clients coexisted on the network and traffic 

was sent to both types of clients. For the mixed-mode tests, we added a stationary Gateway 

450X laptop with an 802.11b Cisco Aironet 350 Series PCMCIA card. 

THE RESULTS 

We had high hopes for two new “g” technologies: Intersil’s Prism Nitro and Broadcom’s 

Xpress. The former claims a 3X improvement in throughput when operating in 

mixed mode, the latter a 6X improvement. Developed and trademarked by the chipset 

manufacturers, these technologies utilize frame bursting or packet bursting and were 

included in several of the products we tested, including the Buffalo, D-Link, and SMC 

devices. We observed at best only a doubling of “g” client throughput (as compared 

with previous testing published in our June 30 issue) during mixed-mode testing. Stay 

tuned to PCMag.com for further testing of these technologies. 

As we expected, all the 802.11g contenders achieved the best results while in “g”only 

mode. The Buffalo AirStation WBR-G54 showed a dramatic throughput 

improvement since we covered it in our June story. It outperformed all the other products 

at the 1-foot and 60-foot mark. The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g outperformed 

the Proxim Orinoco AP-600 at most distances in “g” mode and at short ranges

or AirMagnet (www.airmagnet.com), determine 

whether existing wireless networks 

might interfere with your plans. 

As you discover other networks, make 

note of their locations, as well as the channels 

on which they operate. This will help 

you design what’s called a channel plan, 

basically a map overlaid with the channels 

you intend to use on your APs. This is less 

of a concern with multichanneled 802.11a 

networks than with 802.11b/g-only networks, 

which provide only three nonoverlapping 

channels. 

By default, most APs ship configured to 

Wireless Access Point Performance 

the same channel; make sure to change 

the defaults to use all the channels available. 

If they’re all on the same channel, 

their signals may overlap and create dead 

zones, canceling out connections. 

HIGH-CAPACITY ISSUES 

As you plan the locations for your APs, 

ask yourself the following: Are you designing 

your wireless network to cover an 

area for a few users at any given time, or 

are you planning for capacity usage, 

meaning that APs will be carrying a substantial 

amount of traffic all the time? If 

High scores are best. 

Bold type denotes first place. 

Distance to access point (feet) 

Average throughput (Mbps) 

1 60 120 160 

HOME AND SMALL-OFFICE WIRELESS LANs 

802.11g ACCESS POINTS 

“g”-only mode with native “g” client 

Belkin F5D7230-4 20.2 12.8 2.3 0 

Buffalo AirStation WBR-G54 21.1 15.8 1.2 0 

D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G DI-624 16.0 10.2 0 0 

Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G 21.0 15.5 1.3 0 

Netgear FWAG114 19.8 15.7 4.7 1.6 

Netgear WG602 15.3 13.7 0 0 

SMC Barricade g SMC2804WBR 20.0 13.6 2.8 0.5 

Mixed mode with active “b” client on the network: “g” client results 

Belkin F5D7230-4 4.3 2.8 1.2 0 

Buffalo AirStation WBR-G54 5.7 2.9 0.7 0 

D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G DI-624 4.6 3.1 0 0 

Linksys Wireless-G WRT54G 6.9 7.4 1.4 0 

Netgear FWAG114 4.5 3.7 1.8 0.8 

Netgear WG602 4.8 2.8 1.2 0 

SMC Barricade g SMC2804WBR 

802.11b ACCESS POINTS 

4.5 3.3 1.8 0 

D-Link AirPlus Enhanced DI-614+ 5.8 6.4 3.7 1.5 

Linksys WAP11 4.9 4.7 2.1 0 

Netgear ME102 4.5 4.2 1.8 0.4 

ZyXEL ZyAIR B-2000 

CORPORATE WIRELESS LANs 

4.6 4.5 2.0 0 

802.11g ACCESS POINTS 

“g”-only mode with native “g” client 

Proxim Orinoco AP-600 16.3 14.3 1.8 0 

3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g 19.9 14.5 1.8 0.4 

Mixed mode with active “b” client on the network: “g” client results 

Proxim Orinoco AP-600 4.0 3.4 2.3 0.2 

3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g 

802.11b ACCESS POINT 

9.0 6.1 0.9 0 

SonicWall SOHO TZW 3.1 3.1 3.1 3.0 

A zero indicates that no data was transmitted at this range. 

in mixed mode. The SonicWall SOHO TZW proved a strong performer for a “b”-only 

device, especially one with the added processing burden of an SPI firewall. We should 

note that the SonicWall client card can run at 200 milliwatts and could quickly drain 

a typical laptop battery (other business-class client cards run at 100 milliwatts or 

less).—Analysis written by Oliver Kaven 


you are planning for capacity, you will 

need more APs than the bare minimum 

required for connectivity. 

Each AP will cover a circular area unless 

you are adding directional antennas 

to concentrate the focus in one direction. 

Walls, furniture, cubicles, and other obstacles 

absorb radio energy and will distort 

that circular pattern somewhat. 

Also, it’s important to understand that 

signal strength varies with the inverse 

square of the distance. For example, in an 

open field, the signal strength at 80 feet 

would be 1 /4 the signal strength at 40 feet. 

As the signal gets weaker, the data rate 

drops, so while 802.11g clients located 

near an AP might connect with a data rate 

of 15 to 20 Mbps, clients at the edge of 

coverage might drop to 1 to 2 Mbps. A 

connection alone isn’t enough; the signal 

must be strong enough to transfer data 

adequately for all the connected users. 

The signal each AP radiates will provide 

limited coverage to the floors above 

and below you, though ceilings and floors 

will weaken the signals—especially if 

they’re made of dense materials like concrete. 

Still, the signal may be strong 

enough to provide adequate coverage. 

Wireless networks, unlike modern 

switched wired networks, are shared 

media. As a rule of thumb, you generally 

don’t want more than about 25 clients to 

associate with each AP. So in a densely 

populated cube farm, you’d probably 

want to deploy several APs on nonoverlapping 

channels. If you have to use the 

same channel on more than one AP in a 

given area, make sure the APs are far 

enough apart that their signals don’t 

cross, or you can reduce their transmitting 

power. Though this lowers their performance, 

it also reduces their coverage 

area and the risk of interference. 

A CORPORATE SECURITY PLAN 

Many wireless administrators deploy 

their APs toward the center of their offices 

to avoid signal leakage outside their 

buildings. While this strategy may be a 

component of a security plan, it’s far 

more important to have a security policy 

that includes authentication and strong 

encryption and the specific mechanisms 

to be used. The policy could be as simple 

as not allowing on the network any devices 

other than those approved and supplied 

by corporate IT. But you need to be 

able to enforce your policies either with 


85

86 


Corporate Access Points 

Here are three business-class access points, all of which we tested at the 

PC Magazine Wireless Testing Lab. For details on our testing procedure, see page 84. 

The Proxim Orinoco AP-600 and 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g are the first two 

business-class access points with 802.11g standard–compliant cards on-board. SonicWall’s 

new 802.11b access point is designed for small to midsize offices. 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

Proxim Orinoco AP-600 (802.11g) 

$495 list. 800-229-1630, www.proxim.com. lllmm 

Though its stylish new case is attractive, the Proxim Orinoco AP-600 is not 

very easy to open (even after reviewing the documentation), and this is 

necessary to connect the device. We were also unhappy to see that the 

card is no longer removable, as in past Orinoco models. Still, the Orinoco 

AP-600 provides extensive monitoring capabilities and enterprise features, 

such as RADIUS access control, protocol filtering, and VLAN capabilities. 

These attributes make the unit a compelling business choice. 


1 foot: 19.9 

60 feet: 14.5 

120 feet: 1.8 

160 feet: 0.4 

8 0 2 . 1 1 G 

3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g 

$135 list. 800-638-3266, www.3com.com. llllm 

This 3Com product is a no-frills dual-antenna AP. Packaged in 

a metal box, the “g” access point is WPA-enabled and can save its 

configuration profile, which can later be used to configure client 

adapters. The unit includes an application that discovers 3Com APs 

on the network and gives access to basic configuration options. 


1 foot: 16.3 

60 feet: 14.3 

120 feet: 1.8 

160 feet: 0 

8 0 2 . 1 1 B 

SonicWall SOHO TZW (802.11b) 

$900 direct. 888-557-6642, www.sonicwall.com. llllm 

The SonicWall SOHO TZW, with a built-in SPI firewall, is a complete security appliance for 

networks, wired or wireless. Though this router is 802.11b, not 802.11g, it’s still a robust 

system for the small- to midsize-office administrator. 

The TZW offers more security and manageability than many other “b” products. 

It protects your corporate network by putting your wireless clients in a separate VLAN. 

Wireless clients can access the LAN by using a VPN client and, at the administrator’s 

discretion, may be granted access to the Internet. 


1 foot: 3.1 

60 feet: 3.1 

120 feet: 3.1 

160 feet: 3.0 


port access control of your switches or by 

using one of the commercially available 

wireless security suites. 

CHOOSING THE EQUIPMENT 

Once you’ve mapped out your site survey 

and written your security plan, it’s time to 

make some purchasing decisions—for example, 

whether you want to buy corporate-class 

APs or APs more targeted to the 

home or small-office market. The latter 

are initially attractive because of their low 

prices. Typically, an 802.11g home or 

small-office access point has a street price 

between $130 and $200, and a dual-band 

802.11a/g product is about $300. While 

these options may be a cost-effective 

solution for deploying a limited number 

of APs, they lack features a network administrator 

might want or need. 

Corporate-class APs, such as the Cisco 

AP 1200 series, Proxim Orinoco AP-2000, 

and 3Com 8700 Access Point, offer centralized 

management, single- and dualband 

options, PoE, and MAC authentication. 

In addition, such APs often offer 

multiple security modes. For example, the 

Orinoco AP-2000 supports both WEP and 

WPA simultaneously. This makes it easier 

on your users if in the future you are upgrading 

their client cards from WEP to 

WPA or to 802.11i, because you can upgrade 

them individually over time rather 

than disrupting everyone at once. 

Keep in mind that some relatively old 

wireless products will not support upgrades 

to WPA compatibility. Using a mix 

of technologies—for instance, running 

your older 802.11b APs in the same environment 

with newer, backward-compatible 

802.11g products—can at least give you 

the flexibility to provide WEP for legacy 

products pending a hardware upgrade. 

PLANNING IS THE KEY 

Building a wireless network is a multifaceted 

undertaking, requiring a full 

understanding of your office layout, your 

employees’ needs, and your company’s 

plans for the future. Take a thorough account 

of these three factors before buying 

any equipment. Make sure the network 

makes sense for your current environment 

but is also scalable, so that if your 

business expands, the wireless network is 

ready. Finally, be sure to make management 

and security issues top priority. For 

more on enterprise products, see page 82. 

