The practical guide to Wi-Fi

Staff writers | Jun 27, 2007 11:38 AM

Your wireless network is more powerful than you imagine. Use this guide to fully understand and utilise it.

The growth of home networking in the past five years has been phenomenal. In 2001, it was rare to find anyone, bar those who ran a business at home and a few committed enthusiasts, who would have any kind of network installed at home. Now, the vast majority of PC Authority readers are in that category. The reasons don’t just come down to falling PC prices and increasing numbers of multi-PC homes, but to the ubiquity of ADSL and 802.11g wireless kit. By getting rid of the need for unsightly cables and providing protocols and services that were relatively easy to set up, even for the layman, Wi-Fi made the talk of wireless networking a reality. We can browse the Web, check email, do business and play games from every room in the house.

Yet 802.11g is just the beginning. A new generation of wireless networking is finally coming of age. Technologies such as MIMO are dramatically improving both the speeds and the reach of the home network. We can access the Internet from more places inside and outside the house, and swap huge files between computers in seconds, not minutes. But why limit yourself to the same old boring applications? Using a next-generation wireless home network solely for Web browsing and email is a waste when this enhanced technology enables a whole new range of exciting, practical and innovative uses. With MIMO, Draft-N and eventually fully fledged 802.11n, concepts and technologies like wireless VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), the home hub, high-definition streaming media and NAS (network attached storage) really come into their own. You could be doing so much more.

And that’s what this feature is about: helping you to understand the benefits of wireless networking in the home, so you can make the most of whatever you’re using, now. When you’re ready to make that investment in next-generation technology, you’ll be able to reap all the possible rewards. We’ll look at extending the reach of your home network, setting up an NAS as a home media server so you can have music or video in every room, enjoying the low-cost/no-cost flexibility of wireless VoIP, and much more. This needn’t be expensive and it’s much easier than you might expect.

For all its benefits, 802.11g never quite lived up to its billing in one crucial area: reach. Many of us had dreams of Web surfing from the back garden or converting the attic into a home office, only to be hit by the cruel reality of slow speeds and painfully intermittent connections. In truth, 802.11g works brilliantly in the same room, effectively in adjacent rooms and unpredictably just about everywhere else. Whether you’re listening to streamed music, connecting to the office or making a last-minute bid on eBay, that’s hardly a good thing. Of course, altering the position of the router or your antenna may help, as will scanning the area for objects that might interfere with the signal – even a rack of CDs can cause problems. However, to maximise reach, some small investment may be required.

The simplest solution is a replacement antenna. Most routers ship with a low-gain two or 3dBi antenna, and by replacing that with a 5dBi omnidirectional antenna you can get up to an 80 percent boost in coverage and performance at distance. First, check to see whether the existing antenna (or antennae) can be removed. Most screw into an RP-SMA or RP-TNC connector, but if your router has an internal antenna you’re out of luck. The safest replacement is the manufacturer’s own booster (expect to pay $66 to $119), but if you can pinpoint the connector used by your router – a Google search should help – third-party antennae are available from around $30-$50.

Antennae come in indoor and outdoor flavours, with omnidirectional and directional variants. Directional antennae provide the strongest boost (eight to 14dBi), but only within a narrrow arc (usually 45° to 75°). As a result, they’re better suited to setting up an access point for a specific area (say, the office or a garden) than they are for replacing your router’s antenna. For 99 percent of home purposes, an indoor omnidirectional antenna is ideal. In our tests, a 5dBi booster attached to an 802.11g router was enough to get a just-usable 1Mb/s connection working in an outbuilding where previously there had been none, and to get a working 35Mb/s connection in a distant room where the existing speed was a miserly 11Mb/s. The only possible drawback is that, as omnidirectional antennae provide coverage in a (horizontal) doughnut-shaped pattern radiating out from the axis of the antenna, a booster won’t help much if you’re trying to extend coverage vertically from, for instance, a ground-floor room to an attic office. (Of course, if you can always change the orientation of the antenna you can set it to be horizontal, re-orienting the doughnut pattern to a narrower vertical space).

