I must admit I was a bit of a skeptic as to whether or not I could deliver my commitment to a Christmas present for my two young daughters this year. I know what you're thinking, "What in the world does this have to do with telecommunications or technology?"

Well avid readers, I was faced with a very similar situation as many of the MTU and MDU owners who read my column and this fine magazine, "How do I extend the cable company's broadband Internet connection to two additional rooms in my 15 year old home?"

The first option I considered was the installation of category 5 cabling with a 100-megabit hub. The challenge was to find a method (or route) to get from my second floor bedroom to two additional bedrooms on the same floor without exposing used wire mold or exposing any cable.

I pulled one of the electrical outlooks apart and attempted to "fish" a cable from the second floor up to the third floor crawl space hoping I could go up to the crawl space, across the length of the house, and back down to my bedroom. Well, guess what? I could not get farther than a few feet before I hit a snag. After several hours attempting various other routes, I threw in the towel, had some herbal tea and rested my nerves. Keep in mind that it is only two weeks until Christmas at this point.

I then contacted several "professional" cable installers that we do business with to see if they could come to my rescue. Unfortunately, all them were fully committed and could not offer help until after the holidays. A friend suggested beginning the wire run from a new location and heading south to the basement. This time I gave up after the first hour of frustration!

Mild panic is now setting in. The new PC's have been ordered, it is too late to shop for alternative gifts and I have been "hinting" for weeks to my girls that a "technology" present was coming from Dad this year. I know they know what I am up to.

Ok, I am in the business of solving technology challenges so I just sat back and had another brew of herbal tea--this time it was Tension Tamer. I just happened to be behind in my trade journal reading and picked up a trade magazine and low and behold I found an article on SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) Wireless LAN Routers.

So, I began some research on Wireless LAN Routers and Bridges. The three market leaders appeared to be Lucent, Intel and Buffalo Technologies. Of course, I did not want to spend a small fortune (Intel Router alone is almost $1,000), but desperate people tend to do desperate things!

What really intrigued me was that many of the suppliers I browsed to over the WEB, rated the least expensive unit from Buffalo Technologies as the best. It did not take long to decide. I selected the Buffalo AirStation and ordered the router/bridge with three wireless LAN card adapters. Two days later they arrived. I could not wait to get started.

Leaving the entire morning of the Friday before Christmas open, thinking it would take this long, I began first by calling my cable company to give them a heads up as to what I would be installing. I would need them to reconfigure my Internet connection so it would recognize the address of my new router in place of the network interface card (NIC) in my notebook computer. Well, you could have guessed what their reaction was, "We don't support the installation of routers or bridges--you're on your own." They did offer to change my configuration on their servers with the new address of the Buffalo AirStation but that was it.

All of this made me a little nervous but Christmas was upon me and, as I mentioned, I was getting desperate so I forged ahead. I loaded the Buffalo software and drivers on my laptop, plugged in the router and within 20 minutes I was wirelessly connected to the router/bridge. The next step required the connection from the router/bridge to the cable modem. I did that, powered everything off and restarted. I heard the confirmation tones on my cable modem and knew I was in business.

I was truly amazed at the ease of the installation and configuration. Next, I installed the Wireless LAN adapters in the new PC's, loaded the software and drivers and it was a wrap in less than 30 minutes. My wireless LAN is now complete and I was able to bring the whole project in at under $900. I have my laptop and two workstations connected. Best of all, my two daughters were going to be smiling on Christmas morning and that makes me feel great!

Every building owner should really spend some time investigating these new wireless LAN technologies. Financial comparisons should be made before investing in re-wiring a building.

In closing, I gained an added bonus with my project. My laptop and its high-speed Internet access can now roam from room to room and I can travel up to 300 feet outside. Do you know what this means? Yes, sitting by the pool in July, checking my email, and browsing the Internet! Boy, you have got to love this technology!

Footnote: In an effort to bring up awareness of this technology, we have started a topic in our technology chat forum on this subject. Feel free to lurk, post a comment or question. Point your browser to: http://www.cablemeup.com/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=258 or go to http://www.cablemeup.com/forum/ and go to the Wireless Local Loop Forum. Enjoy!