For more on security, turn the page.

MAKING SENSE OF WIRELESS LAN SECURITY 

88 


B E C A U S E wireless networks use radio signals, 

all that’s needed to snoop on an unprotected system 

is a wirelessly enabled notebook or PDA and some free, 

downloadable software. That’s why any wireless network— 

whether for Mom and Dad at home or for an enterprise 

with thousands of employees—needs to take wireless 

security seriously. Surprisingly, many do not. Of 500 firms 

recently polled by Jupiter Research, less than half have 

implemented security solutions for their wireless networks. 

In 1997 the IEEE adopted WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), 

which is based on encryption, as a means for ensuring 

wireless security. We still recommend that home or smalloffice 

users enable WEP, especially if it’s the only security 

available to them (some older hardware cannot support the 

newest technology). WEP protects your network the way a 

locked front door protects your home: It keeps most people 

honest, and most hackers will look for easier prey. 

Even so, in early 2001 several groups of researchers 

revealed WEP’s weaknesses, and subsequently a number of 

readily available utilities were developed to “crack” WEP. 

Fortunately, the IEEE has the 802.11i task group working on a 

standard dedicated to providing rock-solid security, though 

ratification of this standard is not expected until the first or 

second quarter of 2004. Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi Alliance 

adopted an interim standard for wireless security called 

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) in the fall of 2002 and began 

interoperability testing on it in April 2003. Currently, the 

chipsets that all major manufacturers use include WPA 

capabilities, and now all products submitted for Wi-Fi certifi- 

Change the default SSID (network 

name) on your router/AP. The default 

SSIDs of commonly available hardware 

are well known to hackers. Your SSID 

should not contain information that would 

give away your company name or location. 

If your router/AP supports it, consider 

disabling the SSID broadcast. 

This will prevent the casual war driver 

from detecting your network. 

Change the administrator’s password 

on your router/AP. Hackers 

know the default passwords 

for all of the 

major brands of hardware 

and with your 

password could reconfigure 

your router/AP. 

Turn on the highest 

level of security your 

hardware supports. Even 

if you have older equipment 

that supports only WEP, be sure 

to enable it. Despite its bad 

rap as an ineffective solution, 

simply having it running will 

turn most hackers away. 

Check your hardware manufacturer’s 

Web site for 

firmware upgrades. Most are providing 

updates that include WPA support. 


Consider implementing media-access 

control (MAC). This lets you specify 

which wireless PC cards can access the 

network; all others are excluded. 

If your router/AP supports SNMP, 

change the community names to 

nonobvious choices. This will prevent 

hackers from managing your device 

using standard community names and 

SNMP management software. 

Carefully consider the placement of 

each router/AP. If you don’t need 

wireless access outside your building, 

place your APs toward the center of your 

home or office to minimize how much 

signal radiates outside. 

Perform your own security audit. 

Using Windows 2000 or XP, or 

software such as Network Stumbler 

(www.netstumbler.com) on your notebook 

or PDA, walk around the perimeter 

of your building and find out what a 

would-be hacker might see. 

If you have a limited number of 

wireless clients, consider providing 

them with static IP addresses, and then 

disable DHCP on your router. This will 

make it more difficult for a hacker to 

learn about your network. 

In an enterprise, consider placing 

your wireless LAN in a separate VLAN, 

cation must also pass WPA interoperability tests. 

WPA is a subset of the forthcoming 802.11i standard 

and should be compatible with the final version. It was 

designed so that existing hardware can be upgraded with 

firmware and drivers if the manufacturers release them. 

Only the newest of the products we’ve seen at PC Magazine 

Labs have WPA capabilities, but that will change 

rapidly as WPA becomes mandatory for certification. 

WPA is designed to address all the weaknesses of WEP. 

WPA uses TKIP for encryption and another IEEE security 

standard, 802.1x, for authentication and key distribution, 

and Message Integrity Check (MIC) protects against forgeries 

and replay attacks. 

WPA supports two modes of operation. Preshared key 

mode is appropriate for small offices and homes that don’t 

have existing authentication infrastructures. A shared 

“secret” is configured in the access point as well as the 

client (see the Solutions tutorial on page 48 for details). 

To deploy WPA in enterprise mode, you must select and 

deploy RADIUS-based authentication servers, then select 

an EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) type as well 

as 802.1x supplicants (clients) for the wireless stations. 

Although this sounds like a lot of work, the effort is not 

wasted, as the authentication and key distribution infrastructure 

should then mesh seamlessly with the forthcoming 

802.11i standard. For more information on WPA, 

visit the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Web site: www.wi-fi.org. And for 

more on how to turn on WEP, see page 66. For more on 

wireless security, see www.extremetech\wireless.—CE 

TIPS TO ACHIEVING IRONCLAD WIRELESS LAN SECURITY 

and have your wireless clients tunnel into 

your network using VPN software. This is 

an especially good idea if your hardware 

doesn’t support WPA and cannot be 

upgraded to it. VPNs provide secure, 

industry-standard Layer 3 encryption. 

Small to midsize office products such as 

the Netgear FVM318 or SonicWall SOHO 

TZW, for example, let you isolate your 

wireless LAN from your wired LAN and 

use VPN technology for secure connections 

between the two network segments. 

(These two products currently 

support only 802.11b.) 

When using public hot spots, be 

aware that they are insecure. All of 

the network traffic between your notebook 

or PDA and a hot spot’s AP will be 

unencrypted, as virtually no hot spot 

provider enables security. 

If you have VPN software, consider 

using it. That way, all of your network 

traffic at the hot spot will be encrypted 

from your notebook to your VPN 

endpoint. 

Turn off file and print sharing on your 

computer. Most hot-spot access 

points do not prevent client-to-client 

traffic, so the person sitting across from 

you in the coffeehouse could be looking 

at your shared directories on his notebook.—CE 

E

Unwiring at School 

FOR STUDENTS 

By Jim Akin 

Before enrolling at MIT last fall, 

Chris Walsh of Saratoga Springs, New 

York, considered the wireless-networking 

card installed in his HP laptop a matter 

of convenience—a means of checking 

e-mail from the living room sofa or surfing 

the Web from a neighborhood café. 

But after Walsh finished a year at MIT— 

where wireless networks are available 

across campus and in many area businesses—his 

concept of unwired connectivity 

changed from novelty to necessity. 

The neuroscience major recalls one 

pioneering professor who used a wireless 

laptop connection to present and share 

streaming-video film clips with a class. 

But he adds that even faculty members 

who are far from the cutting edge routinely 

distribute course materials—from 

lecture notes to homework assignments—exclusively 

in digital form. 

It’s not just for class, either. Wireless 

networking has woven its way into all 

corners of MIT’s campus existence, so 

much so that wireless Internet access has 

become the main tool for that most 

essential campus activity: ordering latenight 

food for an all-night study session. 

Walsh can scarcely remember the last 

time he tapped into a wired network. “I 

don’t even know where the dongle is that 

would let me plug my laptop into an 

Ethernet port,” he says. 

Students all over the U.S. are waking 

up to the realization that wireless on 

campus is the way to go. If you have an 

“old-fashioned” notebook without a wireless 

connection, you’ll quickly envy your 

fellow classmates’ wireless notebooks as 

they surf the Internet from the quad, IM 

friends from the common area, and even 

e-mail mom from class to tell her about 

the high test grade they just earned. 

According to Gartner DataQuest’s 

campus computer survey, last year 70 

percent of U.S. college campuses had 

some local area wireless network coverage, 

while 10 percent had full campus 

coverage. Therefore, there’s a good 

chance that at least part of your school is 

unwired, even if it’s only the library or the 

science center. Just one building is reason 

enough to go wireless. And chances are, 

more are on the way. 

If you’ve already jumped on the “portability” 

wagon and traded in the boring 

beige desktop PC you had in high school 

for a notebook, you’re ahead of the game— 


whether or not your notebook has built-in 

wireless capability. Even if it doesn’t, as 

long as your system has a PC Card slot, you 

can buy a wireless card for as low as $50 

and slide it right in. 

WHAT NOTEBOOK TO BUY 

If you don’t have a notebook and are considering 

buying one, the options are plentiful. 

But if wireless connectivity is at the 

top of your list, system weight and battery 

life should be as well; the key is to be 

mobile, after all. 

Though most college campuses use 

802.11b technology for their wireless networks, 

we recommend that you buy a notebook 

with built-in 802.11g connectivity. 

These may be a little more expensive than 

“b” notebooks, but they are backwardcompatible 

with “b” networks, and they 

won’t become outdated if your campus 

ever decides to upgrade to a “g” network. 

Remember that you’ll be carrying your 

notebook from dorm room to library to 

class auditorium, so make sure you don’t 

pick a 10-pounder that will make your 

campus walks seem like cross-country 

treks. Thin is in, and for a good reason. 

Maintaining power is as important as 

maintaining a wireless signal, so make 

sure the notebook you choose has 

enough battery life to get you through a 

solid morning of classes. Three hours is 

good; 5 hours is better. (For more tips on 

buying notebooks for school, see “Back to 

School,” August 19, page 90.) 

CAMPUS REQUIREMENTS 

Before you buy anything, check your 

school’s Web site. There you should find 

guidelines for everything you need to access 

the school’s wireless network: not 

just which wireless solution (802.11a, “b,” 

or “g”) your school is using but also any 

hardware requirements and a list of operating 

systems that are supported. 

Even in rare Mac-only networks, new 

Windows notebooks (and PDAs) are likely 

to be compatible with the WLAN. But 

older devices—even those successfully 

running wireless cards—may require OS 

upgrades to meet network authentication 

or encryption standards. Security is a big 

concern for campuses, as it is for any 

wireless network. 

Also, while perusing the campus Web 

site, you ought to hunt down the wireless 

troubleshooting FAQ and print it, because 

according to Murphy’s Law, when you 

really need the FAQ, you probably won’t 

be able to access it. Take note of any 

phone numbers and e-mail addresses you 

can use to request help with wireless 

access. Don’t expect ’round-the-clock 

availability or house calls, but the campus 

IT team should provide basic support. 

DON’T BE A BANDWIDTH HOG 

Okay, now that you have the right hardware 

and the recommended software, 

there’s still one more thing you need to 

do: Read the rules. In general, excessive 

use of wireless bandwidth reduces performance 

for all users, so schools may 

have rules against bandwidth-hogging 

behavior. 