A replacement omnidirectional antenna for your router is one of the most cost-effective ways of boosting the range of your wireless network. Replacement antennae are also available for many PCI adaptors.

Time for an upgrade
Your next step may be a MIMO or Draft-N upgrade. MIMO splits one data stream into multiple lower-rate streams, transmitted by two or more antennae. Due to spatial and environmental factors, these signals will arrive at different times, creating virtual radio channels in which more than one stream of data can be fed through the same frequency and then recombined by the MIMO chipset at either end of the connection. However, this doesn’t just mean an increase data throughput to 108Mb/s and beyond; it also means that MIMO turns one of the weaknesses of Wi-Fi – its susceptibility to interference and reflections – into a strength, improving connection speeds at long range. While this couldn’t help in our building, the replacement of the existing 802.11g router with a Netgear RangeMax NEXT Draft-N setup was enough to boost speeds in the distant room to 36Mb/s. Don’t ignore proprietary high-speed standards either. A similar swap for a Buffalo AirStation G54 High Power router and client bought us an improvement to 25Mb/s.

If you’re unwilling to invest in a proprietary or as-yet-unfinished standard, and you need a stable connection in a specific area, consider using a wireless access point (in Bridge mode) or a specialist repeater to boost the signal. Basically, the access point or repeater relays data packets to and from the router and client using a technology called WDS (Wireless Distribution System). Everything needs to be configured to run on the same wireless channel, and you need to be careful about possible IP address conflicts, but this is an effective way of getting your network where it’s needed.

There are, however, caveats. Firstly, the process of relaying packets back and forth degrades the speed of the connection by about half. Remember, real connection speeds never match the nominal figures, so if you only reach a real data rate of 16Mb/s on nearby clients you’re only going to hit 8Mb/s using the repeater. Secondly, WDS can’t cope with dynamically assigned key security systems, so high-security WPA protection goes out the window in favour of bog-standard WEP. Third, MIMO and proprietary high-speed standards won’t work, so your whole network will be limited to 802.11g speeds. Finally, while WDS is meant to be a standard, even the hardware manufacturers admit that their WDS kit won’t necessarily work with anyone else’s – and our experience bears this out.

If you want a repeater or WDS access point to complement your router, buy one from the same manufacturer. Luckily, our final option is almost foolproof. Every home has an existing wired network that can be used to extend a signal – your mains electricity wiring – so why not use a Homeplug-compatible powerline wireless range extender? The kit consists of two units: one plugs into the router via Ethernet, then into the nearest mains socket; the other simply plugs into the wall where you need the connection, providing a wireless access point for any 802.11g clients in the room. Speeds will depend on the environment and on the quality of the mains wiring, but a Netgear Range Extender kit ($169) worked perfectly in our tests with minimal configuration, providing a working 11Mb/s in our outbuilding and 54Mb/s in our distant room.

It’s the law
Note that there are legal limits on the output power of an 802.11 device and that by combining a high-gain antenna with a high-powered router you could be breaking the law. For example, Buffalo informed us that attaching a 5dBi antenna to its AirStation G54 HP unit would cause output to exceed the legal specification. If in doubt, check with the antenna supplier before purchase.

Directional antennae boost the signal in a fairly narrow arc, so they’re more useful if you need to extend the signal to a specific point, such as an office.

Another wireless home networking dream is delivering photos, audio tracks or DVD-quality movies to any location on the network. It’s a big part of Microsoft’s vision for Windows XP Media Center Edition, the Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions, and its Windows Media Connect technology. It’s also going to be a major part of the battle between Intel, AMD and Sony for domination of the home with the Viiv, AMD Live and PlayStation3 product lines. However, there’s already a cheap, accessible way of achieving many of these goals: partnering your PC and wireless home network with a wireless network attached storage (NAS) device.

