802.11ac: next-gen Wi-Fi

If you thought Wi-Fi couldn't get much faster than 802.11n, think again.

802.11ac, dubbed 5G Wi-Fi, promises ridiculously fast wireless connections, better range, improved reliability, improved power consumption and a free horse. (OK, we're lying about the horse.)

802.11ac is the latest evolution of Wi-Fi, and it should be particularly good for gaming and HD video streaming.

So how does it work, does it live up to the hype, and how long will you have to wait before you can get your hands on it? Let's find out.

Your 802.11ac speed could break the gigabit barrier

The fastest current 802.11n Wi-Fi connections max out at around 150Mbps with one antenna, 300Mbps with two and 450Mbps with three antennas. 802.11ac connections will be roughly three times faster - so that's 450Mbps, 900Mbps and 1.3Gbps respectively. Netgear, brilliantly, illustrates this with two pictures of motorways: the first picture, showing "Today's Wi-Fi", is normal, but the one labelled "3x speed with 802.11ac" is really blurry.

Your 802.11ac speed won't break the gigabit barrier

As with previous Wi-Fi standards, the speeds quoted on the box and in the promotional materials are theoretical maximums, not the speeds you'll actually get: so far devices with potential top speeds of 1.3Gbps have topped out at around 800Mbps. That's still blisteringly fast, of course, but there's still a gap between advertised speeds and real world ones. 802.11ac connection speeds will be reduced by numerous factors: network overhead, which is the chatter your hardware needs to keep the connection going; interference, congestion and physical obstacles; distance; the number of simultaneous connections; and whether the router is running in compatibility mode so that older wireless kit can still connect.

802.11ac video and gaming

Because 802.11ac has bandwidth to spare, it should be great for HD video streaming and for gaming. According to Netgear [PDF], you can say bye-bye to buffering: "802.11ac will significantly enhance the user experience by improving the playback quality to any point throughout the house. With 802.11ac, for the first time wireless will provide similar performance as wired Gigabit connections."

802.11ac routers use more antennas

To improve range and reliability, 802.11ac routers can use more antennas than existing 802.11n kit: your next router may have as many as eight antennas inside it.

802.11ac routers will use "beamforming" technology

Wi-Fi is omnidirectional, but 802.11ac routers will be able to use directional transmission and reception technology dubbed "beamforming". The router will be able to identify the rough location of the device it's talking to and strengthen the appropriate antenna(s) accordingly. The idea is to reduce interference.

802.11ac Wi-Fi uses the 5GHz frequency band

Older wireless kit uses the 2.4GHz frequency band, which is fairly crowded: your kit is potentially sharing radio frequency with next door's baby monitor, your cordless phone and even your microwave. Like high performance 802.11n kit, 802.11ac routers will use the less cluttered 5GHz band where there's considerably more room for data transmission. 802.11ac hardware will use two kinds of channels in that range: 80GHz ones and 160GHz ones.

802.11ac routers will be backwards compatible

You won't need to throw out all your old wireless-capable kit as 802.11ac routers will be backwards compatible with your existing Wi-Fi kit. For example, at this year's CES Buffalo demonstrated an 802.11ac router that operated on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands and that promised to play nice with 802.11a, b, g and n hardware.

The 802.11ac release date is now, sort of

As with 802.11n, hardware is coming out before the 802.11ac standard is actually finalised. That's going to happen later this year, but manufacturers are readying their products now and they'll be everywhere by the summer, with minor software updates addressing any changes that might happen to the standard before it's finalised. We'd expect 802.11ac prices to be steep initially, as they were with the first 802.11n kit, but those prices should start to fall almost immediately.

Apple's putting 802.11ac into everything

Apple's a key early adopter of wireless technology - it helped popularise Wi-Fi in the first place and was quick off the mark with 802.11n support. According to AppleInsider it's going to be quick off the mark with 802.11ac too, sticking the technology into "new AirPort base stations, Time Capsule, Apple TV, notebooks and potentially its mobile devices."

802.11ac hasn't skipped lots of letters

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the body in charge of the 802.11 standard, isn't skipping lots of letters: while major WiFi standards have jumped from 802.11n to 802.11ac, the IEEE didn't just skip 802.11o, p, q and so on. Successive versions of the 802.11 standard can also denote amendments to existing standards, so for example 802.11i introduced improved security and 802.11j introduced extensions for Japanese networks.

Sky has announced that it will be extending its broadband offering, hoping to reach 88 per cent of UK homes by June 2013, as well as rolling out WiFi hotspots for its internet subscribers and a fibre broadband offering.

Although many take advantage of Sky's bundled broadband its coverage remains limited, leaving big swathes of the UK unable to plump for the offering.

However, in its financial results Sky has announced that it will be extending its network footprint by around a million extra homes.

Unlimited fibre

Also significant is the company's decision to offer Sky Broadband Unlimited Fibre - charging £20 for a service that will offer up to 40Mbps download speeds with "no usage caps".

Last, but not least, Sky is rolling out WiFi hotspots for its subscribers - allowing customers of its broadband unlimited access to hotspots from The Cloud, the company it bought last year.

"I'm delighted that our existing home communication products are making such an impact with customers. It's clear that customers are responding to the higher levels of value, quality and service we offer, said Stephen van Rooyen, Managing Director of Sky's Sales and Marketing Group.

"This year sees a number of enhancements that will ensure we create even more choice.

"Whether it's the launch of free public WiFi, extending our network into more parts of the UK, or adding fibre to our product mix, we are focused on meeting the demands of customers and on being their number one choice for home communications."

There's no official news on the UK launch date of Sky Broadband Unlimited Fibre - although we're expecting it soon - and the WiFi offering will arrive "shortly", according to Sky.

Today Netgear announced "Smart Network," enabling users to download tools and utilities via a cloud-based app store.

"For the first time, consumers can use our dashboard to create a customized network experience that caters to their needs and desires," said Cedar Milazzo, Senior Director of Engineering.

"Today's smart devices are only as smart as the networks they are connected to."

Smarter is better

"Netgear Smart Network will allow consumers to use innovative new applications to harness the power of all of their network devices and use those devices in new ways that meet customers' needs and that enable accessibility from anywhere." He said.

Netgear showed off an AirPrint-app, and a home security system that could access Netgear cameras with the click of a button.

Download from the cloud

They also showed the simple download process - in which they quickly downloaded a data usage gauge from the cloud-based store, called AppManager.

Smart Network will work with Smart Network-enabled products, including the recently announced N900 Video and Gaming WiFi Adapter and the WN2500RP Dual Band WiFi Range Extender.

We're fond of any attempts to spruce up the unimaginative network landscape, but it's yet to be seen if developers will really jump at the chance to develop apps for such a niche market.

