|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bringing broadband to the backwoods
(IDG) -- Living in a rural locale definitely has advantages - more trees, fewer cars, fresh air. However, it also has disadvantages. Finding The New York Times on Sunday can be hard, and sushi bars are few and far between. Most difficult - for those with home offices - is that broadband connections are just about nonexistent. Take Danny, for example. He's been waiting patiently for someone, anyone, to offer digital subscriber line (DSL) or cable modem access for his home office. Unfortunately, he's just far enough away from his telco central office, ISP point of presence and cable head end to make that wait require the patience of Job. On the wireless front, the major Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service and local multipoint distribution services providers aren't exactly beating down his door.
There is, however, a rapidly maturing wireless option that may save the day. A LAN technology getting attention in the home network and small office/home office markets, 802.11 Wireless Ethernet, can be extended to the WAN connection. You're probably already familiar with some of the 802.11 LAN products on the market - the PC cards and wireless access points that allow your executives to roam the office, laptop in tow, and stay connected to the LAN. Inexpensive 802.11 gear is also making a splash in the residential market, with companies like Apple bundling wireless networking into laptops and desktops. Using the same standard (up to 11M bit/sec) and the same 2.4-GHz unlicensed spectrum, several manufacturers are beginning to offer outdoor wireless bridges that can stretch your LAN connection into a WAN connection, with ranges now extending up to 15 miles. Much of this gear is being used for corporate campus applications or for connecting nearby branch offices to headquarters. Another hot application for this gear is providing temporary point-to-point connectivity for special events such as conferences. Additionally, a number of ISPs are beginning to look into this technology because the wireless bridges have point-to-multipoint capabilities that can make it easy to turn up multiple broadband wireless connections without having to spend a lot more on radio frequency hardware. On the client end, an external antenna and another wireless bridge connect to your home PC by Ethernet or wirelessly using 802.11 PC and ISA cards. The biggest problem you'll probably face with implementing this kind of solution for your remote workers who are truly remote is finding an ISP that has deployed this gear. It may take a heart-to-heart talk with your local ISP to convince it to do the install. The hardware costs aren't too high, but the potential throughput of the system may overwhelm a local ISP that relies on a single T-1 connection to serve its usual V.90 customer base. Until DSL and cable move out to that last 10% of the market or G-3 broadband personal communications services become a reality, this may be your best bet the boonies. RELATED STORIES: Gates aims for wireless blue yonder RELATED IDG.net STORIES: Analyst sees phone calls moving to the LAN RELATED SITES: Bandwidth Forum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Back to the top |
© 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. |