Home
networking has become a large portion of the overall networking market. With the
proliferation of the Internet, and with many homes containing multiple PCs, the
ability to share an Internet connection, files, printers, and other peripherals
has become very attractive.
In many instances, home users have jumped straight to wired 10/100BaseT
Ethernet for networking needs. It's fast and easy to set up with the equipment
currently available and the built-in networking support incorporated into recent
versions of Windows. The largest impediment to wired Ethernet: the wires. Not
every user wants, or can have, Category 5 cable running through their home. In
this respect, wireless networking is growing in appeal to many users.
SystemLink, a jointly labeled product of RCA and Hewlett-Packard,
addresses this need. It consists of a pair of small units measuring about 5 x
5.5 inches. Each is attached to a PC via a USB connection, or if you're running
Windows 95, it can be connected by a parallel cable. A power cord on each unit
plugs into a wall outlet. This not only supplies power to the SystemLink unit,
but it is also the means to connect the two devices in a network configuration
that uses the electrical power wires running through your home. SystemLink
includes an extra outlet on the plug that also connects directly into the same
wall outlet.
Using the electric wires in a home to transmit and receive data isn't a
new idea. The X10 control system has been accomplishing this task for several
decades. X10 equipment is sold not only by the X10 Corporation, but also by more
familiar names such as Radio Shack, Sears, and Leviton.
SystemLink superimposes a higher frequency signal, which carries the
actual data, on to the 60Hz AC signal in the electrical wires that supply power
to home outlets. The units listen to the wires when they are not transmitting to
determine if any packets of data are being directed to the connected node.
SystemLink does not use Ethernet protocol to communicate. Rather, it is based on
one of the leading contenders for the R-7.3 standard, which is part of the
Consumer Electronics Association. There is a second organization attempting to
set a powerline-networking standard as well. This is the HomePlug Powerline
Alliance, which released its first proposed standard HomePlug 1.0 last June.
Thus far, equipment based on the HomePlug standard has yet to hit the market,
and SystemLink is not compatible with the HomePlug 1.0 standard.
We found setting up the SystemLink network very easy. Simply connect to
the wall and to your PCs and run the installation software. A wizard walks you
through the process and makes the necessary settings in Windows. The SystemLink
units must be plugged directly into a wall outlet, as a power strip with surge
protection or UPS can render them useless.
RCA/HP claim a 2-Mbps speed for the SystemLink. In our testing, we
achieved closer to 1.3 Mbps, a reasonable speed when factoring in network
overhead.
As easy as SystemLink was to install and use, the decision to purchase it
is far from a no-brainer. Alternative technologies are available, including
phoneline networking and 802.11b wireless Ethernet. Both of these other
technologies are similarly priced and rated as having higher speed transmission
than SystemLink.
Keep in mind, though, that each of these other technologies has
limitations. Wireless 802.11b devices have a very limited range when operating
at top speed. If your home is somewhat spread out or has metal studs in the
walls, +802.11b equipment might operate at about the same speed as the
SystemLink. Also, when you have more than two nodes on the network 802.11b
requires a more sophisticated type of network setup, called an infrastructure
network. SystemLink's architecture permits as many as 20 nodes on a simple
network.
Home phoneline networking provides faster speeds than SystemLink, but it
requires a telephone outlet near the PC's location. That isn't always available
in every home. National building codes usually require an electrical outlet
approximately every eight feet on interior walls. That just about assures there
will be a place to plug in a SystemLink unit, should you want to network.
In the right circumstances, SystemLink provides a useful alternative in
home networking. You should consider all the alternatives carefully to make the
best choice.ÿn
If
you connect to the Internet via a dialup modem, the best incentive for
subscribing to a broadband Internet connection, like cable or DSL, is greatly
increased data throughput. Following in close second is the ability to browse
the Web and still receive telephone calls. Until recently, the only way for
dialup users to achieve this was to order a second telephone line at a cost of
$10 to $20 per month.
Those who subscribe to both Caller ID and Call Waiting should be able to
use their Caller ID boxes to see who's calling while they're online, but Call
Waiting and Caller ID have proven to be a notoriously incompatible pair.
Sometimes, the Caller ID box will register an incoming call via Call Waiting,
but for the most part, the call is ignored. If you're talking on the phone when
a Call Waiting call comes in, the tone alerts you to the fact that someone is
trying to reach you. If you're online via your modem, you won't receive any
indication. If you use one phone line for both voice and data, you risk missing
important calls every time you log onto your ISP.
A solution would be a different, more advanced type of Caller ID box
designed specifically to recognize Call Waiting tones and receive the ID
information via Call Waiting. You could simply set this box beside your computer
to instantly know whether or not someone was calling and exactly who.
Ugotcall.com's NetCallerID does exactly that. It's a translucent blue
Caller ID box that instantly displays who's calling when you're online. With
NetCallerID, the Caller ID box is obsolete. NetCallerID attaches to your PC via
a serial cable, and routes Caller ID data to the NetCallerID software
application. Both the box and the software work for all incoming calls like a
typical Caller ID box, so you're not losing anything in the transition. If you'd
like to take an incoming call while online, just press the Answer button on
either the box or in the software application. If you choose not to accept a
call, press Ignore and continue browsing the Web.