The next generation of Wi-Fi kit has emerged at CES 2012, with TRENDnet and Buffalo among those showing off the latest 802.11ac networking devices.

Just when you thought it was safe to stick with your current 'n' kit, ac has come along to show you that your WiFi is pathetically slow.

That's because, as you've probably guessed, 802.11ac is the next generation of wireless standard, and although it won't be ratified until the end of the year the first bits of kit are already here.

Dual-band

TRENDnet's offerings are TEW-811DR 1300 Mbps Dual Band Wireless AC Router and TEW-800MB 1300 Mbps Dual Band Wireless AC Media Bridge.

The top end devices will, of course, offer up compatibility for your sluggish 450Mbps enabled devices and then add on the ultra high performance 1300 Mbps wireless band for your next-gen kit.

It's not quite time to sound the death knell for cables, but we're definitely moving closer.

Bristol's community-built wireless network

In the unlikely surroundings of Bristol's Windmill Hill City Farm - a community project half a mile south of the city centre - we found ourselves drinking coffee in a unique computer lab.

More than a lab, it felt a bit like a second-hand computer shop, with walls lined with shelving stacked with refurbished beige boxes waiting to be sold.

The workbenches, which formed the core of the lab, were lined with old thin clients donated from the NHS, while a repurposed P4 desktop to power them all sat in the corner.

Far from being symbols of an outdated project, though, this was just how those who built the lab envisioned it.

RECLAIM AND REPAIR: A healthy stock of second-hand computers waiting to go to those who need them most

We were guests at Bristol Wireless, the "social enterprise working to bring connectivity, computers and IT skills to all sectors of society". It's a project that's enjoyed great success over the past 10 years, and it's all been built on the back of Linux and free and open source software.

And it's not just a successful project, it's cool too: much of the equipment is homemade, it encourages learning and hacking, and it embodies the spirit of Freedom 2 of the Free Software definition - the freedom to share so you can help your neighbour.

When we first discovered it, through a comment on TuxRadar, we immediately wanted to find out more. The project was founded in 2002 as an off-shoot of the Easton Community Centre (ECC). For those unfamiliar with Bristol's geography, Easton is a vibrant and diverse inner-city area with community centres, cafes and pubs; it's also listed by the Government's Indices of Deprivation as one of the most deprived areas in the country.

One result of the deprivation is that the area was late to join the digital revolution. In a bid to help rectify this, in 2002 the ECC received a grant of £170,000 to build an IT centre to provide local residents with internet access. As part of this, a 2.2Mbps ADSL line was installed at the centre.

"It was a lot of money," explained Rich Higgs, one of Bristol Wireless's longest serving volunteers, "but they didn't really know what they were doing with it." It was 2002, and the dot-com bubble had just burst, so there were quite a few under-employed IT people in the area, including Rich and his friends who rallied around to help.

Their main focus was the new internet connection. It was a significant amount of bandwidth - few people had internet access, and nobody had anything faster than 512kbps - and they immediately recognised the impact such a connection could have.

Their first website, captured by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, on 24 November 2002, said: "By now we all know the benefits of computers, so far as education and research go. It would be a crime not to reach out and grasp these benefits, making them available to all."

Shared vision

BUDGET BUILD: Some of the equipment used to build the first wireless network, including a cantenna

So that's exactly what they set out to do - share the connection with as many people as possible. They began talking about the best way to go about it, and settled on the idea of a wireless network as the easiest way to share the connection throughout Easton.

They had no money to begin with, so all of the equipment was home-made - as the website explained: "A policy of lowest-cost solutions was rather rudely forced upon them." Although, as the website also notes: "This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the project has become a study in conservation and the re-use of materials."

Their first piece of equipment was a series of 'cantennas'. These ingenious devices, otherwise known as 'tin can waveguide antennas', can significantly extend the range of a Wi-Fi connection for virtually no cost.

As well as being made of a tin can - the project found that a J&B whisky tin was the best solution - the only other components they require is a tiny and cheap connector and a bit of wire. Of course, as clever as the cantennas were, they were useless without the wireless cards to generate the signal, and the routers and servers to connect them to the ADSL line.

By this point, however, the project had begun to garner some attention from the wider Bristol community - as Rich recalls, it "had grown into something". The first wireless routers were made out of old PCs donated by the University of Bristol. The team stuck some wireless cards in these, installed Linux and put them to work as the routers on their new network.

Other donations, in the form of time and equipment, came from Psand, a local hosting and web development company. With all the pieces in place, the team turned on the network and, considering that all the equipment was home-made - some of it salvaged from bins in the city centre, it was an incredible success.

It stretched from the ECC, up the entire length of Chelsea Road, and could even be used in Whitehall - more than half a mile from the ECC. Given that most Wi-Fi networks have a range of just 300ft outside, that represents a nine-fold increase.

WI-FI TOILET: This toilet has the best Wi-Fi reception in the country

Andy Sabel, another volunteer, was working at the ECC at the time. He remembers a great deal of energy and enthusiasm surrounding the team: "These guys were around, ranting about Linux and doing interesting stuff." It was more than enough to excite local residents and non-technical ECC members.

After the network was turned on and working, the project started to take things further. They began setting up other key community buildings with the equipment to connect to the network, and with the computers they'd need to use it. In 2004, the project's website announced that: "After some initial problems… the installation at Greenhaven elderly residents' support accommodation is now up and running."

They managed to provide Greenhaven with two computers running Red Hat Linux, which were placed in a communal area and connected to the nascent network. This was just one of nine such installations that the project would carry out in short succession.

As these installations came online, and demand for access to the network spread to other parts of the city, the original infrastructure needed to be developed further. In particular, there was demand for the network to reach across Stapleton Road. This meant that the project needed to get an antenna on top of Twinnel House, a council-owned tower that would give them a direct line of sight to much more of Bristol.

Expanding the Bristol Wireless network

Usually at this point, plans are scuppered by British bureaucracy, health and safety laws or Nimby (Not In My Back Yard) attitudes. But you'll be pleased to learn that the council supported the project, gave access to the tower's roof, and the network continued to spread: from this point, the furthest it could reach was Long Ashton, a distance of almost five miles.

DAYS GONE PAST: An early router, including CRT monitor!

This all took place in Bristol Wireless's first few years and now the project is rapidly approaching its 10th birthday, so what's happened in between?

A significant development came out of the project's natural growth. As it served more and more people with internet, it outgrew ECC's 2.2Mbps connection, and now uses its wireless network to provide access to the Broadband Media Exchange's (BMEX) highspeed network. Bristol Wireless now provides many community projects with a symmetric connection burstable up to 10Mbps.

This might not sound fast compared to advertised domestic connection speeds today, but the BMEX network achieves these speeds far more consistently and provides uploads at the same speed as downloads. This has also led to a change in the way the project is run.

