BeWan wi-fi PCI 54 can connect your desktop

WHILE INTEL is set to put the wi-fi cats among the pigeons in the second quarter by creating wi-fi access points and nodes on its future chipsets, there are still going to be a lot of people who aren't quite ready to bankrupt themselves by buying a PCI-Express machine without AGP and with the pricey DDR-2.

So in the meantime there are quite a few companies jumping into the wi-fi fray with their own third party answer to the riddle of how to connect a desktop to a home wi-fi network.

That's what BeWan has done with its PCI54 answer. The small card comes with an eight inch aerial and claims to provide 54G (802.11g) connectivity for desktop PCs.

Installation is pretty easy, provided you've a spare PCI slot, but the aerial which connects to a socket on the outside of the mounting plate is a little bit fiddly if like me you haven't a great deal of space behind your desktop.

The PCI board effectively has a wireless PC card built onto it, and the necessary circuitry to make your desktop recognise it. You use the CD supplied to install the software first, then bung the PCI card into place and reboot.

The software puts a little utility in the task bar which you double click to configure your connection. Once the card's in place, it displays itself in the network as an additional NIC (network interface card). From there, and provided you have a wireless LAN set up in your house or place of work, it's merely a matter of entering your encrypted password or key, and off you go. You have encrypted your wireless LAN, haven't you?

Here's a neat solution to people who have desktops and want to enable Internet connections without trailing Ethernet cables everywhere. It's a neat solution, but it's also a bit pricey at about €90. Compare that with the tiny Asus access point/Ethernet adaptor which we reviewed a little earlier this year.

No doubt prices of these units will fall as people begin to realise that Intel and its OEM customers are building everything wi-fi into desktops without the need of third party solutions like this or the Asus unit. But if it's a quick fix you want and you don't expect to be seriously upgrading your desktop for a while, this PCI card may well meet the bill.

As well as selling this PCI card, BeWan also sells an access point and a PC Card for notebooks, claimed to be compatible with both 802.11b and 802.11g standards. It also supplies wireless aerials to improve connections, both omni-directional and directional. µ

L'INQ
Bewan