IN 2001, THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH 

DAKOTA REQUIRED PALM HAND- 

HELDS FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS. 

92 


Many policies specify the applications 

and activities permitted on the wireless 

network, such as which behaviors constitute 

abuse and what sanctions apply to 

those who violate the rules. Before you 

download that video or shoot your 

PowerPoint presentation to your professor, 

you might want to check the rules 

and choose to plug in instead. Wired 

Ethernet is fast, found in most dorm 

rooms, and won’t get you into trouble. 

Similarly, if your course load involves 

digital video or 3-D modeling or visualization, 

you should opt to plug into the 

campus network in your classroom or 

lab. And though wireless access in a dorm 

is appealing, given a choice, you may 

want to select a room with a wired connection. 

Of course, that’s only if you can’t 

get a room with both. 

WHAT’S THE FREQUENCY? 

Since the radio-frequency ranges used for 

wireless networking are unlicensed, they 

are available for use by other devices— 

some of which may interfere with network 

PHOTOGRAPH BY THOM O’CONNOR

transmission. This is particularly true of 

802.11b and 802.11g equipment, which 

operates in the 2.4-GHz frequency range 

along with Bluetooth-enabled hardware 

such as printers, keyboards, cell phones, 

and headsets—as well as standard cordless 

phones and microwave ovens. If you have 

such devices, check whether their use is 

allowed on campus. If you don’t have 

them, check anyway, in case your neighbors 

do. If such devices cause interference, 

UNWIRING AT SCHOOL 

you’ll want to be sure that the school is 

prepared to regulate their use. 

Campus wireless networks have 

changed the way students study, receive 

assignments, take notes in class, and 

message friends. Chris Walsh can tell 

you that once you’ve experienced the 

liberation of free, unfettered roaming, 

it’s tough to plug back in. If your campus 

allows you to, get your wireless on and 

make the most of it. 

DEPLOYING WIRELESS ON CAMPUS 

Colleges and universities are embracing 

wireless-networking technology 

with an enthusiasm that gives new meaning 

to the term “academic freedom.” In 

fact, says Charles Bartel, director of network 

services at Carnegie Mellon University, 

wireless connectivity offers so 

many benefits for students and faculty 

alike that its adoption on every campus is 

only a matter of time. 

Bartel has overseen the Carnegie Mellon 

“Wireless Andrew” network from its 

1994 launch (using pre-802.11 technology) 

through its current incarnation, which 

covers 4 million square feet of floor and 

ground space and serves 1,700 users from 

nearly 700 802.11b access points. 

As one of the most seasoned wirelesscampus 

veterans, Bartel often speaks 

about wireless networking to fellow educational-IT 

managers. When colleagues 

admit that installing a wireless network 

seems daunting, he tells them: “It’s going 

to be deployed on your campus one way 

or another. It’s up to you whether you deploy 

it yourself or someone else comes in 

and does it for you, then tells you how 

you should support it.” 

Bartel recommends that campus IT 

teams take control of their wireless destiny. 

He suggests they start by enrolling 

anyone who’ll be maintaining the network 

in a wireless-network design class—either 

in their own school or in a wireless-design 

certification program offered by a vendor 

or professional organization. 

The obvious advantage is strength in 

numbers: Multiple designers can mean 

faster planning and deployment. Perhaps 

more important, design training 

speeds the mental shift required to 

move between the tangible, linear world 

of wired LANs and the ethereal, 3-D 

realm of the unwired. When you’re 

troubleshooting a wireless network, it’s 

invaluable to understand design issues 

such as optimal access point placement 

and the interaction of signals with one 

another, with physical objects, and with 

potential sources of interference. 

A working knowledge of wirelessnetwork 

design is all that most campus IT 

teams need to get started on deployment, 

Bartel says. But he offers the following 

gems of practical wisdom, gleaned over a 

decade of experience. 

CHOOSE THE BEST TECHNOLOGY 

If you’re starting a wireless deployment 

from scratch today, consider combining 

802.11a and 802.11g access points (APs). 

Support for 12 nonoverlapping channels 

lets you group 802.11a APs in locations 

with heavy user concentrations, such as 

large lecture halls, where their short signal 

range isn’t a hindrance. And with the next 

generation of 802.11a/g notebooks and PC 

Cards, this is what we recommend. 

Like gear based on the extremely popular 

802.11b standard, new 802.11g hardware 

complements 802.11a equipment, 

providing lower capacity (just three nonoverlapping 

channels) but far greater 

range. On campuses where no wireless 

network yet exists and an 802.11g-only 

policy can be adopted, higher throughput 

speed makes 802.11g the right choice for 

broad-coverage areas such as outdoor 

spaces and study lounges. 

Where 802.11b networks are already in 

place, rushing to upgrade could mean 

paying extra for a speed benefit that 

won’t be felt for years—or courting campus 

unrest by forcing hardware upgrades 

on current users. The backward compatibility 

of 802.11g with 802.11b hardware 

comes at a cost: When a “g” access point 

associates with a “b” device, it slows to 


94 

UNWIRING AT SCHOOL 

“b” speed for all connected users. On 

campuses with large 802.11b user populations, 

therefore, adding on 802.11g 

equipment would offer no immediate 

speed advantage. 

Campuses with existing 802.11b networks 

should start evaluating 802.11g or 

dual-mode 802.11a/g products for use in 

future expansions but, if possible, hold off 

making big purchases until the products 

are more widely available and affordable. 

When it’s time to take the “g” plunge, 

make sure that all the equipment complies 

with the final 802.11g specification 

and that you have the option of disabling 

its default backward compatibility with 

802.11b hardware, allowing you to switch 

to 802.11g-only. Appropriate businessclass 

access points from Cisco, Proxim, 

Symbol, and 3Com, for example, may be 

better suited for certain campus environments 

because they offer higher-level 

management functions, as well as support 

for such features as automated AP 

handoffs for roaming users. The cost of 

this class of APs ranges from $800 to 

$1,400 each. Also keep in mind that some 

enterprise-class APs have two on-board 

PCMCIA or PCI cards and allow you to replace 

them. For instance, if you bought a 

More than 90% 

OF ALL PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES 

RUN SOME SORT OF 

WIRELESS NETWORK, AND 

more than 10% 

OF THOSE PROVIDE CAMPUS- 

WIDE PUBLIC ACCESS, 

NOT JUST IN A LIBRARY OR 

STUDENT CENTER. 

SOURCE: CAMPUS COMPUTING PROJECT 

dual-mode product with “a” and “b” 

cards on-board, you could eventually replace 

the “b” card with a “g.” 

BUDGET WISELY 

As with all IT infrastructures, focus on reliability 

and potential growth when planning 

the campus wireless network. That 

may mean pulling the plug on class- or department-level 

networks that use basic, 

consumer-oriented 802.11b access points, 

bridges, and routers. Total installation 


Drexel University in Philadelphia was the first university to require 

students to use microcomputers in 1983, and in 2000, 

it was the first major university to 

complete a fully wireless campus 

network indoors and out. Drexel installed 

costs include running AC power to each 

AP and vary depending on factors like 

existing electrical capacity and wiring, 

building design, and campus topography. 

Recent campus installations have estimated 

total installation costs ranging 

from $4,500 to $9,000 per access point. 

This excludes special-purpose equipment, 

such as intelligent wireless switching 

gear and access points capable of adjusting 

broadcast range and direction to 

enable secure “narrowcasting” to highpriority 

users. Though they’re not used 

much yet on campuses, these options 

may be appropriate for research in situations 

where security is paramount. 

TAKE FULL MEASURE 

Because campus buildings typically date 

from different eras, vary widely in construction 

techniques and materials, and 

often feature additions or retrofits added 

decades after the original construction, 

predicting wireless signal propagation 

within their walls is very tricky. The only 

way to be absolutely sure of the coverage 

you’ll get from a given AP placement is to 

measure signal strength in the space itself. 

This time-intensive but necessary chore 

shouldn’t be left for the summer lull, either: 

Human occupants also affect a building’s 

signal transmission, so take measurements 

when the buildings are in use. 

As you design and maintain a wireless 

LAN, a visual representation of access 

points and the spaces they cover is invaluable. 

Specialized visualization tools are 

available for this purpose, but layered CAD 

drawings will do the job as well. If you fill 

in each AP’s coverage area with its own 

color and use hatching patterns to designate 

channel assignments, you can easily 

spot dead zones and interference pockets. 

OWN (AND DEFEND) THE SPECTRA 

To avoid potential disruption of your 

wireless network, establish a campuswide 

policy governing use of the unlicensed 

some 300 antennas across its three primary campuses. 

radio spectra required for wireless networking. 

Make it clear that the IT department 

controls those spectra on campus 

and can ban any devices that disrupt 

them. Effective policies may forbid some 

devices altogether, such as personal dorm 

room APs, and allow for case-by-case barring 

of other devices such as microwave 

ovens and 2.4-GHz cordless phones. 

Make a social contract. Develop a usage 

policy for the campus network that emphasizes 

the need for everyone to share its 

limited bandwidth. As appropriate for 

your institution and user base, the policy 

can spell out monthly limits on wireless 

bandwidth usage and identify activities or 

applications that shouldn’t be run over 

wireless connections (games, FTP, peerto-peer 

file sharing, and the like). Also, set 

up automatic e-mail warnings and lockouts 

for offenders, but encourage users to 

police themselves and each other to prevent 

bogging down the network. 

Complement the wired network. It’s 

easy to justify wireless installations by 

comparing their deployment costs to that 

of running Ethernet cable, but beware of 

letting campus decision-makers think of 

wireless as a replacement for wired. To 

ensure flexibility and room to grow, new 

buildings should have Ethernet in their 

walls, even if they’re also equipped with 

wireless access points. 

Use application-level security. It’s 

never wrong to use network-level security 

methods such as Kerberos authentication, 

WPA, WEP, or VPNs. But because all 

networks, wired or wireless, are to some 

extent vulnerable to attack, these methods 

shouldn’t be the only safeguard on 

sensitive or confidential data. Educate 

staff and faculty about necessities like application-level 

encryption of e-mail and 

file attachments and SSL for Web-based 

forms and database access. And when 

necessary, keep especially sensitive data 

and applications inaccessible from the 

wireless network altogether. E 

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID H. WELLS/CORBIS

Unwire Everywhere 

By Carol Ellison 

When wireless connectivity debuted 

at Minneapolis-based Dunn Bros Coffee 

in early 2002, it was more by chance than 

by plan. The chain originally planned to 

install wired, ad-subsidized Web terminals. 

But the digital-media company hired 

to do the job, SurfThing, wanted to avoid 

laying cables in the quirkily laid out café, 

so it installed an 802.11b access point. 