The BMEX connection has to be paid for, as does the continuous maintenance and upgrading of the antennas and routers across the city, so Bristol Wireless's services are now paid for. It's still staffed by volunteers and it doesn't turn a profit but it provides third-sector organisations with the cheapest IT solutions possible.

IT solutions is the correct phrase, too, since the team has, over the years, expanded its services in response to shifting demands. Starting from the deployment of those two Red Hat boxes, the team has gradually developed its knowledge of LTSP, the Linux Terminal Server Project. This means lots of people can use the same computer at the same time.

All the applications run on a server, which is then accessed through a thin client - a very low-powered computer that links the server with individual input and output devices. As Andy points out: "Originally it was a great way of disseminating bandwidth at our public access locations." They might not be powerful, but in locations where all that's needed is some internet, document editing or image viewing, they're the ideal solution: they're cheap, and can use as little as 11W while operating.

One of the team's more original endeavours was the creation of a mobile LTSP suite. It's not much more than half a dozen old laptops, a few extension leads and plenty of network cable all tucked into a box, but it's proved to be a very popular solution for events across the country.

MOBILE WI-FI: An LTSP suite - great for protests in fields

At the Climate Camps, for instance, the team was contracted to provide network access. They took along their mobile LTSP suite, powered it with some small solar panels and wind turbines, and connected it to the internet through a satellite link. This enabled protestors to communicate with the outside world, providing an alternative to the mainstream media.

The team has also started venturing into VoIP, using the Bath-based Gradwell trunk network to connect clients to the outside world. As you'd imagine, its solution continues to be entirely built around free and open source software and uses the FreePBX distribution as the switch.

THE BRISTOL NETWORK: The current extent of Bristol Wireless's network

Today, customers include the Cube Cinema, Fareshare SW, the ECC, St Werburghs City Farm and the Princess Royal Gardens sheltered accommodation, amongst many others. In effect, the team is now operating as a small, community telecoms provider, and since it's now supplying paying customers, quality of service is a matter of increasing concern.

In the interests of maintaining a quality network connection for as many groups as possible, Bristol Wireless does engage in active traffic management. The team uses Nagios to monitor the condition of the network and, if it sees a prolonged spike in network traffic, is happy to temporarily disconnect the source and ask what's going on. Without this, its VoIP service wouldn't be reliable, and there would be constant hassle from copyright holders.

Bristol Wireless's experience as a small ISP sheds some interesting light on the realities for larger internet companies too. The team sees great value in people being able to do whatever they like on the net, but when it comes to the day-to-day reality of ensuring that the network is always available, it's had to compromise on these ideals. It's no wonder then that larger businesses, who may or may not consider net neutrality important, need to implement traffic management policies, too.

As the project faced new challenges and sought to meet new community needs, the volunteers found themselves having to learn new skills. Indeed, many of the current crop started out with no formal training or qualifications, but relied on man pages and knowledgeable friends.

The sad death of a key engineer, Lloyd Cohen, and the departure of a number of other members, left the team feeling a bit vulnerable. With such a depleted pool of knowledge would the volunteers be able to properly maintain and support the network? It was a serious predicament, but one that was resolved thanks to the loyalty and goodwill of former staff.

A number of those who'd gone on to new jobs created a top-down, systematic course on networking to bring the remaining members up to speed. It started out with simple home networking and progressed all the way through to Class-C, B and A networks and how DNS works - all before lunch. After lunch, they then dived into their own network to see how it all worked in practice.

Not only did this, as Rich puts it, "good ethos of shared learning experiences" prove vital to the continued success of the project, it also acted as a springboard for other members to gain experience and go on to find professional employment.

Matt Leonard, who arrived to join us during his lunchbreak, was the project's wireless guru before getting a job as a network engineer. Now that he's back in the area, he's getting involved again. "It was an awesome playground," he said, reflecting on his experiences. "At least in the early days before it was so relied upon - you could really get stuck in to networking and play with it in the real world."

Now, approaching its 10th anniversary, Bristol Wireless finds itself at a bit of a crossroads. There are a number of new customers it's waiting to bring online and there are also some new projects it wants to pursue. In particular, it's interested in building an install-and-go LTSP solution.

Its great worry, though, is that there aren't enough volunteers with either the time or the expertise to make this a reality. In the past, the team looked to Pete Ferne, its charismatic chair and leader, but he passed away last year. Now it hopes to find someone new, with fresh ideas, energy and enthusiasm.

WIDE REACH: Antennas used as the network spread - a touch more sophisticated than the cantenna

Whatever happens, the project has certainly made an impact over the past ten years and hopefully it will continue to provide an invaluable service to many of Bristol's best third-sector organisations for the decade to come as well.

How to speed up your wireless network

Wi-Fi is a great technology, but how you set up and use it can have a huge impact on its efficiency.

If you're constantly waiting for web pages in general to load, then before you complain that your ISP isn't supplying that promised 24Mb/s connection, spare a thought for what happens when that signal hits the airwaves in your house.

How it works

To improve Wi-Fi performance, we first need to understand what it actually is. Wi-Fi is also called wireless local area networking or WLAN in the management console of your base station or broadband router, and it uses a group of frequencies clustered around 2.4GHz to transmit and receive data between computers.

To ensure that data gets through, it uses a protocol called 802.11. If every network within range all used the same exact frequency of 2.4GHz, the various devices would swamp each other's signals - a bit like two radio stations transmitting on the same frequency.

To overcome this, the protocol allows devices to use 13 numbered channels, which all use slightly different frequencies to ensure that there's as little interference as possible.

Confusingly, there are a few versions of 802.11. The oldest is 802.11a, which is now obsolete. This has been superseded by 802.11b, which has a maximum data transmission rate of 11Mb/s. 802.11g, which is the dominant version in the UK, can transmit at a healthier 54Mb/s. The newer 802.11n can use two channels for a maximum of 300Mb/s.

Encryption

Security is very important in Wi-Fi networks, and this has to do with both logging onto the network and how individual packets of data are encrypted. The oldest Wi-Fi security standard is WEP (Wireless Equivalent Protocol). This was part of the original 802.11 protocol and has been cracked, making it insecure.

This insecurity came about because if enough packets can be captured from the airwaves, software can be used to work out what that password is. Several open source packages now exist (AirCrack, for example) that will attempt to solve WEP passwords, thereby allowing people to log onto your network.

An updated security standard called WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) was introduced in 2003, with a newer version called WPA2 coming along in 2004. This is still secure and uses a government-strength encryption algorithm to keep your networks safe. In some Wi-Fi equipment, the security used is referred to as RSNA (Robust Security Network Association). This is really just another name for WPA2.

CSMA

If every computer on your Wi-Fi network transmitted at the same time, they would jam each other's signals. To prevent this, every Wi-Fi network card sold (including the one in the base station) uses a technique called Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) to share the airwaves.

