Have Broadband Will Travel

On Friday I was working remotely in the Philadelphia area. This is one of the freedoms of my job that I enjoy...working from anywhere in the world. However, working from another office or even someone else's home is not quite the same as working from my office.

While many people these days have broadband Internet access through cable modems and DSL, not everyone has a wireless access point. So I tend to be confined to a single room when I need Internet access. Friday was one of those days.

I worked in one room which has more comfortable seating but was disconnected from the Internet. When I needed an Internet connection, I would move to the room with the cable modem and hub. By the end of the day I was becoming frustrated moving between rooms. But I solved the problem by the end of the day.

I headed to BestBuy and bought an AirPort Express. Designed to allow users to play music wirelessly from iTunes to their stereos, it also acts as a wireless USB print server and a wireless access point. But what really makes this a great device is the size. The device is very small and has no bulky power supply or cables. All you need to setup the wireless access point is a patch cable, which I already carry for me on road trip.

Whether I am in a hotel that only offers wired Internet access or a friend's house with a broadband connection, I can now be guaranteed wireless access.

posted by Kirby | 05-Jun-2005 10:29 AM | comments (3)

I've heard those Airport(r) devices are cool.

Also, I've wired nearly all of my house with Cat-5 so I don't have that "one room only" issue :)
I highly recommend hard-wiring a house to anyone that plans to live there a while. Wireless is cool, but it has security risks and issues with throughput. Perhaps when there's Gigabit wireless, I'll change my mind.

posted by Mike | June 5 11:51 AM

I don't think the price point justifies the cost of hardwiring a house with Cat5 as long as I can "borrow" my neighbors wireless signal :)

posted by Dave | June 6 10:41 AM

Even if my house were completely wired with Cat-5 I would still have a wireless access point. The convenience of wireless is too important to me. And while I have some security concerns there doesn't seem to be a threat against my network by way of the wireless access points.

posted by Kirby Turner | June 6 11:43 AM

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