Dunn Bros wasn’t eager to add wireless 

access to its offerings, alongside its beverages 

and pastries, at least until it had figured 

out a way of making the service pay, 

says Greg Wallgren, CEO of SurfThing. 

Regardless of what Dunn Bros thought, 

this didn’t stop savvy surfers from discovering 

and using the access point, and an 

underground hot spot was born. 

SurfThing smartly began using 802.11b 

technology for all of its Dunn Bros installa- 

tions, and each new location in turn 

became a stealth hot spot. By August 2002, 

ten cafés were unofficial hot spots, and 

Dunn Bros and SurfThing finally went 

public with the secret, even though it 

hadn’t found a way to charge for its service. 

Today, 20 Dunn Bros outlets offer wireless 

connectivity, and the company 

expects most future franchises to be 

hot spots. SurfThing has devised a 

method of displaying ads in wireless 

users’ browser windows, and Dunn Bros 

has conceded that wireless can pay even 

when not metered. 

“It’s kind of snowballed to the point 

where people seek us out,” says Scott Kee, 

director of purchasing at Dunn Bros. 

“Folks come in with their laptops and get 

their e-mail, surf the Web, have their meetings, 

and whatever. Usually they have a 

cup of coffee, too. We appreciate that.” 

The wireless phenomenon isn’t found 

only at Dunn Bros’s coffee shops in the 

Twin Cities. Today, people are downloading 

data during layovers in airports 

and wirelessly connecting to the Internet 

from the floors of convention centers. 

They’re instant-messaging friends from 

shaded benches in city parks and accessing 

e-mail as they chomp on Big Macs at 

McDonald’s. These denizens of wireless 

hot spots are mobile computer users who 

are demanding and getting wireless 

broadband Internet access in all the 

places they frequent—and even in many 

they don’t. 

Hot spots are not ubiquitous, but they’re 

chasing a trend that is becoming so. Projected 

sales data for 802.11 devices show 

a burgeoning demand for wireless access. 

Gartner/Dataquest’s digital-communications-research 

analysts estimate that 

shipments of 802.11-based devices will 

grow to 26.5 million by the end of 2003, 


W I T H a wireless Internet service 

provider (WISP), you can browse the Internet 

from hundreds—or, depending on the 

provider, thousands—of locations, including 

airports, hotels, coffeehouses, and restaurants. 

But choosing the right WISP can be 

as much black art as science. 

Providers and plans from familiar names like AT&T, as well as 

from energetic upstarts like Boingo, have jumped into the WISP 

game and are feeling their way through pricing and location 

issues. Unlike cellular telephone service, wireless public access 

service may not be available in all the locations you need, so 

finding the right WISP often means finding the right mix of service 

providers. One size does not always fit all—yet. 

WHERE TO BEGIN 

If you’re happy with your wired broadband service, that’s a good 

place to start looking into wireless. Many providers enhance their 

wired plans with special wireless options that are usually cheaper 

than contracting a third party; and sometimes the options are 

even free. Verizon customers, for instance, enjoy free access at 

any of the company’s hundreds of wireless-enabled phone booths 

in New York City. The access point is embedded in the phone 

booth, so if you’re near one, you’re welcome to go wireless. 

Another advantage is that the billing and usage model is already 

familiar to you. Your user name and password stay the 

same, and your wireless charges typically show up on the same 

Wi-Fi Providers 

CHOOSING A WI-FI PROVIDER 

Provider name Available plans Major venues 

Approximate number 

of locations Global 

AT&T GoPort 

1 connect (24 hours), $9.99; 

Major airports, hotels 475 (continental U.S.) None 

www.attws.com/ 5 connects (24 hours each), 

business/data/ 

$29.99; 10 connects, $49.99; 

individual/goport/ unlimited usage, $69.99 a month 

Boingo Wireless 

www.boingo.com 

GRIC 

www.gric.com 

iPass 

www.ipass.com 

STSN iBAHN 

www.stsn.com 

T-Mobile HotSpot 

www.t-mobile.com 

/hotspot 

Wayport 

www.wayport.com 

2 days, $7.95; each additional day, 

$7.95; unlimited usage, $21.95 a 

month; after 1 year, $39.95 a month 

North America: 50 hours, $49.95; 

100 hours, $59.95. Global coverage: 

20 hours, $35 

Cost per minute depends 

on location 

15 minutes, $2.95; each additional 

minute, $0.25; monthly subscription 

available 

$0.10 a minute (1-hour minimum); 

24 continuous hours, $9.99; 5-hour 

prepaid card, $50; unlimited usage, 

$39.99; annual subscription, 

$29.99 a month 

1 day (hotel connection), $9.95; 

airport connection; $6.95; 3 days, 

$25; 8 days, $50; 20 days, $100; 

unlimited usage, $49.95 a month; 

annual subscription, $29.95 a month 

Major airports, hotels, convention 

centers; select cafes and 

coffee shops 

Major airports, hotels, convention 

centers 

Major airports, hotels; select 

coffee shops 

statement as your wired broadband service. Most providers offer 

online databases of affiliated hot spots, so you 

can quickly see where service is available before you leave home. 

SHOP AROUND 

If you’re not quite ready to commit to a wireless broadband 

provider and want to shop around, the chart below can help you 

identify which provider and plan is best for you. Your first priority 

should be location: You need to make sure the provider offers 

wireless access in places you’ll be most often. 

Even so, regardless of which WISP you pick, expect some 

hitches if you travel frequently. Providers are not in every market, 

and their hot-spot databases don’t include competitors’ locations. 

A number of providers, however, have begun to offer roaming 

agreements with other providers to expand their service into new 

markets, so you can get the most coverage and receive just one 

bill. Such roaming agreements let you move from one vendor’s 

hot spot to another’s without having to reconfigure your notebook 

or access code. If your provider does not offer roaming, you 

can choose an independent aggregator such as Boingo, which 

works with many providers to put together a single offering. 

Even as the number of locations grows, chances are that at 

some point, you’ll find yourself in a hot spot that your provider 

doesn’t cover. Most providers have anticipated this and will let 

you buy an hour or a day’s worth of time on the spot. It’s easy to 

do: Open your notebook, punch in your credit card, and you’re 

ready to surf.—CE 

2,600 (international) 11 

countries 


countries 


countries 

Select hotels (Hilton, Mariott) 381 (North America) 9 

countries 

AA Admirals Clubs; Delta 

Airlines Clubs; United Red 

Carpet Clubs; Borders, 

Starbucks 

Major airports, hotels; 75 

McDonald’s in the San 

Francisco Bay Area 

2,700 (continental 

U.S.) 

5 

countries 

650 (international) 9 

countries 

Roaming 

y (T-Mobile or 

Wayport) 

y (more 

than 40 

agreements) 

y (300 

agreements) 

y 

(Stayonline, 

STSN, 

Wayport) 

y (GRIC, 

iPass) 

Software 

requirement Security 

Web browser SSL 

Proprietary 

software 

GRIC 

MobileOffice 

client 

Proprietary 

software 

Built-in VPN 

SSL, managed 

firewall, encrypted 

personal 

credential privacy, 

VPN enablement 

service 

VPN 

Web browser Peer-to-peer 

sharing disabled; 

common-area 

users segmented 

from conference 

area; firewalls; 

VPN 

y (AT&T) Web browser SSL 

y (AT&T, 

Boingo, GRIC, 

iPass, MCI, 

SBC, Sprint, 

Verizon) 

Please contact the above Wi-Fi providers for specific access, roaming partners, and cost information. As of our deadline, MCI, SBC, and Sprint had not yet disclosed their rollout plans. 

Web browser SSL

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRYAN F. PETERSON/CORBIS 

up from 15.5 million in 2002, and that 

shipments of client devices will top 50 

million by 2006. 

Hot spots are cropping up at a remarkable 

rate to meet the connectivity 

demands of users as they venture out 

from their homes and offices. Forward 

Concepts, a market research firm in 

Tempe, Arizona, projects that the number 

of hot spots will grow to 530,000 in the 

U.S., nearly 800,000 in Europe, and more 

than 1 million in Asia by 2007. By then, 

hot spots in the U.S. alone will represent 

an $8 billion industry. 

GET ’EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT 

Airports and hotels that cater to business 

travelers were among the first to unwire 

Internet access. Recently businesses of all 

sorts have joined the trend in hopes of 

attracting new clientele, generating 

incremental revenue, and drawing customers 

away from the competition. 

Seattle-based Starbucks was one of the 

first retail chains to provide wireless connectivity 

when it partnered with the nowdefunct 

MobileStar network in 2001 to put 

hot spots in more than 2,000 Starbucks 

locations and share the revenue with the 

provider. The hot spots are still thriving, 

even if MobileStar is not (T-Mobile services 

these locations now). 

Taking its cue from the success of Starbucks, 

this year McDonald’s rolled out hot 

spots in New York and California. McDonald’s 

made the first 30 minutes online free 

with the purchase of a Value Meal. 

Even Verizon, the dominant telecom in 

the Northeast, is getting into the act by 

offering free wireless high-speed Internet 

access to its DSL customers via some 1,000 

New York City telephone booths it plans 

to convert into hot spots. Each phone 

booth will be enabled for DSL service and 

embedded with an AP to broadcast a signal 

within a 300-foot radius. Verizon Online 

customers will be able to access the 

Internet free using their IDs. 

Many establishments are hoping to 

make a buck from becoming a hot spot, 

but not all of them. The ambition behind 

every hot spot is not always profit. There 

is a growing movement among commu- 

nity organizations to make wireless 

access free in their areas. Such organizations, 

which include NYCWireless in New 

York and Bay Area Wireless in California, 

UNWIRE EVERYWHERE 

P R O V I D I N G wireless public access to coffee shops, 

parks, and hotels is not the challenge it once was, as these hot spots pop 

up worldwide. But what about other venues to compute from—like trains, 

planes, or ships? These specific venues pose special challenges, because at 

some point, even the most unwired network needs to connect to the cable 

providing the broadband service. But is that possible aboard a train hurtling 

down the rails, a ship crossing the high seas, or (gasp!) a jetliner at 30,000 

feet, whizzing through the skies at 500 mph? 

It is. On March 17, 2004, wireless public access will conquer its latest 

geographical frontier: the skies. On that day, British Airways, Japan Airlines, 

Lufthansa, and SAS will deploy hot spots in the air. 