The advantages are numerous. Firstly, using an NAS instead of your PC to serve media makes sense – it’s small, quiet and doesn’t consume anywhere near as much power. Copying and serving files to and from multiple systems it its main purpose. What’s more, you can still use the NAS to back up files and operate as a print and FTP server. The disadvantages?

Well, an NAS isn’t as flexible as a PC, so there will be limitations in terms of music and video file format support and, in many case, streaming of rights-managed material. In addition, an NAS can’t stream video to all of the devices supported by a PC running Windows XP MCE, and that includes the Xbox 360 games console. But, if you just have a huge MP3 library and use a more open-standards-friendly playback device, neither issue is a deal-breaker.

For the sake of flexibility, you’ll need an NAS that supports the UpnP A/V standard, as this ensures wireless media players can connect to the NAS, navigate its folders and stream supported media formats. The PC Authority award-winning Synology DiskStation works perfectly, as will recent models from Buffalo, Maxtor, Iomega, Freecom and others. For playback, your options range from audio-only devices such as Netgear’s MP101 or the Pinnacle SoundBridge Radio to all-singing, all-dancing audio/video/photo devices such as Pinnacle’s ShowCenter range, Buffalo’s LinkTheatre devices or D-Link’s DSM-320 wireless media player.

Setup is surprisingly easy. Site the NAS by your router and connect the two via the Ethernet port. The NAS will have its own setup interface; you’ll need to configure it with the IP of the router and the name of your home network. Any wireless client devices will also need to be configured with the SSID of the network, the relevant TCP/IP information and any security keys or passwords required. Note that, once again, use of WPA security protocols may be a problem; many wireless media devices only support WEP. Finally, you’ll have to set up access permissions for the media and backup folders
on your NAS. Open access to your media folders will save you setup hassles later on, although it’s probably wise to restrict access to backup folders containing important or sensitive documents.

Once the NAS is up and running, it’s time to fill it with files. You can simply copy over the contents of your My Pictures, My Music and My Videos folders to the corresponding folders on your NAS – and it’s wise to use these, as not doing so may cause problems for your UpnP media devices. However, we suggest using a free file-synchronisation utility, such as Microsoft’s SyncToy, to make the initial copies and maintain identical libraries between your PC and your NAS. This makes it easy to add new photos or music downloads in the future, or copy any video files you rip from purchased DVDs.

The quality of media streaming will vary from client device to client device, and also heavily depends on the file formats you enjoy. All wireless media devices will support MP3, but not every device supports WMA or AAC and, while most will support MPEG2, DivX and MPEG4 AVI files, some won’t support WMV or MPEG4 QuickTime files.

Meanwhile, it’s practically impossible to find a non-Apple device that will play any music purchased from the iTunes store, although this is more the fault of Apple and its licensing than of the device manufacturers.

In addition, the bandwidth of your Wi-Fi connection will be an issue. Music, with it’s fairly low bandwidth requirements, probably won’t be a problem, but video will be heavily affected by the speed of the connection between your wireless router/access point and the client device. As actual connection speeds differ so radically from nominal connection speeds, MPEG2 video streaming is often only an option within short range of the router, and over a slow connection you may be hit with screen corruption, dropped frames or stalls. This makes a more heavily compressed format like DivX, WMV or MPEG4
a more realistic way to store and stream network video. High-definition video is even more demanding, with HD MPEG4 AVC/H.264 or WMV9 streams needing around 8Mb/s of constant, rock-steady bandwidth. While devices already exist that stream HD MPEG4 or WMV9 files over an 802.11g connection, this is another good selling point for high-speed wireless home networks. However, there’s one sticking point: until 802.11n is ratified, there’s no guarantee that the Draf-N router you buy now will work with the 802.11n media player you buy two years down the line.

