Belkin gives us plenty of time to get ready for streaming high def: FlyWire uses an adapted form of Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band to stream HD without having the HD set in close proximity. They're not shipping until October, which could give you some time to get used to the price tag. A $1,000 model is designed to cover a home, and has various infrared and wireless options to control current A/V gear, some of which might be hidden in cabinets away from view. A cheaper $700 option covers just one room, Belkin says, and excludes the IR help. The transmitter has 3 HDMI jacks, including DVI support with audio inputs, along with two component and one composite video and audio input panels. The receiver has a single HDMI output. All HD resolutions are supported. These devices are aimed at people who buy large HDTVs and want to wall mount them.

GigaOm's Michael Wolf rounds up what other forms of networks are needed in a home beyond Wi-Fi: Ethernet, HomePlug, MoCA, HomePNA, Wireless HD, personal networks (Bluetooth), and automation controls. (My home is a very stupid home, thank you very much.)

He who steals my Wi-Fi steals hash: Mike Rogoway at the (Portland) Oregonian poses the question as to whether using a neighbor's unsecured Wi-Fi is borrowing, stealing, or nothing at all. I pipe in noting that more people are securing their networks. In my current office, where I've been three years, I spotted over a dozen networks when I arrived, most unsecured. Today, all the networks are secured (only some are small business networks), and many of the names have changed. The reasons? Better security wizards, widespread use of WPA, improved Wi-Fi network setup in Windows Vista and XP SP2, start of use of WPS, and general fear of security issues. Rogoway also runs through what the options for connectivity in Portland are as MetroFi is about to hit its network shutdown date.

Philadelphia's mixed free airport Wi-Fi: I somehow missed this story months ago, but PHL (Philadelphia's airport) is offering free Wi-Fi on the weekends to every one, and free Wi-Fi on the weekdays to college students. Students go to an information counter, show their valid student ID, and get an access code. This is a very neat idea. The airport is otherwise $8 for 24 hours or $40 per month, although it's part of much cheaper roaming plans from Boingo Wireless and iPass.

I started Wi-Fi Networking News under the less euphonious name 802.11b Networking News back in April 2001 after spending months researching what became a front-cover article in Circuits, the then-separate tech section of The New York Times. The first post is still live, as are all the nearly 4,800 others.

(I had help: Nancy Gohring wrote part-time for WNN for a couple years when we had a bit more traffic; she took a full-time job for and still works for IDG News Service, which I am now slightly affiliated with through my new hardware regular blog at PC World.)

The site as it appeared in April 2001

Since starting, I've covered extensively the growth of the hotspot market, the rise and fall and rise again of municipal networks, the change in consumer equipment from expensive and slow to cheap and fast, the growth of the enterprise market, the phoenix-like in-flight calling/broadband market, and, more recently, cellular and WiMax technology.

Enterprise coverage was once a central part of Wi-Fi Networking News, but it became clear a few years ago that as equipment was redesigned to be integral to the enterprise, that my ability cover and test gear was too limited, and the need for true enterprise experience was necessary to write about it. This disappointed a lot of enterprise readers and equipment makers who wanted me to keep writing about corporate hardware.

The focus over the last few years on municipal Wi-Fi was not just necessary--few people besides me were covering it in depth--but also represented the only significant news in the Wi-Fi world outside of the development of 802.11n/Draft N gear. It's only recently that WiMax, cellular data, spectrum auctions, and in-flight broadband have picked back up to become stories that you all want to know about--because they've become real technology you might work with. As the city-wide Wi-Fi arc played itself out, I'm covering it less because there's less of interest; it's going to become routine and the province of city CTOs and CIOs.

While writing this site, I try to have opinions, but not an agenda. I try to keep an open mind, though I do descend into cynicism, often well founded, but perhaps too readily employed. I'll try my best to keep myself honest and cheery in the years to come.

The biggest trends I expect to see develop in 2008 to 2010 are in these key areas:

Appliances. I expected 2007 to be the year that Wi-Fi was in everything: cameras, games, phones, and tchotchkes. Instead, Wi-Fi has only gradually spread, with a few gaming consoles, and many handsets and smartphones gaining or extending their use. It may be that I missed a trend: cameras in phones may become so good by 2009, that we don't need a camera with Wi-Fi at all (Wired reports today on several 5 megapixel cameraphones shown at CTIA this week). It's also likely that if WiMax gets a foothold, we'll get handhelds probably in 2009 that sport high-speed connections for all kinds of high-bandwidth purposes, like live uploading of streaming video.