Installing NetCallerID isla snap. First, plug in the unit's AC adapter.An
included pair of AAAbatteries allows the device to retain its 76-call memory
through a power failure, but it does not require these batteries in order to
operate. Attach the phone line from your wall jack into the line port of the
NetCallerID box and run the included telephone cord from the modem jack on the
box to the line jack on your PC. If you have a telephone connected to the
telephone jack on your PC, leave it attached and it will function as normal.
Then connect the data cable from the NetCallerID box to an open serial port on
your PC.
Finally, turn on your PC and load the installation CD in your optical
drive. It's an auto-run CD, so follow the onscreen prompts until the setup
routine is completed. The only software configuration necessary may be to set
the NetCallerID COM port to an available serial port on your PC. Either COM1 or
COM2 should suffice, but since we installed the NetCallerID on an old Pentium
II-based PC with a serial mouse connected to the first serial port, we had to
adjust the NetCallerID's default configuration from COM1 to COM2.
The NetCallerID application is loaded into your Windows Startup
directory, so it automatically loads whenever you start your computer.
Our only criticism of the NetCallerID software (we have none with the
unit itself) is that the application starts minimized rather than as an icon in
the system tray. This assumes space on the Taskbar and can be accidentally
closed.
Other than that minor flaw, we found NetCallerID to be a fantastic
convenience for anyone using a dialup Internet connection. The device can be
ordered direct from the company's Web site for $29, with free shipping. If you
subscribe to both Caller ID and Call Waiting, and access the Internet via a
dialup connection, you need NetCallerID.
Upon
first consideration, the concept of CD Anywhere seems a bit out in left field.
Why would anyone want to place the contents of a CD-ROM on their hard disk when
they can simply drag and drop the CD-ROM over to the hard disk? After all, most
of today's hard drives have enough room to hold the contents of many CD-ROMs.
If all that CD Anywhere accomplished was to simply place the contents of
a CD-ROM onto the hard disk, it wouldn't be worth much. Rather, CD Anywhere is
an inexpensive utility that performs two functions.
First, it creates a disk image of the desired CD-ROM. This is quite
different than merely transferring files and applications from one media to
another. If you've ever used the Disk Image feature of Easy CD Creator or
another CD-R/RW mastering application, you'll be familiar with the term Disk
Image, since these applications perform a similar function. Creating a disk
image consists of reading a CD-ROM, sector-by-sector, and creating an exact
bit-by-bit binary duplication. If this image is written onto a piece of clean
media, you can use it exactly as the original CD-ROM was intended.
Again, that's not particularly enticing until you consider the second
function CD Anywhere accomplishes, which is to create a virtual disc drive on
which the disk image can be mounted.
To illustrate CD Anywhere's advantages, let's examine a number of
possibilities. One is to copy several audio CDs into disk images, storing them
on your PC or laptop's hard disk drive. Maybe you want to rip a few music albums
into MP3 or WMA format. Using CD Anywhere to first create images of the albums
onto your hard drive is usually a much faster process than copying directly from
a slow CD-ROM.
Where CD Anywhere really earns its stripes is with software that requires
a CD-ROM remain in the drive while in use. This could be a computer game, many
which use this scheme as a form of copy protection.
We tested CD Anywhere with several games that use this scheme, and didn't
encounter any problems. A less frivolous application might be installing the
Data Disk of DeLorme Street Atlas as a disc image on a virtual drive. Street
Atlas requires the Data Disk operate with many similar tracking and GPS
applications. Taking a fragile CD-ROM on the road or a long trip is a good way
to end up with a lost, scratched, or cracked disc. This we know from experience.
We created a disk image of the DeLorme Data Disc in under four minutes
and saved it to our hard disk. CD Anywhere compressed the files while creating
this image, so our disk image was about 50 percent smaller than the original.
When you launch CD Anywhere, it provides you with a short menu that asks what
task you want to perform, such as creating a disk image or a virtual drive. Once
we created our virtual drive, we had only to mount the image on the drive, using
the CD Anywhere menu choice. We did have to reset the application to look for
the virtual CD-ROM drive rather than the hardware drive.
Another great use for CD Anywhere is loading our laptop with disk images
of the software applications we frequently use, such as Microsoft Office. We
really don't like the idea of taking trips without backup discs, and this way
they reside right on the laptop's hard disk.
V Communications has made a reputation for itself by offering clever and
inexpensive utilities. CD Anywhere is the latest in this line. It installed
easily on a desktop running Windows 2000 and a laptop running Windows Me. At the
time we performed this review, CD Anywhere was not yet certified to work with
Windows XP, though it should be by the time you read this article.
Considering that CD Anywhere costs only $39 for the boxed version and $29
for a download, you are sure to find some use that justifies this relatively
modest expense. A comprehensive manual is included; it's in PDF format, so you
should print a copy before using the software.
Home
networking has become a large portion of the overall networking market. With the
proliferation of the Internet, and with many homes containing multiple PCs, the
ability to share an Internet connection, files, printers, and other peripherals
has become very attractive.