HOW IT WORKS 

Inside the cabin, Boeing Connexion (developers of the technology) service is 

similar to that of any other wireless LAN, with access points connected to a 

server that is connected to a high-speed modem. But that’s where the similarities 

end. The modem on an airplane connects to a phased-array antenna 

that is mounted externally atop a plane’s fuselage, setting up a two-way 

connection with satellites positioned around the world. In turn, the satellites 

pass along this traffic and receive signals from wired ground stations. 

Boeing tested flights with 802.11b access, but the company plans to 

offer 802.11a as well as 802.11g by the time of rollout, according to Stan 

Deal, vice president of global network sales for Boeing Connexion. Boeing 

has offered wired Internet access via jacks inside cabins for some time. But 

wireless Ethernet access is much easier to deploy in planes because wire 

does not have to be pulled through the planes, Deal says. 

LAND AND SEA 

Satellites aren’t servicing only planes; they’re also delivering wireless 

service to trains and cruise ships. This summer, VIA Rail Canada launched 

a pilot project with Bell Canada, Intel, and PointShot Wireless to provide 

public wireless access via satellite aboard trains traveling between 

Montreal and Toronto. 

At sea, cruise ships have begun offering hot spots using the existing 

satellite technology of the Maritime Telecommunications Network (MTN), 

which traditionally provides ship-to-shore voice and data communications. 

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) launched Internet service 

with Internet cafés aboard its ships in 1999. In 2002, 

NCL began offering 24-hour Wi-Fi access. Access costs 

$10 per day or varying rates per minute. 

The idea quickly caught on. MTN unwired NCL’s entire 

fleet, as well as that of Carnival Cruise Lines and Holland 

America. Wireless access is becoming omnipotent as it 

covers the globe. Now, how about outer space?—CE 

> 

It is precisely in places where no infrastructure exists that Wi-Fi can be particularly 

effective, helping countries to leapfrog generations of telecommunications technol- 

ogy and empower their people.—KOFI A. ANNAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL 

are affiliates of 

the global organization FreeNetworks.Org. 

Members help out other hotspot 

operators and maintain lists and 

maps identifying free hot-spot locations. 

WARMING UP TO HOT SPOTS 

At the most basic level, hot spots are not 

that different from other established 

(Continued on page 102) 

www.pcmag.com SPECIAL WIRELESS ISSUE 2003 PC MAGAZINE 99 

NEXT STOP: 30,000 FEET

QUICKEST WAY TO A HOT SPOT 

H O T S P O T S are rapidly sprouting up all 

over the United States. But how do you find one near you? 

Many hot spot lists are on the Internet, but they don’t all 

rate the same. Some Web sites have extensive lists but 

aren’t easily searchable; others focus solely on free hot 

spots, and still others cover only major cities. Many sites 

depend on user contributions for their information, so 

they’re not always up to date or accurate. Your best bet 

when searching for a hot spot—especially in a remote 

area—is to check one list against another. And remember, 

if you’re already signed up with a wireless provider, go to 

its site first, where you can find a proprietary list of all the 

hot spots supported. Below are seven popular hot spot 

lists. Happy hunting. 

CISCO HOTSPOT LOCATOR 

The Cisco Hotspot Locator, found on the company’s Web 

site, is vendor-agnostic and one of our favorites. Designed 

for business travelers, it includes wired as well as wireless 

locations. But we found no parks, town halls, or other 

community sites in this list. Useful tools are the hallmark 

here. The locator lets you search within a 5-, 10-, 25-, or 

100-mile radius of your location to pinpoint the hot spot 

closest to you. It also generates an itinerary of the spots 

you want to visit and e-mails the itinerary to you or to 

others. (Cisco Systems Inc., www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/ 

cimo/Home. llllm) 

GAWD 

Global Access Wireless Database (GAWD) is a collection 

of hot spots that includes GPS satellite coordinates. The 

international list, compiled by users, contains 564 sites 

and has one of the best search options among the sites 

reviewed here. You can search by GPS position, ZIP code, 

address, or provider and specify whether you want to see 

only sites that are publicly available. 

GAWD encourages community network 

listings, but some may be war 

driver discoveries of private networks 

left open unintentionally. 

Because the site has not made it 

easy to tell such sites apart from 

public listings, we lowered its rating. 

The site includes this disclaimer: If 

you use GAWD to do anything illegal 

it is a) not our fault and b) entirely 

your problem. Use with caution. (The 

Shmoo Group, www.shmoo.com/ 

gawd. llmmm) 

GEEKTOOLS 

Started as an internal list of hotel 

sites for CenterGate Research Company 

in Arizona, Geektools went 

public after receiving so many 

requests. Along with a link to a hotel’s 

home page and real-world address, it 

features mini-reviews of the wireless coverage (and some 

comments on the hotel itself), done from an IT person’s 

perspective. Its database has some international coverage 

but overall is very limited. Unless you’re specifically looking 

for the coverage quality in a given hotel, check out one of 

the other lists here. (Centergate Research Group LLC, 

www.geektools.com/ 

geektels. lmmmm) 

HOTSPOTLIST.COM 

Jupitermedia’s HotSpotList.com was developed from user 

contributions. HotSpotList.com may be the most comprehensive 

list you’ll find online, though it’s still short on information. 

For example, it doesn’t tell you which hot spots are 

free. Also, you can search only by city or state, which is fine 

if you’re headed to a major metropolitan area that happens 

to be listed. But this is not so fine if your destination is a 

small town; then you’re stuck perusing a list for the entire 

state—alphabetical by establishment, not by town name. 

So if Armonk, New York, has a hot spot (and as the home of 

IBM, you’d expect it to), it’s almost impossible to find in the 

list of more than 200 for the whole state of New York. Great 

information, but not great organization. (Jupitermedia Corp., 

www.hotspotlist.com. lllmm) 

INTEL HOTSPOT FINDER 

Intel Hotspot Finder is an international list of sites that have 

been verified to work with the Intel Centrino mobile technology, 

though if your wireless system is not Centrinobased, 

it should still work in those sites. Because of its 

Centrino-centric focus, the list is fairly limited. And you’ll 

find few free public hot spots on it. (Intel Corp., www 

.intel.com/products/mobiletechnology/hot spots/ 

finder.htm. llmmm) 

WIFINDER 

A private company in California, WiFinder claims to be the 

“largest independent resource of networks, locations, and 

vendor solutions for public access Internet.” Its search 

engine insists you follow its syntax. A search on New York 

City, for instance, turned up only three finds, but more than 

140 popped up when we dropped the word City. Its list is 

not as comprehensive as some of the others, but this is one 

of the rare finders that searches by ZIP code to pinpoint the 

hot spots nearest you; and it includes free sites. (WiFinder 

Inc., www.wifinder.com. llllm) 

WI-FI ZONE FINDER 

Wi-Fi Zone Finder is an international database of hot spots 

that have been certified under the Wi-Fi Alliance’s standards 

for Wi-Fi service. Its database is not as extensive as 

some others listed here, but it is growing daily and, thanks 

to WFA’s certification standards, is highly functional. The 

directory’s search feature lets you identify the type of hot 

spot you’re looking for, including free community networks. 

(Wi-Fi Alliance, www.wi-fizone.org/zonelocator 

.asp. lllmm)—CE 

PHOTOGRAPH BY R.W. JONES/CORBIS

San 

Francisco 

Seattle 

Los Angeles 

San Diego 

Airport Hot Spots 


City Airport Services available Community sites of interest 

Atlanta Hartsfield Atlanta International Airpath, GBIA, T-Mobile; Boingo pending www.atlantafreenet.org 

Austin Austin-Bergstrom International AT&T, Boingo, T-Mobile, Wayport www.austinwireless.net 

Baltimore Baltimore-Washington International Airpath, GBIA, T-Mobile, WiSE Technologies 

Boston Logan International Airpath, GBIA, T-Mobile; Boingo pending www.newburyopen.net 

Cleveland Cleveland Hopkins International T-Mobile 

Chicago Chicago Midway International, 

O’Hare International 

Dallas Dallas-Ft. Worth, 

Dallas Love Field 

Midway: Airpath, GBIA; Boingo pending 

O’Hare: T-Mobile 

Dallas-Ft. Worth: Airpath, AT&T, Boingo, T-Mobile, Wayport 

Love Field: T-Mobile 

http://wireless.cu.groogroo.com 

Denver Denver International AT&T, T-Mobile www.wireless-revolution.net 

Detroit Detroit Metro T-Mobile www.groups.yahoo.com/group/aawlan 

Houston George Bush Intercontinental, 

Houston Hobby 

George Bush: T-Mobile 

Hobby: Airpath, GBIA 

www.houstonwireless.net 

Jacksonville Jacksonville International Airpath www.jaxwiz.org 

Los Angeles Los Angeles International T-Mobile www.socalwug.org 

Miami Miami International Airpath, AT&T, GBIA, T-Mobile www.doralwireless.net 

Minneapolis Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airpath, T-Mobile, Wayport www.tcwug.org/index.html 

New York John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia, 

Newark International 

T-Mobile, Wayport www.nycwireless.net 

Philadelphia Philadelphia International Airpath; Boingo pending www.phillywireless.org 

Raleigh-Durham Raleigh-Durham International T-Mobile 

San Diego San Diego International T-Mobile www.sdwug.org 

San Francisco San Francisco International T-Mobile www.sfwireless.net 

Seattle Seattle-Tacoma International AT&T, Boingo, T-Mobile, Wayport www.seattlewireless.net 

Washington, D.C. Washington Dulles International T-Mobile; Boingo pending www.dcwireless.org 

Please contact your airport or airline to verify its areas of wireless access. 

Hotel Hot Spots 

Denver 

Austin 

Dallas 

Washington, D.C. 

New York City 

Telephone Number of U.S. 

Hotel chain 

number locations Type of service Where available Standard rate 

Choice Hotels (including Clarion, Comfort Inn, Comfort 877-424-6423 26 hotels 802.11b Lobbies; 50% of rooms in each Free 

Suites, Econo Lodge, Mainstay Suites, Quality by Choice, 

Rodeway Inn, Sleep Inn) 

Comfort Suites hotel 

Fairmont Hotels 800-257-7544 14 hotels 802.11b Lobbies, meeting areas; rooms in 

some locations 

$12.95 a day 

Four Seasons Hotels 800-819-5053 18 hotels 802.11b Lobbies; poolside in some locations $10 a day 

Hilton Hotels 800-445-8667 60 hotels 802.11b Lobbies, lounges, restaurants Up to $9.95 a day 

Hyatt Hotels 888-591-1234 25 hotels 802.11b Lobbies, meeting areas $10.40 a day 

Marriott (including Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, 888-236-2427 92 hotels 802.11b Lobbies, meeting areas; rooms in 15 minutes, $2.95; each 

SpringHill Suites, TownePlace Suites) 

some locations 

additional minute, $0.25 

Starwood Hotels (Four Points, St. Regis, Sheraton, 

W, and Westin) 

888-625-5144 More than 125 802.11b Lobbies, meeting areas $9.95 a day 

Please contact the specific hotel location to verify wireless access and cost. 