In CSMA, a situation called contention occurs when a Wi-Fi card wants to transmit a data packet, but hears that a packet is already being transmitted. It waits for a very short but randomly selected time before listening again. If the airwaves are clear at the end of that period, the card transmits its packet before listening again and subsequently transmitting the next packet if the airwaves are still clear.

This 'first come first served' scheme means that over time, all network cards get an equal opportunity to transmit all their packets. CSMA is also used in wired networks, and is a very efficient method of data transmission.

This being the case, it's usually external influences that are to blame for adversely affecting Wi-Fi networks. Before attempting to improve the performance of your Wi-Fi network, it's important to know what its performance is like before you start. Otherwise, how will you know for certain which measures work and which don't?

Set a baseline

The easiest way of measuring current performance is to use an online broadband speed testing service. There are plenty available, and they all work in the same way. One service is Broadband Speed Checker.

First, ensure that your entire network is quiet. Turn off all streaming services such as Spotify (including killing the service in the system tray), all social media services, all torrent services, and all email clients that automatically update themselves. Check to make sure that the WLAN light on your base station is not flashing to ensure that everything is turned off.

From a Wi-Fi connected computer, click Start Speed Test and wait until the test completes. Rather than just performing the test once, collect several results over a few days. Try to run the test at different times of the day to see when the local loop from the nearest telephone exchange to the houses it serves is most congested.

Keep the results of these tests on a spreadsheet and you'll be able to see the best time of day to perform large downloads.

It's also a good idea to perform the same tests from a PC wired directly to the base station. This will give you a definitive measure of the difference in performance between wired and Wi-Fi connections.

Whenever you implement a change, re-test the Wi-Fi speed to see if there's any appreciable difference. You may be surprised to find that some simple changes can help you resist an upgrade to a supposedly faster connection.

Interference

The 802.11 protocol family uses some very clever low-level encoding techniques to ensure that regardless of circumstances, the signal stands a chance of still being heard over other noise, but anything we can do to help it will improve network performance. In some cases, such techniques can make a dramatic difference.

Everything would be fine if Wi-Fi network cards were the only things transmitting at 2.4GHz in our homes, but they're not. There are plenty of sources of interference that can cause the network cards to have to wait multiple times before being able to transmit their packets.

Incredibly, one of the biggest sources of Wi-Fi interference is your domestic cordless phone. If you have one in the same room as a Wi-Fi device, you can expect network performance to noticeably degrade every time you make or receive a call.

Bluetooth devices also use the golden frequency of 2.4GHz to transmit and receive data, and therefore also tend to cause interference on Wi-Fi networks. Microwave ovens are a domestic boon that we usually take for granted, but they're also a source of 2.4GHz interference.

Despite remaining perfectly safe to humans when cooking food, a microwave oven situated less than about 10 feet away from a Wi-Fi network card will degrade its performance. Don't forget that this 10-foot range can extend through walls into other rooms.

Added to these interference sources there are also less obvious ones. Your neighbour may be transmitting on the same channel, and have placed his base station right near your adjoining wall. Mains wiring running through walls and floors, faulty household appliances containing electric motors, and physical obstacles like brick walls also play a part in degrading performance.

More ways to improve your Wi-Fi

Location matters

Once you establish a baseline, it's important to think carefully about where you place your base station. The general advice from ISPs is to locate it at a central position in your property, but this overlooks several important factors.

The number of brick walls between the base station and the computer will affect the strength of the signal. Studded walls carrying cables or water pipes will do likewise, and a large aquarium in the way will also absorb some of the signal. Try to site your base station high up to overcome as many obstacles as possible. On top of a bookcase is a good place, and will give the upper floor of your home a little more signal.

Metal surfaces reflect electromagnetic radiation, and mirrors are no exception. A large mirror will shield the room behind it from Wi-Fi signals. Try to find out where your immediate neighbours keep their base station. With a little co-operation to maximise the distance between them, you can both improve performance.

On a desktop or tower PC, the Wi-Fi network card's antenna may be internal. Because the metal parts of the case and internal frame are earthed, they act as a Faraday cage, helping shield the card from the outside world. Try turning the PC so that as little metal as possible stands between the Wi-Fi card and base station.

Other dense materials can also block Wi-Fi signals. Very large wooden wardrobes, full bookcases and so on can all contribute a small amount to the overall degradation of the signal.

At the base station

If your base station and Wi-Fi network cards all use 802.11g, there's no point occupying the airwaves by also transmitting over the older 802.11b. Transmitting both is called 'mixed mode'. To turn off 802.11b, you'll have to go into the web-based management interface on your base station. To do so, you'll need the admin password (which you changed from the factory default when you got it, right?).

The management software used in different manufacturer's base stations differs, but the terminology is usually the same. In the section for interface setup, select the Wireless or WLAN page. One of the general configuration parameters will determine whether you transmit 802.11b, 802.11g or 802.11b+g. For compatibility, the default is almost certainly 802.11b+g, meaning that you're transmitting both versions of the protocol. Change this to 802.11g and then save the configuration.

If another network within range uses the same channel as you, there's a good chance that it'll interfere with your network's ability to transmit and receive packets. See the box 'Monitor The Airwaves' to discover if this is the case.

Rather than hunt for an unused one as the new BT hubs do, most base stations simply default to channel one, which increases the dreaded network contention. To ensure the least interference from other networks, pick a channel as far away from the strongest signals as possible. When you save the configuration, the Wi-Fi network cards in your computers will all automatically begin using the new channel.

Repeat yourself

If you still have problems after doing your best to increase the strength of your Wi-Fi signal and to minimise interference, there's one last method of overcoming problems. A Wi-Fi repeater simply retransmits any traffic it hears on your network, thereby increasing the signal's strength and extending the network's range.

A repeater can act as a relay to parts of the house that simply can't get a decent signal from the base station itself. If you're particularly security conscious, you can use multiple repeaters and run everything at the minimum transmission power so your signals are less visible beyond your property's borders. Each repeater, again set to transmit at low power, can still serve the farthest reaches of the house.

Get a new aerial

The aerials on Wi-Fi base stations are omni-directional antennas. The signal is transmitted with equal strength in a doughnut shape perpendicular to the aerial. This means that if the aerial is vertical, it sends Wi-Fi signals out across the room.

The antenna that came with your base station has a power transmission rating of about 2dBi (sometimes referred to simply as 'two units'). The higher this number, the more efficient the aerial is at transmitting the power passed through it. Every 3dBi effectively doubles the transmitted power, so if you've increased your base station's power output to the maximum in its web management console and want more, you can increase it using an aerial with a higher dBi rating.

