Question
What is Wireless Home Networking?
Answer
Wireless Home Networking uses radio frequency to transmit both data and voice information. In this respect, it is similar to a cordless phone that ?tunes in?to different signals on specific frequency bands and ignore others.

Question
What are the benefits of Wireless Home Networking?
Answer
Wireless home networks allows multiple PCs users to share Internet access, printers, files and drives, and participate in multi-player games without wires; offering the consumer computing flexibility and mobility. Wireless solutions offer convenient, economical, and fun network computing.

Question
How should I evaluate wireless home networks?
Answer
A good wireless home network solution should be:

• Powerful: You should be able to have all the capabilities of a typical office network such as simultaneous Internet access, file and drive sharing, and printer sharing.

• Simple: Installation should take just a few minutes and using the network should be easy and intuitive. The setup software should require answers to only a few simple prompts or questions.

• Economical: You should not have to pay much more than $100 for each networked PC. For two PCs on a home network, this is about the same cost for a good quality home printer.

• Secure: Your wireless home network should provide effective provisions to prevent unwanted access from neighbors or visitors to your neighborhood. Based on Industry Standards: Products that comply to the same industry standard work together. Look for a wireless home network that is HomeRF Certified.

Question
What is SWAP?
Answer
SWAP stands for Shared Wireless Access Protocol and is the name given by the HomeRF Working Group to its specification for data and voice wireless communication.

Question
What are the benefits of the HomeRF/SWAP standard?
Answer
HomeRF was developed and optimized to meet the unique needs of the consumer in a home or small home office environment. A powerful combination of data and voice capabilities makes HomeRF suitable for a wide variety of wireless home products. HomeRF is backed by major industry companies that are committed to ensuring interoperability among SWAP products. HomeRF is also working with other organizations, such as the Home Phoneline Network Alliance (HPNA), to deliver interoperability with complimentary home networking solutions.

Question
What are the capabilities of HomeRF?
Answer
A good wireless home network should have the following capabilities:

• Up to 150 foot range

• Networks up to 10 PCs

• Works with dial-up, DSL, and cable modems

• Works through walls and floors

• Data secured through unique network ID

• Robust and reliable and minimizes the impact of radio interference

• Includes support for near line quality voice and full telephony

Question
What are the system requirements for a HomeRF based AnyPoint network product?
Answer
System requirements include:

System Requirement	PC Card	USB Adapter
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 95 and 98	Microsoft Windows 98
Slot or Port	PC Card Slot Type II (Typically found on laptop computers manufactured after 1997.)	USB Port
Free Hard Drive Space	18MB	18MB
RAM	16MB	16MB

Question
What kind of performance can I expect?
Answer
HomeRF is designed to meet the performance demands of available applications. The product performance will easily enable a user to browse the Internet, print a web page, and listen to music all at the same time!

Question
Will customers want to use the same technology at home as they do at work?
Answer
The HomeRF Working Group recognizes that some customers will want to use the same wireless technology at home as at work; just like Ethernet (CAT 5 wiring) is used in some homes today. However, in order for a PC to move freely between home and work, it must be able to easily ?switch?from one network environment to another. Home Network manufacturers are currently working on solutions.

Question
Will HomeRF products work with HPNA-based products?
Answer
HomeRF products fully support the TCP/IP protocol that is used with HPNA based products. However, the consumer would need an interface device known as a bridge to connect the phone line network to the wireless HomeRF network. The SWAP specification defines this bridging and vendors are developing future bridging products.

Question
Will HomeRF wireless home network products be compatible with wireless products using other technologies?
Answer
Manufacturers are aware of the need for wireless technologies to work together and are working on solutions. A good example is HomeRF and Bluetooth. Initial products will be able to work independently in the same area at the same time.

Question
Can you implement the full Bluetooth and HomeRF specifications in one device?
Answer
Yes, you can implement Bluetooth and HomeRF functionality in one device.

Question
What is the difference between HomeRF and Bluetooth?
Answer
Bluetooth is a technology to connect devices without wires. The intended use is to provide short-range connections between mobile devices and to the Internet via bridging devices to different networks (wired and wireless) that provide Internet capability. HomeRF SWAP is a wireless technology optimized for the home environment. Its primary use is to provide data networking and dial tones between devices such as PC's, cordless phones, Web Tablets, and a broadband cable or DSL modem. Both technologies share the same frequency spectrum but do not interfere when operating in the same space.

Question
Why would I want interoperability between Bluetooth and HomeRF?
Answer
There are environments and situations were the two technologies might overlap. For instance, if you bring home a Bluetooth enabled handheld PDA, you may also want to synchronize address between your PDA and your home PC based mail lists.

Question
Why are manufacturers introducing wireless home networking products?
Answer
Wireless home network products offer the consumer a no-wires solution for connecting multiple PCs. Wireless network products are not only great for laptop PCs where mobility is important but compliment phoneline-based home network solutions eliminating the need to install phone jacks.

Question
Why are there multiple wireless LAN (WLAN) standards?
Answer
Wireless standards differ depending on their target market segments and associated requirements. For example, one wireless standard may be optimized for speed while another is optimized for voice or cost.

Question
Do all the competing wireless standards confuse the consumer?
Answer
As long as a wireless product is based on an industry standard, HomeRF believes the consumer is most interested in ease-of-use, convenience, price, and performance.




HOMERF - FAQ