Houston 

Minneapolis 

Chicago 

Detroit 

Atlanta 

Cleveland 

Newark 

Philadelphia 

Jacksonville 

Miami 

Baltimore 

Raleigh-Durham 

Boston 


102 

D I F F E R E N T wireless technologies come in 

different devices and do different things. But no other device 

displays more wireless variety then a PDA. 

In order of effective range (least to greatest), the four wireless 

technologies used in PDAs are infrared, Bluetooth, 802.11b, 

and 2.5G (seen in PDA/phone combination devices). Each type 

has its best uses, and the technologies are not exclusive. 

INFRARED 

The first and possibly most basic wireless technology built 

into PDAs is IR, or infrared technology. When you think IR, think 

of a remote control. IR has a short range, about 10 feet—think 

couch to TV—and it must have a line-of-sight connection. Ever 

since PDAs came equipped with IR, the most common use of 

the technology has been to synchronize data (at 4 Mbps) with 

your PC or notebook. You could also beam business cards and 

small amounts of data between PDAs, but this never really 

caught on. 

Some PDAs, such as the 

high-end HP iPAQ h5550, 

incorporate the stronger 

“consumer” IR, which can 

(Continued from page 99) 

wireless networks, like the ones found in 

office buildings. Hot spots in the U.S., and 

many worldwide, currently use 802.11b 

equipment. If you find yourself in a hot 

spot, all you need to connect is a wirelessenabled 

computing device, like a notebook 

or a PDA, and a browser. Windows 

2000 and XP have a built-in ability to 

“sniff,” or detect an 802.11 wireless signal. 

Handhelds 

Ultimate 

wireless wonders 

PDAs are wireless by 

design, and although nearly 

all of them have integrated IR 

(old hat in these devices), only a 

select few have true built-in 

wireless (802.11b) or digital 

phone capability. But not for long. Over 

the coming months, many more PDAs 

will join the ranks. For now, here are 

some of the best wireless-enabled 

PDAs.—Bruce Brown 


If your PC doesn’t have Windows 2000 or 

XP, chances are your system will not be 

able to sniff out a hot spot. But if you have 

an older operating system, you’re not out 

of luck. Most wireless NICs come with 

drivers that include this ability. 

In most hot spots, you simply need to 

launch your browser and you’re instantly 

connected to the establishment’s custom 

portal page. This page pops up to greet 

send signals from 25 to 30 feet and is typically used in 

remote controls. 

BLUETOOTH 

Bluetooth is similar to IR in that it has a short wireless range, up 

to about 30 feet; however, connecting with another Bluetooth 

device doesn’t require a direct line-of-sight connection, as does 

IR. You can find Bluetooth in some PDAs, cell phones, printers, 

and notebooks, to name a few—and you can share data among 

all of them. Bluetooth has a one-way data rate of 720 Kbps. 

Bluetooth-enabled cell phones are still few and far between, 

but using one to connect a Bluetooth-enabled PDA to the Internet 

is a great way to tie the two form factors together. (PDAs and cell 

phones have already taken one step further in convergence with 

all-in-one devices, though they are still too bulky to be a comfortable 

cell phone and too small to display a useful PDA screen.) 

Bluetooth products splashed on the scene in 2000, promising 

to get rid of the cable tangle taking over offices. It didn’t 

take off as people had hoped, and the rapid arrival of 802.11 

technology somewhat muted Bluetooth’s moment of wireless 

glory. But that’s not to say Bluetooth is dead: It has finally found 

a niche, thanks to PDAs, and is enjoying an uptick in growth. 

WIRELESS WAYS FOR YOUR PDA 

Handspring Treo 270/300 

Treo 270, $350 street. lllmm Treo 300, 

$400. lllmm www.sprintpcs.com; 800- 

318-9270, www.t-mobile.com. 

The first PDA/phone combination for 

nongeeks is the Handspring Treo 

Communicator series. The Treo 270 

and Treo 300 combine a phone 

device with an integrated QWERTY 

keyboard. The 270 offers 

GSM/GPRS wireless data and is 

available from AT&T, T-Mobile, 

and other carriers; the 300 

uses the CDMA/1xRTT 

network and is provisioned 

by Sprint PCS. 

you with sign-on instructions and, often, 

a list of this week’s specials. You sign up 

with the provider—or use your own if 

you can—and you’re on the Internet. 

OPEN BY DESIGN 

Security is always a concern with wireless 

technologies, but especially with hot 

spots. Unlike wireless LANs in your 

home or office, which should be protect- 

Hitachi G1000 

$650 street. www.sprintpcs.com. llllm 

The Microsoft Windows Pocket PC 2002–based 

Hitachi G1000 is a combination 

PDA/digital phone provisioned by 

Sprint PCS. The G1000 is loaded 

with features, including a 

640-by-480-resolution 

digital camera and a QWERTY 

keyboard. The Sprint PCS 

data network averages 

72 Kbps for Web 

browsing or e-mail 

retrieval using Sprint’s 

Business Connection 

software. 

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOM O'CONNOR

802.11B 

Thanks to the current 802.11 technology rage, wireless networks 

are popping up everywhere—in offices, homes, and in many 

public hot spots (check out your corner café). Therefore, the 

usefulness of equipping a PDA with 802.11 capability has increased. 

You can browse PDA-friendly Web sites while you’re out 

and about to check movie times, for example, or to find a street 

address. Although only a few PDAs have integrated 802.11, most 

can easily be equipped with add-ons (usually via CompactFlash 

adapters, with SD adapters coming soon). 

Today the adapters integrated into PDAs use 11-Mbps 802.11b 

technology. It’s likely that PDAs or PDA wireless adapters will 

soon have combinations of 54-Mbps 802.11a, 54-Mbps 802.11g, 

and 802.11b standards. 

DIGITAL CELL-PHONE TECHNOLOGY 

The use of a digital cell-phone network for high-speed transfers 

of video, audio, and Web downloads, as well as e-mail and text, 

is now in its second year. But the promised potential of full 3G 

capability is still several years away. 3G, which stands for thirdgeneration 

cellular technology, will allow cell phones to provide 

a wireless connection of at least 2 Mbps from a fixed location 

(meaning that you’re standing nearly still or moving at less 

than 10 kilometers per hour). The current 2.5G connections 

(GSM/GPRS and CDMA/1xRTT) average from 40 to 72 Kbps. Still, 

ed by Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) 

or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), most 

hot spots are left open by design to facilitate 

easy access. (For more on WEP and 

WPA and other wireless security issues, 

see “Making Sense of Wireless LAN 

Security,” page 88). 

Most providers use SSL (Secure Sockets 

Layer) technology to protect the 

exchange of credit card and password 

HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5550 

$650 street. 800-345-1518. www.hp.com. 

llllm 

The flagship of HP’s Pocket PC line is the HP iPAQ 

Pocket PC h5550. Like all new HP products with 

Windows Mobile 2003, the 

h5550 has integrated 

Bluetooth. This model also 

has 802.11b wireless 

capability. Clearly 

intended for enterprise 

applications, the 

h5550 keeps its data 

secure via an 

integrated fingerprint 

reader. 

information when users sign in. But 

data communications after that usually 

transmit in the clear and are susceptible 

to interception. 

Data stored on your hard drive isn’t immune. 

Remember, you’re sharing the network 

with other customers. If you’ve enabled 

file sharing, your files and folders 

could be at risk. Your best bet is to turn 

off file sharing before hitting the road. 

Palm Tungsten T2, 

Tungsten C, Tungsten W 

T2, $400 street. llllm C, $500. llllm 

W, $420 plus monthly service fees. lllmm 

888-956-7256. www.palm.com. 

The Palm Tungsten line targets 

professional users and is available in 

three versions. The Tungsten T2 

uses a collapsible case design 

and has integrated Bluetooth. 

The Tungsten C is Palm’s 

802.11b device. Want 

WAN? The Tungsten W 

has integrated GSM/GPRS 

2.5G digital phone capability. 


this is comparable to or better than a conventional 56K dial-up 

modem, sans wires. Although only fractionally as fast as 

802.11b, 2.5G works fine for communications, e-mail, instant 

messaging, and limited Web browsing. 

Since the amount of data being moved to and from PDAs is 

generally small relative to the data downloaded and uploaded 

from conventional PCs, the actual speed can be impressive. Add 

to that the fact that digital phone connections cover a much 

wider range than any other wireless technology today—out to 

the suburbs and back—and 2.5G becomes very appealing. The 

downside, however, is its premium pricing: Although unlimited 

access plans are dropping in price, they still appeal mostly to 

business users. 

WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU 

Unfortunately, although there’s a great argument for a PDA with 

built-in infrared, Bluetooth, 802.11, and 2.5G, you can’t buy one 

today. In the meantime, just remember that infrared and Bluetooth 

are best for short-range data transfer. 802.11b is best if 

you want to do basic Web browsing with your PDA and often 

find yourself near hot spots (in metropolitan areas, airports, and 

hotels). 802.11b has a faster data rate and costs less than 2.5G. 

But if you want more flexibility in the way you use your PDA—if 

you travel in the countryside or even in cities without ubiquitous 

hot spots—then you’ll want 2.5G and, eventually, 3G.—BB 

(For more information on how to do this, 

log on to www.pcmag.com/security.) 

Providers take pains to advise users of 

these vulnerabilities. To spare venue employees 

such as waiters and check-out 

clerks the difficulty of handling tech support, 

many recommend that users manage 

their own security. T-Mobile, for instance, 

publishes a strongly worded 

security statement on its Web site. It 

Sony Clié PEG-UX50 

$700 street. 888-222-7669, 

www.sony.com/clie. llllm 

Sony has designed some of the classiest-looking 

and most full-featured PDAs. The new Sony Clié 

PEG-UX50 is a Palm 

OS–based clamshell 

with an integrated 

digital camera, 

QWERTY keyboard, 

and both Bluetooth and 

802.11b radios. The Sony 

Clié PEG-UX40 ($600) 

has the same features 

but no 802.11b. 