The problem with these aerials is that they transmit in all directions. Most of the transmitted energy is lost, but you can reduce this using a directional aerial, which focuses the transmitted signal in one direction. This creates a long hotspot through your property and can be used to extend your Wi-Fi network to out-buildings without losing most of the signal. Prices start at around £20.

Monitor the airways

InSSIDer2 is a free tool by MetaGeek that you can use to analyse Wi-Fi signal strengths and to ensure you pick an unused channel.

Once installed, run the program and it'll show any Wi-Fi networks in range. In the lower pane it also shows signal strength and channel number. Click the 'Time graph' tab and select your network in the upper pane.

If you're monitoring on a laptop, try moving a few centimetres in any direction. The signal strength will change - but why? All electromagnetic waves have a wavelength, which is calculated by dividing the speed of light (about 300 million metres per second) by the frequency (2.4GHz). This gives a wavelength of roughly 12.5cm.

What this means is that across the room, the signal is stronger at some points than others. You can use this technique to map the areas of your home that have the strongest signal.

Sneakily, you can also use dips in the strength of a Wi-Fi signal to tell when someone is between you and a base station. This is because people are mostly water, which absorbs radio waves. As long as the monitoring PC is in the same position, moving around will affect the signal in a predictable way.

Update your firmware

Some ISPs automatically upgrade the firmware on the Wi-Fi base stations they supply as part of their broadband packages, but if you bought your base station separately to use with an existing wired broadband connection, you'll have to upgrade it yourself. This is a simple process that can fix bugs and improve Wi-Fi performance.

First, make sure you have a network cable at the ready in case the process wipes your current configuration and you need to access the web-based management console without Wi-Fi access.

Next, go to your base station manufacturer's website. Make sure you download the firmware for your exact hardware model - this can be found on a sticker on the bottom of the unit. Download the latest firmware and the latest user manual. This will tell you about any new useful features the firmware upgrade gives.

Upgrading may make the base station lose its configuration, so make sure you save the current settings first. The terminology tends to vary here, so consult the user manual.

When you click the 'Upgrade' button in your base station's maintenance page, browse for the firmware file and click 'OK'. The process takes a few minutes, after which the unit will reboot. If necessary, reload the saved configuration and you're done.

Networking company Netgear has announced three new products designed to shunt bits to your internet-enabled entertainment devices at IFA 2011.

The Powerline Nano Dual-port Set works like any other powerline adapter, with the advantage that the units themselves are small enough not to block a second outlet. The adapters come with two ethernet ports, and are capable of speeds of up to 200 mbps.

Powerline adapters are as cumbersome as they are convenient so if Netgear can shrink the form factor it will make them far more attractive.

The Nano Dual-port Set will be released in Europe in November, and is set to be priced at approximately £98.

TV on the radio

If you're resolutely against the idea of powerline networking, or somehow live in a house without powerlines, Netgear's other products may prove more enticing.

The Universal Dual Band Wireless Internet Adapter for TV and Blu-Ray players is designed to do exactly what it says on its rather elongated tin.

The adapter connects to any ethernet-enabled TV or Blu-Ray player and allows wireless streaming at both 2.4GHz and 5GHz, the latter of which Netgear reckons is perfect for HD video.

It's also designed to blend in with home entertainment devices, and can be powered by a TV's onboard USB socket or directly from the mains.

The Universal Dual Band Wireless Internet Adapter for TV and Blu-Ray has a release date of September, and a suggested retail price of approximately £55.

And finally...

Finally, the Universal Push2TV Wireless PC to TV Adapter broadcasts the contents of a Windows PC's screen on HDMI-compatible TVs.

The product consists of a USB flash drive-sized adapter for your PC, and an HDMI adapter for your PC.

Installation is said to be a simple one-time affair, and it's capable of displaying in full HD 1080p on your television.

The Universal Push2TV HD Wireless PC to TV Adapter will be released in September with UK pricing of around £78.

Personal Hotspot is a new feature in iOS 4.3 that enables you to use an iPhone 4 or 3GS to get other devices – such as your MacBook or iPad – online wherever there's phone reception.

Transport for London is set to roll out Wi-Fi hotspots to 120 tube stations around London by 2012.

The first phase of the Wi-Fi roll out will see the connection currently used by staff at 16 stations made available for public use.

Londoners can thank the London 2012 Olympics for the increased connectivity on their morning commutes, which includes plans for mobile networks to be taken underground.

Wombling free

A trial is already running at Charing Cross underground station, where BT Wi-Fi is available for passengers waiting on platforms.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use the Wi-Fi on trains themselves – at least not beyond rolling into and out of stations.

TfL is currently looking for bidders to install the new Wi-Fi services, with the web-connected underground set to debut next summer.

We've teamed up with Linksys to offer you the chance to win one of five Linksys Wireless-N E2000 routers.

The Linksys E2000 offers selectable dual-band wireless-N technology and extended range to provide wireless coverage throughout your home.

This router is ideal for sharing your home's Internet connection with your family's other computers and devices such as games consoles and smartphones. You can easily customise your security settings, set Parental Controls, and access advanced settings.

All Linksys E-Series routers have advanced WPA/WPA2 wireless security and SPI firewall protection, which are designed to safeguard your home network and computers from most Internet attacks and help protect your data and privacy.

The Linksys E2000 incorporates internal antenna technology that provides extended range so it's ideal for larger homes. The four Gigabit Ethernet ports let you connect networked storage and other Gigabit Ethernet-enabled devices to quickly transfer files at up to 1,000Mbps.

Dual-band coverage

You're also able to choose from two radio bands - 2.4GHz or 5GHz radio bands. The standard 2.4GHz band is increasingly crowded and so 5GHz offers great performance for video streaming and smoother file transfers.

This competition is now closed. The winners are Lynda Groves, Dennis Tebbs, Alex Shelley, Elliot Lewis and Ian Yates.

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Please note that this competition is only open to UK residents over 18 years of age.

There is no cash alternative to the prize and unless agreed otherwise in writing the prize is non-refundable and non transferable.

BT has declared that it now has more than two million Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK, a major landmark for the communications giant.

BT's hotspots have been boosted by some cunning strategies by the company - and its keen to keep building as the public clamours to be online throughout their everyday lives.

The hotspots now include Charing Cross tube station – one of nearly 800,000 hotspots added in the past six months.

Growing demand

"Demand for wireless access is growing at a record rate, we've have added more than 780,000 hotspots in the last six months and will continue to meet the demand as more and more smartphone, laptop, tablet, iPod and ebook reader users choose Wi-Fi to stay connected when they are out and about," said Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer, BT Retail.

"What's more our BT Total Broadband customers have free and unlimited access to the largest Wi-Fi network in the UK included in their broadband package."