Using your NAS as an FTP server
Many people ignore the FTP facilities of their NAS, which is a shame since it’s a useful resource. It’s ideal should you want to back up files somewhere securely when away from home, or keep a store of vital documents in a place where you can access them from anywhere in the world. However, you’ll need to prepare before setting this up. Firstly, your broadband ISP will need to issue you with a static IP address. The standard issue dynamic IP address is configured every time your router or ADSL modem connects to the ISP, which is a bit like the postal service giving you a new address every day – there’s no guarantee that any communications will ever find you. A static IP address ensures you have one stable IP address for your Internet gateway and this can be always located from outside. Be aware, however, that your ISP may make you pay for the option. To make things easy on yourself, you may also want to use a Dynamic DNS service, such as DynDNS, to connect this address to a more easily remembered Web address.

Secondly, you’ll need to reconfigure your access point’s firewall so that FTP requests will be passed through the router and forwarded to your NAS. Manually set a fixed IP address for the NAS on your network, then set up port forwarding on your router so requests for the FTP port on the router will be forwarded to the FTP port on the NAS. As this will vary from router to router and NAS to NAS, you may need to consult the relevant documentation for details.

And 802.11g network is fast enough to stream DivX or 480p resolution H.264 MPEG4 files from an NAS, but a high definition stream really needs the higher speeds of MIMO or Draft-N.

Wireless VoIP means you can use the same handset and service in the home as you do when you’re away from home , and if you use SkypeIn or SIP you can use the same number. Not only can you be contacted easily wherever you are, you can make calls back home at local rates from the other side of the world.

There are several approaches. Obviously, you could simply make calls with a Wi-Fi notebook and a headset. This stretches the definition of wireless telephony, but at least means you can chat from the sofa. Alternatively, you could install a VoIP client on your Wi-Fi enabled PDA. It’s light and portable, and there are a number of clients for Windows Mobile handhelds, including SJPhone, Xphone and Skype for pocket PC. The only real requirement is a decent CPU, so we recommend a 400MHz processor to maintain call quality and cut down on lag. The one disadvantage of VoIP on a PDA is battery life – the use of a processor-intensive application and the constant draw of the Wi-Fi connection is a recipe for speedy power drain. And, sadly, there’s only one VoIP client for Palm at the time of writing, mobiVoIP, which ties you in to a proprietary service.

Your final option is a Wi-Fi specific VoIP phone. These shouldn’t be confused with cordless VoIP systems that essentially consist of a standard DECT handset connected to a VoIP Ethernet adaptor. Instead, these phones look like outdated mobiles, but enable VoIP calls over an 802.11g connection. Netcomm and Netgear
both now sell phones with support for Skype built in from $90-$350, while
Voipshop.com.au sells the UT Starcom F1000 Wi-Fi phone, from $249. Again, global usage makes these devices attractive to travellers, but on the downside these phones aren’t always compatible with WPA security. And typing in a WEP key using a phone keypad is no joke.

The holy grail of Wi-Fi VoIP is UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access), whereby
the phone involved is a dual-mode Wi-Fi/GSM model, which looks like a standard mobile phone but connects and roams seamlessly between Wi-Fi and GSM networks. At home or in the office, you connect through Wi-Fi; outside, you connect through hotspots when available, shifting to GSM when out of range. UMA phones from Nokia, Motorola and Samsung are already being trialled or rolled out in the US, France, Norway and Finland, and we won’t have long to wait in Australia.

Motorola’s A910 phone is at the heart of BT’s next-generation Fusion service, connecting via Wi-Fi in the home or while in range of an Openzone hotspot, then switching to GSM when Wi-Fi isn’t available.

Connection quality
Those same factors that affect any Wi-Fi connection – distance, reflections, interference – will also affect your wireless VoIP, but don’t worry unduly. As long as you have good-to-excellent Wi-Fi reception, you’ll have enough bandwidth to make or take a call. In our tests, it was only in areas of poor Wi-Fi coverage that calls broke up, and until that point there wasn’t any noticeable lag or loss of quality. Just bear in mind that your Wi-Fi phone won’t match a standard DECT phone for coverage.