104 


Bluetooth 

Wireless, up close and personal 

For years Bluetooth has been promoted as the technology that would banish 

all cables. And it is finally catching on in the U.S. Unlike 802.11, Bluetooth moves data 

short distances—in the 30-foot range—enabling devices such as printers, notebooks, 

and headsets to talk to one another. The following products—some new, some not—are 

excellent real-world representatives of where Bluetooth can fit in your daily life.—BB 

HP Deskjet 995c 

$300 street. 800-474-6836, www.hp.com. 

llllm 

The HP Deskjet 995c color ink jet printer with 

built-in Bluetooth has long been the standard for 

companies designing and testing other Bluetooth 

products. Although the 995c has a USB 

port so you can connect it to non-Bluetooth 

Windows or Apple PCs, the unit is equally 

efficient at printing via Bluetooth directly from 

PCs, phones, and PDAs. 

Microsoft Wireless Optical 

Desktop for Bluetooth 

$159 list. 425-635-7040. www.microsoft 

.com. llllm 

Around for awhile now, the Microsoft Wireless 

Optical Desktop for Bluetooth is a three-piece 

mouse, keyboard, and Bluetooth adapter system 

that greatly reduces your cable clutter. Both the 

keyboard and mouse have Bluetooth radios, and 

each connects to a desktop or notebook PC via a 

small adapter that plugs into a USB port. 


Logitech Mobile 

Bluetooth Headset 

$100 street. 800-231-7717, www.logitech 

.com. llllm 

As more U.S. cities and states ban the use of 

handheld cell phones in moving vehicles, headsets 

and earsets for hands-free calling are growing 

in popularity. And thanks to Bluetooth, 

you don’t have to have 

those pesky wires hanging 

from your ear to the 

phone. The Logitech 

Mobile Bluetooth Headset 

is one of the 

newest models and 

has arguably the most 

comfortable system for 

wearing on one ear. 

Socket Bluetooth 

GPS Nav Kit 

$530 street. 510-744-2720. www.socketcom 

.com. llllm 

Combining a GPS unit with a PDA for personal 

route navigation is a popular application for 

business and vacation travelers. But once again, 

the extra cables hanging on or draped around a 

vehicle’s dashboard are an unsightly mess. The 

Socket Bluetooth GPS Nav Kit solves the cable 

problem. The unit works with Pocket PC 2002 

PDAs and can run for up to 6 hours on rechargeable 

batteries. For longer trips, a 12-volt DC 

power adapter is included. 

warns users that their data may be intercepted 

and recommends the use of personal 

firewalls and encryption technologies, 

such as virtual private networks 

(VPNs). Also, if you have a VPN client installed 

on your notebook for work, your 

safest bet is to launch it once you’re online 

at a hot spot. 

Other providers take on the task 

themselves. For example, Boingo supplies 

each subscriber with proprietary 

software that creates a VPN tunnel to 

protect data passed over the air. GRIC 

provides VPN software along with a full 

suite of encryption technologies and 

managed services that promise end-toend 

security for enterprise customers. 

AT&T and MCI have added wireless access 

to their enterprise VPN offering. 

AT&T’s service provides VPN software 

to enterprise clients using its 2,000 hot 

spots in 20 cities. 

ONE SERVICE, ONE BILL 

It may seem that hot spots are ubiquitous, 

but don’t count on finding one 

everywhere you go. Retail establishments 

and wireless providers are still 

testing business models for wireless 

public access. Keeping in mind the huge 

investments and subsequent demise of 

providers like MobileStar and Joltage, 

analysts at Gartner in Stamford, Connecticut, 

urge telecoms to enter the 

arena with caution. 

For consumers, the most troublesome 

problem is roaming. You cannot subscribe 

to one service, receive one bill, and 

enjoy universal access as you do with 

cell-phone plans. The good news is that 

providers are partnering in a honeycomb 

of relationships to expand the services 

you receive under a single billing plan. 

AT&T Wireless, Boingo, GRIC, iPass, and 

Wayport, for instance, maintain roaming 

relationships with one another. And last 

year, Wayport joined with four other international 

service providers to found a 

trade organization called Pass-One, 

which aims to set standards for international 

roaming arrangements. 

The ability to connect to the Internet 

from anywhere is still a concept in its 

youth. There are major obstacles to 

overcome, roaming and billing among 

them. But great strides are being made, 

and in the not-so-distant future we may 

finally be surrounded by a network unfettered 

by wires. E 

PHOTOGRAPH BY THOM O'CONNOR

114 

www.pcmag.com/afterhours 

Astrosmash 

A retro Java/J2ME game for your high-tech 

cell phone, Astrosmash is a near-perfect 

rendition of the Intellivision classic from 

the early 1980s. The sky is falling, and it’s 

up to you, the defense base commander, to 

stop meteors, bombs, missiles, and flying 

saucers from crashing to the ground while 

at the same time making sure you don’t 

get shot. Keep your eyes peeled for hovering 

spacecraft through multiple levels of 

difficulty. 

Services: Nextel, Sprint PCS. THQ Inc., 

www.thq.com. llllm 


TECHNOLOGY ON YOUR TIME 

Gaming at the Cellular Level 

BY PETER SUCIU 

Even if you don’t 

think of yourself 

as a gamer, you 

probably have a 

gaming system in 

your possession. The most 

widespread gaming platform 

isn’t the Sony PlayStation 2 or 

even the ultrapopular Nintendo 

Game Boy: The latest 

generation of cellular phones, 

with BREW- and Java-enabled 

technology including J2ME 

(Java 2 Platform Micro Edition), 

can deliver rich and vibrant games. “In the U.S. alone, 

there are more than 150 million mobile phones, and most of 

those are Java-enabled,” says Ross Sealfon, research analyst at 

IDC. He forecasts that we’ll see a lot more phones capable of 

playing games in the not-too-distant future, as manufacturers 

continue to add color screens and advanced features. 

The games available on mobile phones aren’t as immersive 

as those you’d play on a Microsoft Xbox or a PC, but handheld 

titles have come along way from simplistic Snake or 

Tetris clones. And although cell phones might not be the 

BEJEWELED 

ideal platform for hard-core 

gamers, they are just fine for 

nearly everyone else. The reasons 

are simple: The games 

are inexpensive, they can be 

downloaded directly to your 

phone, they’re easy to play, 

and your cell phone can go 

anywhere with you. 

Most important, developers 

are starting to explore the possibilities 

for richer content 

with more complex game play 

and even to provide multiplayer 

options (for those using the same service provider). With 

hundreds of games available for download, you shouldn’t have 

a hard time finding something you’d enjoy playing. On the 

downside, you might not know whether you’ll enjoy a game 

until after you’ve downloaded and paid for it. 

To help make the choices easier, we offer a look at ten diverse 

games. Prices depend on the provider offering the 

games but generally range from 99 cents to $3.99 for a 30day 

trial and are slightly higher (usually $3.99 to $6.49) for a 

one-time purchase. 

Bejeweled 

This fast-paced, two-player Java game is 

simple yet so addictive that you might not 

want to answer your phone if it rings while 

you’re playing. You have to match three or 

more colored gems in a row to score 

points and reduce your opponent’s power. 

This sounds easy, but keep an eye on your 

own power meter. 

Four game types offer 

a virtual gold mine of 

options. So make 

your best move, but 

be sure that your 

WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN 

lllll EXCELLENT 

llllm VERY GOOD 

lllmm GOOD 

llmmm FAIR 

lmmmm POOR 

ILLUSTRATION BY GEOFFREY GRAHN

adversary isn’t making a better one. 

Service: Sprint PCS. Jamdat Mobile Inc., 

www.jamdat.com. lllll 

CHARLIE’S ANGELS: ROAD CYCLONE 

Charlie’s Angels: Road Cyclone 

Good morning, Angels. Are you ready to 

put the pedal to the metal and save the 

day? You race against the bad guys in this 

side-scrolling Java action game, where 

each of the three Angels has unique advantages 

yet must rely on wits rather than 

firepower. Don’t expect the villains to play 

as nicely; you have to dodge bullets and 

grenades, as well as outmaneuver helicopters 

and even a vicious 18-wheeler. 

Sustain too much damage and it’s “game 

over.” Watch your back or you’ll be 

singing with a different kind of angel. 

Service: Cingular Wireless. Sony Pictures Digital 

Inc., www.sonypictures.com/digent/index.html. 

llllm 

The Elder Scrolls Travels: 

Stormhold 

In this first-person Java/BREW fantasy 

adventure, you choose a character and then 

customize your virtual persona with a 

variety of weapons, items, and skills. This 

dungeon quest is about more than glory 

and treasure: You’ve landed in the vile 

Stormhold prison and must join with 

others to escape the tyranny of the lunatic 

warden. Sinister guards and powerful monsters 

stand in the way of freedom, but this 

is your adventure, so you can choose to 

play out either a good or an evil path. 

Services: AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, 

Sprint PCS, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless. Bethesda 

Softworks LLC, www.bethsoft.com. llllm 

FOX Sports Racing 

Get the sensation of driving a stock car in 

the palm of your hands with FOX Sports 

Racing. This BREW game offers five 3-D 

tracks, adaptive artificial intelligence, incar 

views, and three modes of play, including 

online multiplayer action against reallife 

mobile opponents. Head-to-head 

racing features a leaderboard that tracks 

the best players, and you can set up your 

own mobile persona, which you will be 

able to use in future FOX Sports titles. 

Services: Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless. Sorrent 

Inc., www.sorrent.com. llllm 

Jeopardy! 

Think you know everything? Now you can 

prove it with the Java-based Jeopardy!, 

based on the venerable game show. 

Choose from a variety of categories, wager 

on Daily Doubles, and take part in Final 

Jeopardy!, just as on TV. Best of all, unlike 

with PC versions of Jeopardy!, you won’t 

encounter the same questions over and 

over. New game packs are available every 

month at no extra cost, so you can keep 

the brain-teasing questions coming. The 

inferior graphics hurt the game, though, 

and Jeopardy! just isn’t the same without 

other players. 

Services: AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Verizon 

Wireless. Sony Pictures Digital Inc., 

www.sonypictures.com/digent/index.html. 

lllmm 

JEOPARDY! 

The Lord of the Rings: The Two 

Towers 

This game is like a long-distance call to 

Middle Earth. In this 2-D, turn-based 

BREW combat simulation, you fight 

through six battle maps based on The Lord 

of the Rings: The Two Towers, controlling 

Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and King Theoden. 

You’ll engage orcs and other baddies 

and collect items to regain health and 

enhance your character’s abilities. The 

game is almost too faithful to Dungeons 

and Dragons–style gaming, though, so 

casual gamers may find it too intense. 

Service: Verizon Wireless. Jamdat Mobile Inc., 

www.jamdat.com. lllmm 

Sega Sports Mobile Baseball 

The big leagues have hit the small screen. 