BT's offering is offered by many major chains, including Hilton, Thistle, Ramada Jarvis and Macdonald hotel chains, Caffe Nero and Starbucks coffee stores, Welcome Break and RoadChef Costa service stations, British Airways, Star Alliance, American Airlines and SkyTeam airport lounges.

We've partnered with Linksys by Cisco to offer you the chance to win one of five WRT320N Linksys by Cisco Dual-Band Wireless-N Gigabit Routers.

As well as the superb speed and range that 802.11n wireless gives you, the WRT320N also offers networks on both the 2.4 and 5GHz wireless bands, meaning you can avoid interference in your area from other networks.

The WRT320N is designed so that network performance is fine-tuned to give priority to High-Definition video without the need for manual configuration. PC users can customise their networks to give priority to certain devices, like gaming consoles, over others.

Equipped with Cisco's media optimised networking technology, the WRT320N is a great choice for families who demand more from their wireless network. Streaming a movie wirelessly into your living room becomes reality with this latest addition to Cisco's consumer wireless networking portfolio.

The four built-in Gigabit ports supply high-speed connections to your wired devices. By connecting up other Gigabit-enabled devices, you can enjoy higher speeds than provided by routers with standard Ethernet ports.

Advanced wireless security and SPI firewall protection is designed to help safeguard your home network and computers from most internet attacks.

This competition is now closed. The winners are Steven Walker, Kim Hoskins, Haroon Anis, Louis Collins and Sue Longworth.

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Please note that this competition is only open to UK residents over 18 years of age.

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How to secure your wireless network

Wireless networks are a wonderful invention. They give us the ability to easily deploy a complex network of computers without the need to physically wire them up.

However, this ease of use can also mean that, without proper precautions, neighbourhood parasites can leech bandwidth and generally use your network against your wishes. Trapping such people is easy with a little thought and some borrowed equipment.

What is wireless?

What's usually known as Wi-Fi belongs to a family of wireless networking technologies called IEE 802.11. These all use the same protocol for transmitting and receiving data over short distances.

Home wireless routers and hubs (commonly called wireless access points) conform to the 802.11g variant of the specification. This uses transmission frequencies centred on 2.4GHz. Each transmission channel gives a raw data throughput of either 54 or 65 Mbps, depending on your equipment.

However, the useful data transmission rate is more like 19 Mbps, with the rest of the available bandwidth being used for error correction, encryption and packet collision detection.

Wireless LANs operate on one of 13 channels. If you're getting low data transfer rates, it's worth switching your wireless access point to a different channel – the chances are that another network in the neighbourhood is using the same one. Using the same channel won't cause data leakage onto other networks, because each is also uniquely identified and should feature strong encryption.

Encrypt to survive

Encryption is vital for wireless networks. There are two main standards in popular use. The first, which is older and decidedly less secure, is Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).

The original idea behind WEP was that it would be as secure as using a wired network. However, it's been widely known for around half a decade that if you can capture enough data packets from a secure connection, WEP encryption can be cracked using freely available hacking tools.

After cracking WEP encryption on a target network, it's possible for a hacker to read the login credentials required to connect to that network. After that, he will discover and exploit whatever vulnerabilities can be found on the network to consolidate his hold over it, possibly by deploying a keylogger to snatch identities, as well as using your computers for the storage of files he doesn't want on his own network.

The core aim is to leech your bandwidth to download undesirable content. For this reason, WEP should no longer be used. In its place, your wireless network should support WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access).

This features far stronger encryption and the tools used to crack it are still either at the proof-of-concept stage or take so long to run that updating your passwords regularly will mean that your wireless network remains a very slippery target indeed.

If your network still uses WEP, stop reading immediately, log into your wireless access point's web interface, go to the admin page and select WPA (or, if available, the stronger variant WPA2) and save the configuration. Now disconnect and reconnect your computers to the network and they'll begin using the stronger encryption.

That done, let's now explore your neighbourhood.

Network discovery

The first thing a hacker will do when scouting for Wi-Fi targets is check the networks in range to find the best one to attack. While you could simply use your PC's Wi-Fi connectivity software to discover local networks, there are better tools available online that will show you far more.

One such tool is the free Inssider from MetaGeek. Installation on a computer with a wireless network card is as simple as running the installation package and clicking 'Next' a couple of times.

You don't need to be a member of a wireless network to run Inssider. Run it and select your wireless network interface from the dropdown list at the top of the Inssider window. Click the 'Start Scanning' button and the interface will begin to fill with networks.

At the top of the screen is a table containing a line for each network that the program discovers. This contains information including the wireless access point device each network uses, the name (called the SSID) of the network, the signal strength and the type of security used.

In the lower section of the interface are real-time graphs showing the signal strengths of each network as they change over time. Water in the atmosphere absorbs radio waves, so if the weather's bad, signal strengths may be lower than on a bright, dry day. Such fluctuations in atmospheric interference will cause networks on the edge of the detectable range to occasionally pop up and disappear again.

On the right-hand pane is a chart showing the signal strengths as the height of a set of bell curves centred on the channels used. If you're not getting very good bandwidth, try changing the access point's channel to one that isn't in use by the networks around you, then reconnect.

As a general guide, the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) column in the table is a useful measure of the distance between you and each network's base station. This can be used to get a rough idea of whose networks you can see if they've not been identifiable from their SSID.

The SSID is the 'service set ID'. This is the user-defined name of the network. When you buy a new wireless access point, the SSID will usually be set to a default. If you leave this as it is, it gives people a good indication that little if any configuration or security work has been done. If the network is also using WEP encryption (or worse, no encryption at all), it is open to easy abuse.

Inssider gives you a great way to see what Wi-Fi networks are in your neighbourhood. However, if you find a network that has no protection at all, don't be tempted to join it and leech bandwidth.

It may well be that an incompetent neighbour has set it up and doesn't realise that it's open to abuse, but it may equally have been set up like that deliberately. It's possible that someone may have set up a data collection utility such as Wireshark on the open network. If you connect to the network, the person who owns it will be able to see everything you do.

How to catch Wi-Fi hackers

Catching a Wi-Fi hacker

So let's turn the tables. Let's use this technique to set a trap for anyone in the vicinity who may fancy exploring networks and leeching bandwidth that doesn't belong to them. You can also use this technique to monitor traffic on your own networks in general.

We're going to use what's known as a honeypot – a PC or network that appears unprotected. They're designed to tempt hackers and malware to explore and infect them. In reality, they're heavily monitored.

Researchers use them to detect new strains of malware, and we're going to use a honeypot wireless network to catch bandwidth leeches. The technique involves setting up a wireless network without any protection and then monitoring it for unauthorised connections.

The network is physically isolated, but anyone joining it illegally won't know that. It just looks like a juicy connection waiting to be exploited.

To set up a simple wireless honeypot, you first need a spare wireless access point for potential hackers and freeloaders to attempt to access. This is plugged into an old network hub.