The other issue that will affect your call is traffic. As with any VoIP call, quality is affected by traffic running between your router and the Internet, which is why some VoIP-friendly routers include a Quality of Service feature to ensure, no matter what else is happening on your Internet connection, some bandwidth is reserved for voice calls. Equally, traffic on the home network can cause problems, particularly if someone starts copying large files or backing up across the network midway through a call. For this reason, another standard, 802.11e, and a component technology, Wireless Multimedia (WMM), ensure media traffic gets priority over other network traffic. WMM only works effectively if supported by the router/access point, the client device, and, preferably, any software, and at the moment only a few routers, adaptors and Wi-Fi handsets do so. All of these elements need to be aligned, like the heavenly planets. For this reason it's easier for carriers to deliver quality-of-service.

Belkin, Netgear and SMC are all producing phones that connect directly to your Wi-Fi router for Skype calls. Users of other services can find slightly less attractive options from Zyxel and UT Starcom.

From security cameras to talking rabbits, find out how to make Wi-Fi work for you.

Set up a wireless IP camera
Ever since webcams were launched they’ve been used as home security devices, but wireless IP cameras make even more sense. You can leave them running all day without leaving your PC on, and access them from anywhere in or outside the home network. And as they only need a power cable, not a USB or Ethernet cable, you can be much more flexible about where they’re placed. Pointing one squarely at the front door makes a lot more sense than sitting one on the desktop. You’ll need to configure the device for your wireless network and firewall, but once that’s done you can check the images from Internet Explorer or set up motion detection to alert you with an email should your camera pick up any suspicious movement. An IP camera can have other purposes too, doubling as a baby monitor when you’re at home but want to check on a sleeping infant. A variety of products are available, costing $230 upwards.

Create your own wireless hotspot
Why be stingy with your 24Mb/s ADSL2+ connection when you could share it with the local neighbourhood? Add a high-gain omnidirectional booster to your setup and you can create your own neighbourhood wireless hotspot. You might want to check with two interested parties first, however. Start by checking whether your equipment will interfere with any neighbour’s wireless networks – congestion is rapidly becoming an issue in urban areas – and then check whether your ISP minds you sharing your connection in this way; many strictly forbid it in their terms and conditions. Clearly, security is an issue, so rather than leaving your own network insecure, invest in a second router and create a second network. Use open security on the network that connects to your ISP, then create a second encrypted network for your own PCs that connects to the first (and your ADSL connection) via Ethernet. This will take some configuration, so check your documentation for details.

Share your printer
You can simply share a printer attached to your machine via your Windows home network, but this means your PC needs to be on if someone wants to print from another system, and also means every print job is using your valuable system resources. On a wireless network, it’s easier and more effective to enable access either by plugging your printer into the USB connection of an NAS device, or by purchasing a Wi-Fi print server. The Belkin 802.11g wireless print server is an unobtrusive little box that will connect two printers to your home network via a 54Mb/s link for less than $120, which is a lot cheaper than buying separate printers for you, your partner and kids. It’s also considerably less expensive than buying a USB inkjet or laser printer with built-in network functionality.

Why not use routers to create your own wireless hotspot?

Control your home
Even though it’s increasingly becoming ubiquitous in the home, it’s unlikely we’ll see Wi-Fi used within mainstream home automation products. It’s seen as too expensive and too power-hungry, while using a 108Mb/s connection to turn a light or cooker on and off is a bit like the proverbial sledgehammer/walnut combination. However, it’s very likely Wi-Fi will interface with a new wave of competing home automation technologies, including Z-Wave (backed by Intel) and ZigBee (backed by the IEEE group), which aim to offer wireless control of lighting, heating and other appliances. In the near future, connecting to your home network and setting the oven to start cooking may finally cross over from the realm of the geek enthusiast into mainstream reality.