In this Java game, you can play a full nine 

innings of baseball against an opponent 

who will challenge your inner manager. 

On the mound, you determine the type of 

pitch to throw and even the location in the 

strike zone; as a batter, you can decide to 

go for contact or power swings, where 

timing is everything. 

There are six 25-man team rosters, and 

AFTER HOURS 

each player has distinct attributes. You 

can create your lineups and start to play, 

but don’t worry about running into extra 

innings; you can save your game and 

continue later. Since the game doesn’t use 

real-world players or teams, its appeal to 

true baseball fans is limited. 

Services: AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS. Sega Corp., 

www.segamobile.com. lllmm 

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4 Street 

In the Java-based Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 

4 Street, the extreme-sports PC game goes 

mobile, complete with 14 skaters to choose 

from, 5 skills to upgrade, and 6 unique 

levels, with tons of opportunities for highflying 

moves. Grind on railings in an old 

shipyard, catch some crazy air at Alcatraz, 

and head to the streets of London to show 

your stuff. At each location, you can 

achieve numerous objectives to unlock 

new skills, skating gear, and secret areas. 

Who says phone games can’t be intense? 

Service: AT&T Wireless. Jamdat Mobile Inc., 

www.jamdat.com. lllll 

WWE MOBILE MADNESS 

WWE Mobile Madness 

Are you ready to rumble? If you have a 

Java-enabled Motorola mobile phone, you 

can bring the pain, as WWE professional 

wrestlers Kane and the Undertaker battle 

it out. Play as either of these hulking 

superstars and use special attacks to take 

down your opponent and win the match. 

The action stays on your screen, but that 

doesn’t mean it’s confined to the ring; use 

those handy folding chairs to do extra 

damage. Unfortu- 

nately, graphics are a 

bit underwhelming, 

and the nature of the 

game may have a 

limited appeal. 

Service: Nextel (available 

for the Motorola 

i85, i55sr, and i50sx 

phones). THQ Inc., 

www.thq.com. lllmm 

ONLINE 

MORE ON 

THE WEB 

Log on to 

www.pcmag.com/ 

afterhours for 

reviews of console 

games, online 

games, and more. 


116 

AFTER HOURS 


Messenger-Bag It 

The Timbuk2 Commute messenger-style laptop bag is a cool 

way to carry work or school essentials. It is made of sturdy ballistic 

nylon and has a waterproof vinyl interior liner. You’ll find pockets 

for your laptop and all your other digital accessories, as well as 

exterior water-bottle pockets, a wide adjustable-length shoulder 

strap, and a padded handle.—Carol A. Mangis 

$100 direct. Timbuk2 Designs, www.timbuk2.com. llllm 

Comforting Beads 

The IMAK ergoBeads stress-relieving products, designed by an orthopedic and hand surgeon, 

are some of the most comfortable we’ve tried. The IMAK ergoBeads Keyboard Support 

cushions you, conforming to your changing wrist positions. The IMAK ergoBeads Smart 

Glove (available in four sizes) has a removable splint to prevent your wrist from bending too 

much and has ergoBeads in the palm area to protect the underside of your hand.—CAM 

Keyboard Support, $16.95 direct; Smart Glove, $19.95. IMAK Products Corp., 

www.imakproducts.com. llllm 

New NetMD 

The entry-level Sony NetMD Walkman Model 

MZ-N510CK comes with such goodies as a car kit, CD 

and MP3 transfer software, a desktop and headphone remote, and a 

jogging band. Upgraded with zippy USB 2.0 support, the NetMD 

transfers 2 hours 40 minutes of music in about 15 minutes. When set 

to its highest compression rate (called LP4), the NetMD can cram 

four CDs’ worth of music in almost any audio format on a $2 Mini- 

Disc, a bargain compared with the cost of memory for a portable 

MP3 player. A couple of detracting factors: Sony’s penchant for 

awkward button placement and the player’s low audio levels. Also, 

the Sonic Stage MP3 transfer software is cumbersome to use and 

doesn’t readily import standard playlists.—Sahil Gambhir 

$149.95 direct. Sony Electronics Inc., www.sonystyle.com. lllmm 

Media Hubbub 

For playing digital music on your stereo and showing digital 

photos on your TV set, the Linksys Wireless-B Media 

Adapter is the new front-runner among digital media 

hubs. Although the Wireless-B has a few rough edges, 

the features-to-price ratio can’t be beat. Setup is 

relatively easy; it automatically configures itself to 

coexist on a small home network. For audio, the onscreen 

display shows the album, artist, title, and 

track. With photos, you get the obvious 

controls: slide show with 

variable timing, random 

and repeating shows, 

and image zoom. At 

times, the remote took 

a second or two to 

respond to requests, 

and once or twice 

audio stopped for a 

couple of seconds 

when we were running 

multiple applications 

on the PC.—Bill Howard 

$200 street. Linksys 

Group Inc., www 

.linksys.com. llllm

Game Cheat Sites 

By Tricia Harris 

Sometimes the most talented players need a little help to get through a game. That’s 

where cheat codes come in. Plenty of Web sites are replete with cheat codes; the trick is 

finding a site with up-to-date information, easy navigation, and a minimal amount of 

annoying pop-up advertising. Some sites provide detailed walkthroughs and strategy 

guides, and others show you how to unlock extra characters, weapons, or fortunes. 

Activegamer 

You’ll probably be able to solve your 

own problems in the time it takes to 

locate any helpful information at 

Activegamer. The site is a wasteland 

compared with the competition. Think 

we’re too harsh? Consider that most 

recently released titles aren’t even listed. 

It’s worse if you need PlayStation 2 

codes; some areas have only one game 

listed. Save yourself the hassle and avoid 

Activegamer. 

Free. activegamer.com. lmmmm 

CHEAT CODE CENTRAL 

Cheat Code Central 

One of the coolest features of Cheat 

Code Central is also one of its weakest. 

The site has a “saved games” archive, 

which provides a file that places you 

beyond tough spots in a game. The problem 

is that it lists very few recent games. 

The rest of the site is what you’d expect: 

cheat codes and some reviews. For some 

games you’ll find a full strategy guide, 

but only if you’re lucky. 

Free. Cheat Code Central, www.cheatcc.com. 

llmmm 

CheatingPlanet 

With strong competition in the cheating 

arena, CheatingPlanet was late out of the 

gate. It’s a pretty site, but it’s woefully 

behind in the cheats and guides areas, 

leaving you hunting for help somewhere 

else. Thankfully, you can go to some 

better sites. 

Free. GameSpy Industries, www. 

cheatingplanet.com. llmmm 

GameFAQs 

Any site with cheat codes for arcade hits 

such as Galaga and Super Puzzle Fighter II 

Turbo is serious about what it does, and 

GameFAQs is a truly helpful site. This one 

has more than 37,000 cheat codes, more 

than 22,000 game guides, and assorted 

factoids. The site is a snap to navigate, and 

it even provides game information based 

on geographic zones. You walk away 

feeling less like a cheating loser and more 

like a game “researcher.” 

Free. GameFAQs, www.gamefaqs.com. llllm 

GameWinners.com 

GameWinners.com is one of the oldest 

archives of cheat codes, tips, FAQs, and 

game walkthroughs on the Internet. It’s a 

massive collection that crosses all platforms 

and reaches back to the early days of 

gaming. Additionally, you can find out what 

hidden treasures (called Easter eggs) may 

be on your DVDs. The site serves all manner 

of gaming without preference. News 

and reviews are provided by professional 

sites, such as Gamers.com. 

Free. Al Amaloo, www.gamewinners.com. 

lllll 

GAMEWINNERS.COM 

GAMEFAQS 

AFTER HOURS 

QUICK CLIPS 

PlanetSide 

Three factions composed of hundreds of 

online players fly, drive, and shoot across 

a gigantic 

landscape 

to claim 

territory. 

Character 

advancement, 

achieved 

through 

combat, allows access to better vehicles, 

weapons, and other equipment. Since it’s 

essentially a first-person shooter, 

PlanetSide’s connection speeds need to 

improve to meet the demand for stutterfree 

real-time combat.—Rich Brown 

$49.99 direct, plus $12.95 per month. Sony 

Online Entertainment Inc., http://planetside 

.station.sony.com. lllmm 

Learn to Play Chess with Fritz 

and Chesster 

This title cleverly disguises the basics 

of chess in a series of mini-games 

designed to teach kids age 8 and older. 

When King and Queen White go on 

vacation, their 

son Fritz is 

challenged to 

a duel. To succeed, 

Fritz 

needs to learn 

about chess. 

The storybook 

characters and 

setting will appeal to kids. Young or 

impatient children might need parental 

help.—Sonya Moore 

$29.99 direct. Viva Media LLC, 

www.viva-media.com. llllm 

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove 

Though the differences between the 

Caribbean-dictator-themed original and 

the pirate-themed sequel are few, the 

core island-building game remains 

entertaining. Exploration and sea combat 

play fitting roles: You send vessels 

out to find riches and slave workers 

and manipulaterelations 

between 

England, 

France, and 

Spain. Data 

screens are 

poorly organized, 

but the game’s charm takes the 

edge off.—RB 

$39.99 direct. Take 2 Interactive, 

www.take2games.com. lllmm 


118 

J 

J 

Thanks for the details, but will it fit in our 

shirt pocket or not? (Cingular Wireless site) 

J Synergy or screwup? 

You make the call. 

(Walgreens.com) 

J 

Ouch! That seems like a 

rather harsh punishment! 

(CNN.com) 

THE AGONY AND THE USB 

Edited by Don Willmott 

www.pcmag.com/backspace 

If your entry is used, we’ll send you a PC Magazine T-shirt. Submit your entries via e-mail to backspace@ziffdavis.com (attachments are welcome) 

or to Backspace, PC Magazine, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 10016-7930. Ziff Davis Media Inc. shall own all property rights in the entries. 

Winners this issue: Scott Dare, Jarrod Hager, Saul Korduner, Daniel Lauer, Andrew Ott, and Markus A. Iturriaga Woelfel. 

PC Magazine, ISSN 0888-8507, is published semi-monthly except 3 issues in October (10/14/03 is the Fall 2003 issue) and monthly in January and July at $39.97 for one year. Ziff Davis Media Inc, 28 E. 28th St., New York, NY 

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number is 865286033. Canada Post International Publications Mail Product (Canadian Distribution) Sales Agreement No. 266477. Printed in the U.S.A. 


J And the award for Best Spam Subject 

Line of the Month goes to.... 

J 

J Now that’s what we call really bad 

breath. (Walmart.com) 

J 

J Looks as if we won’t be flying too high. 

J 

(Neopets site)

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