The hub is important because whatever traffic it receives on one port, it automatically retransmits on all the others. This doesn't happen in a network switch, which is why we need a hub. We can plug a PC running a traffic-monitoring program into another port on the hub, begin collecting data and wait for the fun to begin.

The monitoring program we'll use is Wireshark. This app is used by network security professionals the world over and is very easy to set up and use.

Setting the trap

Go to www.wireshark.org and download the latest Windows version. This is compatible with all supported versions of Windows from XP onwards. Installation is a simple matter of running the downloaded executable and accepting the defaults.

Unlike Linux, Windows doesn't have the ability to put its network card into 'promiscuous' mode automatically (whereby it will accept all traffic, thus allowing Wireshark to monitor whatever flows past). To enable this, part of the Wireshark installation procedure will install a library called WinPcap.

Once installed, run Wireshark and select your wired network interface card from the interface list. This begins a collection session. You should start to see traffic being sent every few seconds by the wireless access point as it monitors and discovers resources, and finds out what machine has which IP address. You'll also see traffic from the PC on which Wireshark is running.

On the monitoring PC, log into the wireless access point's web-based management page and set security to 'none'. If there's a function for returning it to its factory settings, run this to reset all passwords.

Now test your handiwork by joining the network wirelessly from another PC. On the joining computer, open a command line and enter the command ipconfig/all.

Find the wireless network card's details in the morass of information that appears. Make a note of its IP address. If you now click the source or destination columns in Wireshark to sort the incoming information, you can easily find the traffic being generated by this IP address.

The traffic reveals a surprising amount of detail, including the machine's name and its MAC address. If, while monitoring, you find other computers joining the network, their machine's Windows name, MAC address and current IP address will be recorded by Wireshark.

If you picked up another PC, the owner was obviously scanning the neighbourhood looking for new networks to join. Why not have a little fun by letting him know you're on to him?

Try changing the name of the network to his PC's name or some other piece of identifying information, and crank the security up to WPA2 so he won't be able to do anything about it. Doing so may scare him sufficiently to leave you well alone in future.

How to boost your Wi-Fi coverage

It might have taken the best part of a decade to ratify but the 802.11n wireless standard was worth the wait.

It also helps that we've all been able to enjoy the benefits for the last few years while t's were crossed and i's were dotted.

But that's not to say we all get a perfect wireless experience even with the immense cleverness of MIMO. So no matter if you're running a wireless network new or old here are our top tips for tweaking more out of your signal.

1. Switch channels

You might think that with up to 14 channels available there'd be plenty of free ones for everyone. Unfortunately physics is a harsh master: the channels are only allocated 5MHz apart and cross-channel interference can affect up to 11MHz either side.

This effectively means only channels 1, 6 and 11 are adequately separated, though depending on your environmental situations interim channels might be optimal. For instance is all are taken but 1 and 6 are less powerful, then channel 3 would be best.

2. The fat channel

As part of the 802.11n specification there's the option for 40MHz channels. Idealistically this is designed for 5GHz systems as this region has far more available channels, however it can be activated at the 2.4GHz level but it's pretty much guaranteed to interfere with anything else nearby taking up the majority of available channels. We'll leave it up to your conscience but most routers enable you to force 40MHz channels.

3. Go 'N' only

The 802.11n standard is very sympathetic to older standards. It maintains a lot of backwards compatibility and anti-interference features so as not to disrupt 802.11b/g networks. This is rubbish! If you're lucky enough, switch your router to 802.11n only, plus opt to use WPA2 security with AES encryption.

WPA2 with AES offers the best encryption option, though it may not be supported by older routers as it requires additional hardware. Similarly once switched to 'N mode' you may find an Extra Wireless Protection mode - turn this off as it's about reducing interference to 802.11b networks.

4. Check your adaptor's power settings

A lot of the time your wireless adaptor will, rightly so, adjust itself to your laptop or PC's power settings. This is fine but what if you're in a poor reception situation? Windows 7 and Vista offer controls via the Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings > Wireless Adapter Settings.

You might want to go straight to the horse's mouth and directly adjust power settings via the Device Manager: select Start > Run > type devmgmt.msc and click OK. Locate your wireless adaptor under Network adapters, double click it and select the Advanced tab.

5. Avoid interference

The majority of us are running 2.4GHz equipment - it's a noisy place to live and it's a frequency that's absorbed and reflected by specific things. Ideally, avoid brick walls - going through wood floors or interior drywalls is much more preferable.

Water is an issue, it absorbs this spectrum hence why microwave ovens run at the same frequency. If you have water tanks, avoid them. Microwaves are also a dead zone, as their shielding will block signals.

Mirrors are also an issue, along with radiators that are metal and full of water. DECT phones in Europe operate at 1.9GHz, but in the US there are three bands of 900MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz. So it's best to opt for the higher or lower models in that territory.

Five more ways to boost your Wi-Fi coverage

6. Angle your dipoles

The antennae that ship with most routers are called dipoles - they produce a circular 'omni' signal in the shape of a 3D doughnut, with the strongest segment of signal on the same plane as the router. This means is you're above or below the router, it's best to angle the antenna towards your position, so they're perpendicular.

7. Make a paper antenna

It's been around for years but we love this. The geniuses at freeantennas.com have a paper-craft template for a directional parabolic antenna. Just print it out and with some scissors and glue you'll soon have a signal booster for your router or adaptor.

We found putting a USB adaptor in the centre worked, as well as mounted on a dipole antenna. It's cheap, easy, doesn't require any modification to your hardware and works.

8. Make a cantenna

The paper antenna is a great quick-fix but surely something involving maths and metal would do a better job? Well, you're right - enter the cantenna, made from a 10cm diameter smooth can it hugely boost your reception.

The maths bit is that a 31mm copper antenna is installed 44mm from the sealed end for optimal signal strength. This site has a calculator for different size. The main problem is you need to buy or build a 'pigtail' connector, so you can connect it to the reverse polarity SMA connector used by routers and adaptors.

9. Get a high-gain antenna

If all of that man-crafting sounds like too much like hard work, splash out on a directional or high-gain antenna. These are designed to push the power output closer to the 20dB EU legal limit, usually from 2dBi up to 7dBi.

Great for you, not so great for any Wi-Fi neighbours, as it increases interference. An increase of 3dBi equates to a doubling in output power. If you're using 5GHz equipment you'll need compatible antennas, as most are designed for 2.4GHz equipment.

10. Update firmware and drivers

It's an oldie but goodie. At this stage all wireless kit should offer good interoperability without real issues. But in the past we have had serious connection issues fixed by either a router firmware update or adaptor driver update. So if you're buying older adaptors or routers this might be the case. It's similar to the advice about buying equipment form the same manufacturer, although thankfully this is less of an issue today.

