This wireless product follows an earlier AnyPoint entry that uses the telephone lines in a house to move data in place of the bulky and difficult to program Ethernet systems commonly used in businesses. The radio product is less than one-fifth as fast as Ethernet but amply speedy for home use. The great joy to networking with AnyPoint is that the Windows Plug and Play system makes setting up a home network a simple exercise of plugging a device into the USB connection in the back of computers and following a setup wizard display that takes as little as 5 minutes from opening the box to Web sharing.
Laptops can use either the USB device or PC card transmitters.
The ultraparanoid will note that the setup requires activating the Windows file-sharing feature that makes home computers potentially vulnerable to Internet intruders, but the risk is all but infinitesimal. To guard against hackers, each household makes up an 8-digit network identification number that an intruder must guess to break in. The upside is that file sharing lets all computers in a home swap files and folders as needed, while letting one computer act as an Internet server and the others as clients. With a 150-foot range, the devices allow up to 10 client computers in a single radio network.