After extensive testing, however, my opinion changed somewhat. (Of course, a month of swapping cards, applying new firmware and tweaking RTS/CTS and fragmentation parameters would make anyone a little grumpy.) The 2-Mbps data rate seems adequate for a single station--hardly discernable from Ethernet for many applications--but in an era of switched and 100-Mbps Ethernet, this paltry shared bandwidth is noticeably insubstantial for most multistation networks. Wireless LANs (WLANs) succeed in offering mobility, but they do so at the expense of performance, battery life and a premium price.

As a result, I was a bit surprised by the results of a recent study by the Wireless LAN Alliance (www.wlana.com). At first glance, the statistics paint a fairly positive financial picture for wireless LANs: an average return on investment of 8.9 months. Ninety-two percent of the companies surveyed reported "definite economic and business benefits," while 97 percent claimed that the technology met or exceeded their expectations. But delving into the study's methodology reveals that though the results may be impressive, the study's population is very narrow, tailor-made for WLAN use. They all required a high degree of mobility, but not a high level of bandwidth--which is where a WLAN will really shine. This particular study was restricted to sites that had installed at least 50 nodes, thereby focusing on sites with well-established WLAN installations.

So, will WLANs be able to break out of niche markets and deliver these same kinds of returns on investment to a broader spectrum of users? With the release of the 802.11 standard, the market seems to be gaining momentum. But even with this newly found exuberance, we wonder whether the broader business market will do anything more than simply add a few nodes where mobility is needed. Existing LANs still outperform WLANs by a long shot, and with Fast Ethernet quickly emerging as a baseline in organizations that have appropriate wiring infrastructure, the performance gap is increasing.

WLAN vendors need a new market--one that does not have previously installed LANs and can benefit from a WLAN's strengths. WLANA and many vendors are looking to the home user market, an environment within which WLAN technology can really flourish. This type of technology is easy to use and install, and as volume increases, the prices should dip well below the $200 per node mark. All the vendors need to do is convince the home users that they need it. InTalk's recent release of a new product that combines wireless access point with proxy server and network address translation capabilities may be just the thing to kick-start this market. And with wireless capabilities in the home, professionals might find that installing appropriate infrastructure in the office provides them with the kind of mobility they desire.