Look Ma - No Cords! What Wireless Really Means In Computer Terms

We have all been driving a car to locations unknown with nothing but a computer generated map, only to discover a major road closure and no mention of alternate routes. Unless we carry a trusty assortment of city maps, or a car powered direction service, how will we find a new map? We might want to call the party we are visiting, but unfortunately the phone number for Aunt Louise's party is safely tucked away in our e-mail inbox, and we are currently twenty miles away from our home computer. What is a confused driver to do? Hope for the next mini-mart with a hopefully knowledgeable attendant who may offer some directions? Actually, many a modern traveler, just as many others, has begun to integrate a new kind of technology into daily living: wireless computing! Gone are the days when we were shackled to the location of our home computer as a source of information and computing power; instead, we may now employ this newest form of computing to truly have computer access on a continuous basis.

Yet wireless aficionados should beware! Wireless access is still in its toddler shoes, and technology is still developing. Thus, while much is available today to allow wireless access of the Internet, the access is still limited. In computer terms, this means that in order for a device to accept Internet data in a wireless mode, a certain wireless application protocol (WAP) must be integrated into its software. Probably the most commonly available, and most reasonably priced, hardware that contains WAP is cell phone technology. Cell phones in many ways are now little handheld computers.

Most cell phones that offer Internet access now offer data transfer rates of about 14.4 Kbps at best or maybe even less - in the range of 9.6 Kbps. Computer users will remember that even dial-up Internet service usually operates at about 56 Kbps. The difference is enormous, especially in the speed of the connection. Considering that today's websites use copious amounts of graphics and interactive features, the actual length of time a wireless user would spend while waiting for a page to load or a command to be executed makes it useless. For this reason, many websites now offer special wireless content which basically eschews the use of any graphics and text based only. Additionally, link rich websites are scaled down to the bare bones of the information, and so wireless Internet surfing is very different from the Internet access we are used to today.

Wireless computer access experiences further limitations when it comes to the display size. As computer users we are accustomed to 640x480 displays on a computer monitor or even on a laptop. Most cell phones will only support 150x150 pixels at best, and in addition to the foregoing only offer monochrome displays. While the output may be a bit lackluster, the input presents a whole other host of issues that may leave many a "˜Net junkie' in fits of frustration. We are now accustomed to the mouse or the mouse ball on the laptop, yet the average cell phone will require the use of up and down arrows, which might get a little frustrating and time consuming.

For practical purposes, this means that when we wish to use a wireless network, our cell phone will connect to a gateway server that will process the request to access a WAP supporting website. The gateway server's main role lies in the translation of our request to a standard HTTP address as we would use if we were using our personal computers. When the site responds to the server, it does so by sending HMTL documents (remember, the content is text only!) which the gateway server then translates into a acceptable data and routes to the nearest antenna, which then, via radio waves, submits this data to the WAP device we are using (in this case a cell phone).

In computer terms this may appear complicated, yet in everyday usage terms, this most certainly means long waiting times, slow connection speed, limited content access, lack of graphics and maneuverability, and high wireless fees. While no cords may be desirable, the current application thereof is more than limited.