Video over wireless. I look at this category as not just another instance of broadcast, like Qualcomm's MediaFLO which is really TV to the cell phone; rather, we'll see ways in which Wi-Fi, WiMax, and cellular data are used to push stored and streaming media to all sorts of devices. I look to Starbucks, Apple, and AT&T to lead the way on cached media in stores that can be filled up at local network speeds: download a full-length, HD movie in a few minutes in a Starbucks from the iTunes cache rather than 3 hours at home.

Radio over Wi-Fi. Internet radio via Wi-Fi music players seems like a trend--buying a boombox you can tune in wherever you are, or using a handheld MP3 players--but even with many devices, I don't feel a sense that it's caught on quite yet. If Apple puts Internet radio over Wi-Fi into new iPhone/iPod touch firmware, it'll likely take off; Nokia allows a third-party program for its N series for Internet radio over Wi-Fi already.

Cellular data/mobile broadband. I admit to being wrong about the potential of cell data, due to the overhype from the carriers and the horrible pricing relative to throughput and availability of the 1xRTT and GPRS systems. As cell data networks have matured into true broadband--slow, but broadband--media, the hype has lessened, disclosure has improved (no more "unlimited" usage, eh?), and the value has increased. We'll see more of the same with faster flavors of GSM networking and WiMax's deployment. The networks will become faster and cheaper and less restrictive.

For a good sense of what people are still reading on Wi-Fi Networking News, here are the titles of the top 10 articles since I switched to Google Analytics in Sept. 2006:

• Change Your Linksys WRT54G Admin Password Right Now!
• WPA Cracking Proof of Concept Available
• Weakness in Passphrase Choice in WPA Interface
• Most Wireless Speakers Don't Live Up to Goal
• Best Wi-Fi Signal Finder Yet
• Linksys Latest Models: Your Experience?
• T-Mobile Loses Starbucks; AT&T Becomes Wi-Fi Hotspot Giant
• Editorial: Don't Buy Draft N
• WPA for Free under Windows 2000
• The L in Linksys WRT54GL Stands for Linux

A few observations. Security remains key in people's minds: Security articles from 2004 are still being heavily viewed in 2008. Linksys is definitely high in people's minds for particular problems: Change the default password, buy a Linux (not VxWorks) embedded router, report problems with various models. Oddly, the wireless speakers and wireless printers articles are short stubs that are pure blog: they link to longer articles elsewhere. The Best Wi-Fi Signal Finder Yet story is 4 years old and still gets 1,000 page views a month. The invisible hand--nay, the long tail!--works in archives as it does everywhere.

Will I still be pounding away 7 years from now on this site? That seems about as unlikely as the last 7 years, which means it will probably happen. Traffic has dropped off over the years from the time in which Wi-Fi was a great (and expensive) mystery to today when there's more information and less confusion about it. As long as there are any questions to be answered, I'll keep writing.

As most road warriors will tell you, generally we pick a hotel chain and try to stay there as much as possible.  Whether it be Marriott or Hilton, Choice or Priority Club, Hyatt or Starwood, we all have a favorite that if available we will choose.  Generally, I try to stay at reasonably priced hotels and don't stay at anthing over a Courtyard very often.  However, I have a new favorite chan.  Hyatt Place by Hyatt is cool!  Not too expensive, they offer 42 inch HD TVs, spacious rooms with bedrooms and sitting areas, wet bars, work desk and upscale decor. Wireless phones and Internet included. They also have a very nice lobby, with a 24 hour kitchen and a very different check in process. Your Hyatt Gold Points are good here as well.

They are just getting rolled out in some parts of the country.  But next time you are on the road and there is one conveniently located for you, I highly recommend you check it out for yourself.

As most road warriors will tell you, generally we pick a hotel chain and try to stay there as much as possible.  Whether it be Marriott or Hilton, Choice or Priority Club, Hyatt or Starwood, we all have a favorite that if available we will choose.  Generally, I try to stay at reasonably priced hotels and don't stay at anthing over a Courtyard very often.  However, I have a new favorite chan.  Hyatt Place by Hyatt is cool!  Not too expensive, they offer 42 inch HD TVs, spacious rooms with bedrooms and sitting areas, wet bars, work desk and upscale decor. Wireless phones and Internet included. They also have a very nice lobby, with a 24 hour kitchen and a very different check in process. Your Hyatt Gold Points are good here as well.

They are just getting rolled out in some parts of the country.  But next time you are on the road and there is one conveniently located for you, I highly recommend you check it out for yourself.