WiFi: a new network alternative: hop onto that laptop and enjoy Internet connection free of charge.

• Author: Mackie, Adam P.
• Position: Wireless fidelity

Computer networking over wireless frequencies is blowing over Alaska airspace. WiFi, or wireless fidelity, is changing the way many communicate over the Internet. Whether it involves checking daily news reports, reading e-mails, receiving business memos or babysitting online stocks, WiFi Internet soon may become as commonplace as cellular phones.

"Wireless is extremely easy to use and very user-friendly in public networks," said Alan Caruth, GCI networks solutions engineer. "It will be the 'average Joe' networking choice."

People with a laptop and a wireless card plugged into the side can access free Internet, within a limited range. WiFi allows convenient Internet use to anyone with the proper equipment wanting to take advantage of this new technology. A wireless access point is set up in an area the same way as a radio antenna, opening up the airwaves to the public to use the Internet.

"The frequencies used in (wireless) technology are public frequencies. No one owns them and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) doesn't assign them," said Dan Toomey, AT&T Alascom data network consultant.

One good example of how WiFi can be used was during last winter's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. GCI is an official sponsor of the Iditarod and is a service provider that offers almost every basic wireless technology. Caruth said multiple forms of WiFi were set up along the trail to gain access from point A to point B and grant access to those needing to use the Internet. Caruth said wireless networking gives people the ability to get data communication in places never accessed before.

"The minute we eliminate being place bound for computing and permit computing to take place anywhere, it is going to charge a big surge for the demand for service and will change a lot of the way we do things," said Richard Whitney, the University of Alaska Anchorage's associate vice provost.

College campuses across the nation, such as the University of California Berkely, have already adopted WiFi technology. Designated areas on the campus are marked by circles and labeled with the letters "WF," indicating an area for free Internet use. Students can sit at picnic tables, in coffee shops or lie out on the grass and browse the Web.

Whitney doesn't think the Anchorage campus can be entirely blanketed with wireless services like that of Berkley, but three years ago, UAA be gan looking at a potential wireless network solution for the university. However, budget...