9-12-2002 Wall Street Journal
PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
Still Waiting for a Way to Link
Home Stereos to Internet Radio
By NICK WINGFIELD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
In the middle of the dot-com craze a few years ago, industry gurus liked to say that one day even our toasters would be connected to the Internet. It seemed ridiculous. Does my sourdough need the Web?
Today, technology companies are making a new claim: Wireless home networks will link smart information appliances to the Internet. Now, that's an intriguing idea.
Wireless networks are catching on with home users as prices fall to the point where you can now buy a basic set-up for about $165. For the most part, people are using their wireless networks to share high-speed Internet connections between personal computers, and to get Web access from a deck or couch.
But a lot of other gadgets besides the PC could benefit from a wireless link, such as Internet-savvy stereos or videogame systems for the living room. These devices can be connected to the Internet with wires, but many people don't have their broadband connections anywhere near their television sets or stereos.
I decided to immerse myself in the wireless future by testing a new device, the WET11 Wireless Ethernet Bridge from Linksys of Irvine, Calif., along with a gadget that could use the WET11 to connect to the Internet. Like most wireless devices in the home today, the WET11, which costs about $120, uses a technology called Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, that allows it to communicate with any other network device from any company with the same technology.
The WET11 doesn't require users to install software drivers on the gadgets they plug into it, making it well-suited for non-PC devices that don't run conventional operating systems, like Windows, Linksys says.
I already have a wireless network installed at home so two computers can share a high-speed Internet connection and printer. My network consists of a wireless "access point" that plugs directly into the digital subscriber line for Internet access. A wireless PC card in my laptop gives me cable-free network access for about 200 hundred feet from that access point. That more than covers my entire apartment. Both the wireless card and access point use a flavor of Wi-Fi called 802.11b.
The appliance I connected to my home network with the WET11 was AudioTron, a $300 device that its manufacturer, Voyetra Turtle Beach of Yonkers, N.Y., calls a "smart stereo" component. AudioTron, a slim black box slightly thinner than a DVD player, tunes into Internet radio stations and grabs songs stored on a local PC, playing them back on a conventional stereo system where the sound is usually better than on computer speakers. AudioTron has an Ethernet jack on its back panel for plugging into a wired home network or to a wireless device like the WET11.
Setting up the new devices quickly became a confusing mess. The first step was to make sure the WET11 had a live wireless connection, a process that involved, curiously, using a cable to plug the device into my wireless access point and configuring the WET11 from a computer. The WET11 appeared to be an active device on the network. But when I plugged AudioTron into the WET11, the stereo appliance couldn't find the network.
The process grew more baffling when I bypassed the WET11 and plugged AudioTron into my wireless access point. AudioTron immediately found the network and began scanning the Internet for radio stations and my local PC for music files.
After a lengthy call to a Linksys technician, I solved the problem, which stemmed from a conflict in the way my network was assigning Internet protocol numbers -- the unique addresses for all devices on a network -- to AudioTron.
Once AudioTron was connected to the home network, I glimpsed the future of music in the home. There I was on my living-room couch in San Francisco, using an AudioTron remote control to switch between Vermont Public Radio, fantastic country tunes from KPIG.com and dozens of other Internet broadcasters (the station names were visible on a tiny screen on the front of the device). AudioTron also successfully played MP3 songs on the PC in my study.
Digital-music fans will be able to appreciate the appeal of skipping around Internet stations and song libraries through a stereo in the living room, rather than on a PC.
I can't recommend the WET11 or AudioTron, though. The set-up of both was far too complicated. AudioTron's screen is too puny to allow easy navigation.
I still believe wireless networks can simplify connecting smart appliances to the Internet, but I haven't found those products.
Walt Mossberg is on vacation.
Write to Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com
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