During his keynote at CES Intel's CEO Paul Otellini said that while computing was evolving and becoming about more than the PC, connectivity was key to this change.

"Smartphones truly embody personal computing," Otellini said. "Wireless connectivity is critical and 3G is great, but it's not fast enough. 4G technologies like WiMAX are needed to deliver on the promise and potential of these new devices."

Otellini demonstrated 4G technology that has been on show at CES and continued to preach the message about Wimax – he stated that 700 million people will be covered by WiMAX by the end of 2010.

"Computing in the home is rapidly expanding beyond the PC," Otellini said. "The TV will continue to be a focal point of the home while becoming smarter, much in the way phones are evolving into smartphones. New user interfaces and forms of connectivity will change the way we interact with entertainment in the home."

Intel's CEO also welcomed the advent of 3D in the home and cinemas, saying that creating 3D content requires a "ton of computing power." Otellini also said there are some powerful PCs available today that are capable of creating 3D content at home.

To prove his point, he demonstrated real-time creation and editing of 3D using a Core i7 PC.

In a move to combat the rise of Android running on ARM-based devices, Otellini also announced the beta launch of an app store for Atom-based devices called the Intel AppUp Center and said that Acer, Asus, Dell and Samsung have already pledged support. The announcement follows on from the Atom Developer Program that was launched back in the Autumn.

Otellini also described how advancements in microprocessor technology will continue to transform how people enjoy media at home. He showed new ways to visually search for TV shows, internet access to videos and other applications on a yet-to-be introduced Orange media set-top box powered by the Intel Atom CE4100 system on a chip.

After seven years of development and internal bickering, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) recently signed off on the 802.11n wireless standard - meaning it's fully approved (or ratified) for use in wireless kit. The final amendments will be published in October.

The organisers of the UK WOMAD (World of Music and Dance) festival are to provide free wireless broadband for festival goers.

This means that not only can music fans download the tracks of newly discovered bands (using a specialised iPhone application), but they can also get access to sites like Twitter, which should make hooking up with friends much easier.

The organisers will use the latest Ruckus Wireless dual-band 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi system to provide outdoor wireless infrastructure services for the event organisers, alongside cashpoint (PDQ) services for traders and broadband access for festival goers.

Essentially it means traders can offer better payment services and there will be fewer wires to trip over - excellent.

Double the performance

According to Tom McInerney, Operations Director for Etherlive, the dual-band system enables organiser to "double the performance and range of the network at a lower cost and with fewer access points to deploy and manage."

In addition, the Ruckus Wi-Fi mesh uses new technology that automatically directs transmissions to the best performing signal path on the 802.11 protocol, enabling it to better cope with the usual interference and physical obstructions found all over these crazy festival sites.

If you've ever tried to use Bluetooth to transfer a sizeable file from, say, your laptop to your desktop, you'll be glad to hear that the wireless technology is set to put its slowcoach past behind it when it upgrades to version 3.0 later this month.

The specification for Bluetooth 3.0 will be made public by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) on 21 April, effectively enabling all manner of devices for direct transfer of video and media collections without the need to go online.

Hundreds of Mbps

Although speeds haven't been revealed, we do know that Bluetooth 3.0 will use IEEE802.11 standards, so we can expect something in the hundreds of Mbps.

Current devices that use Bluetooth 2.0 top out at around 3Mbps, meaning a single video file can take anything up to an hour to transfer. With ever-increasing bandwidth expectations for links between mobile devices, that clearly had to change.

Dual modes

On the downside, the new standard will require more power, which is why it's likely to be able to switch back to 2.0 for small transfers and wheel out the battery-hungry big guns only when really needed.

Our kids are growing up in a confusing world. Marketers use pseudo-science to flog their products, online misinformation abounds and newspapers are all too happy to run scare stories that don't stand up.

That means teachers are invaluable: we rely on them to help our kids separate fact from fiction, truth from trash and scaremongering from science. Which is why it's so depressing that the teaching union ATL has resurrected the killer Wi-Fi scare.

To recap: there's absolutely no evidence that Wi-Fi is dangerous, and because it's much less powerful than mobile phone communications it's very unlikely that it can be dangerous. Reports claiming that Wi-Fi eats brains, makes you sterile or gives you face cancer are based on shaky science, and the claims of electrosensitives - that is, people who feel negative effects from Wi-Fi - simply don't stand up to analysis.

This information is easily available, but it seems that Colin Kinney, a teacher in Cookstown High School, hasn't looked for it. According to Rate My Teacher Mr Kinney is "a legend" who "rocks", but while it seems he's a great English teacher, the one thing he isn't is an expert on electromagnetic radiation.

Mr Kinney is behind the motion at the ATL conference demanding schools get shot of their Wi-Fi. It's a gift to the newspapers - whose education correspondents, like Mr Kinney, aren't scientists - and a guaranteed parent-scaring, newspaper-selling headline. But when you read the reports, it all falls apart. If we were grading Mr Kinney's efforts, we'd have to give him an F.

First of all, he apparently confuses mobile phone masts with wireless routers - according to the Daily Mail. "He said Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, had called for a precautionary approach when siting masts near schools." - and demands a long-term study into Wi-Fi, apparently unaware that such a study is nearly complete.

He also mentions the Swedish use of tinfoil hats - well, anti-radiation paint - and instead of coming to the logical conclusion, which is that the Swedes are completely nuts, he persuaded the ATL to lobby the government to investigate the "considerable biological and thermal effects" of wireless networking - despite an investigation already being in progress, and there being no evidence of "considerable" anything.

If newspapers and teaching unions are really worried about kids becoming sterile or contracting cancer, they should forget about Wi-Fi and throw their considerable weight behind campaigns for comprehensive sex education and cervical cancer vaccination - and instead of giving killer Wi-Fi all the coverage, the newspapers could highlight the unions' campaign to get asbestos out of our schools. When we've dealt with those very real problems, then we can start worrying about Wi-Fi.

As if we didn't already have enough wireless technologies competing for our attention (and cash), a consortium of some of the industry's biggest names is clubbing together to add a couple more to the mix.

Fifteen Japanese firms, including NEC, Toshiba and NTT DoCoMo, are working with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on both a faster wireless data conduit and wireless power transmission.

High-def video

The data link is planned to be in the gigabit class, or around 50 times faster than current Wi-Fi implementations. The companies see it as necessary for getting high-definition video from receivers to screens.

More surprising, perhaps, is the group's plan to untangle the nest of power cables behind most home-entertainment systems.

Medium-range power

Instead of direct connections to AC sockets, the researchers are aiming for a wireless power module that can send and receive current across up to two metres.

Clearly, if the scheme bears fruit by the planned 2015 deadline, we could be looking at very different-looking living rooms within a few years.