Fun and games
Wi-Fi is practically built for games. The Xbox 360 has an optional 802.11g adaptor, 802.11g bridges are available for other home games consoles, and the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS handhelds both include 802.11b wireless connectivity, meaning you can connect to other players on the Internet through a standard wireless access point or router. With a fast enough ADSL connection, it’s also possible for two PCs to join in online multiplayer games – ideal if you want to team up with a friend or partner to explore the fantasy kingdoms of World of Warcraft. Finally, don’t forget you can also run your own game servers. You’ll need a static IP address from your ISP to make this happen, but it’s a great way to get some after-hours gaming in with friends, without the usual pains of playing on a public server.

Not only can IP cameras be used for security purposes, they can also be used as a baby monitor

Use an Internet radio
With thousands of international channels on offer, Internet radio is an application that’s best appreciated when untethered from the PC. Using a wireless home network, you can listen in the lounge, dining room or kitchen, where it belongs. The Sonos Digital Music System is probably the best known here in Oz, connecting to a set of speakers or hi-fi and streaming Internet radio direct from its own wireless connection, but it’s been followed by a new wave of Wi-Fi-enabled devices that replace your old analogue radio receiver, such as Pinnacle’s own SoundBridge Radio, Acoustic Energy’s Wi-Fi Internet Radio and Lusonic’s IMP Internet Radio. These models will hopefully become available in Oz. They aren’t cheap, but they can also stream audio tracks from your PC (provided you have Windows Media Center or Windows Media Connect installed), or from a UPnP NAS if you have one in the home. The Pinnacle SoundBridge Radio worked superbly in our tests, both as an Internet radio and for streaming audio from our friendly Synology DiskStation.

Share photos in your lounge over a Wi-Fi network.

Show and share photos and video
You don’t really want to drag friends and relations to your PC to show them your holiday snaps or home movies, but printing them out or saving them to DVD can be too much effort. Here, wireless media players and other devices that can play streamed photos or videos are your friend; most will show images in JPEG, PNG and TIFF format or WMV, MPEG or DivX video. And even the Microsoft Xbox 360, while it will only movies, will happily stream photos from an NAS or the My Pictures folder of a PC with Windows Media Connect installed. An NAS makes a great central store that the whole household can use (particularly if everyone uses SyncToy in Echo mode), and some even include a Photo Server feature, enabling users inside or outside the home network to view stored galleries with ease.

Get a static IP address from your ISP and set up your own game servers.

Use remote desktop connection
Provided your systems are running Windows XP Professional, you can access and use any computer on the network by using the Remote Desktop facility of Windows. It’s a handy feature if, for example, you’re working in the lounge from your laptop, but realise you need to access a document stored on your work computer or use an app your notebook hasn’t got installed. This does, however, take a certain degree of preparation. First, you need to go to the Remote tab of System Properties and enable Remote Desktop. Second, you’ll need to go to Windows Firewall (or whatever firewall you use) and allow an Exception for Remote Desktop. Finally, you’ll need to know the name of your computer (you can find this in System Properties). The Client is pre-installed in XP Professional and XP Home (see Accessories | Communications | Remote Desktop Accessories), so if your laptop is running XP Home you can still access your XP Professional desktop PC.

Surfing without the hassle
How often have you wanted to check flight details or a sports score, but couldn’t be bothered to spend five minutes booting up the PC to do so? With a Wi-Fi compatible PDA or Sony’s PSP, you can fire up a Web browser in seconds, hook up to your home network and find the information you crave. Better still, it means you don’t have to disturb Grey’s Anatomy to look at the program guide on screen, a crime punishable by lethal injection in some households.

Devices such as Pinnacles's SoundBridge allow you to stream music from radio stations all around your house.

Bag a wireless rabbit
For the more discerning wireless network owner, how about a Wi-Fi enabled bunny? Called Nabaztag (the Armenian word for rabbit) the novelty device fetches information from the Internet, reading out the latest news headlines or email messages from your inbox (it would be one hell of a way to find out that your wife’s left you).

The device even changes colour according to today’s weather forecast – glowing a warm shade of yellow if it’s going to be sunny, for example. You may have to import from overseas, but you know you want one, don’t you?

This article appeared in the December, 2006 issue of PC Authority.