Make your house a Wi-Fi hotspot
Turning your entire house into a Wi-Fi hot spot can cost as little as Rs 6,000 initial investment.
By Kavita Kukday, TNN |
You’ve probably come across the concept of Wi-Fi hot spots—wireless connections to the internet that are increasingly available in hotels, airports and even your local baristas and café coffee days. The ones that let you roam all over the place and still stay connected to the virtual world.
Ever wondered what it would be like to have a similar luxury at home? If you could actually chat on your computer, while at the same time your husband answers his e-mail on his notebook? Or maybe surf while you lounge at the pool downstairs? Sounds complicated and touch too expensive? But ask any expert and the answer is a resounding no both counts.
Ever wondered what it would be like to have a similar luxury at home? If you could actually chat on your computer, while at the same time your husband answers his e-mail on his notebook? Or maybe surf while you lounge at the pool downstairs? Sounds complicated and touch too expensive? But ask any expert and the answer is a resounding no both counts.
| • Turning your entire house into a hotspot can cost as little as Rs 6,000 initial investment and a monthly flat rate for the normal broadband connection • If you don’t want to invest in the equipment, most internet service providers these days have packages that allow you to rent the equipment for as low as Rs 700 a month • Creating a Wi-Fi community can cut costs to the bare minimum—get in touch with your operators to set one up • Security is an important aspect of creating a Wi-Fi network. Make sure you encrypt your connection to keep unauthorised people out |
Says Majid Khan, partner at Icom Solutions, a company that is in the business of setting up hotspots at residence and commercial complexes: “You can use the existing broadband line and add inexpensive wireless access points (that cost Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000) and top it off with a router (Rs 2,500). These are hardware that will convert the signals coming across the modem into a wireless broadcast, which can then be picked up by any computer capable of making a wireless connection. After the initial investment the owners have to pay only about Rs 800 a month for internet access anywhere in the house. If you don’t care to buy the initial equipment, you could always take up one of the plans from companies like Tata Indicom and Airtel that allow you to go unwired for a small fee of around Rs 700 per month, including the modem rentals.”
Wi-Fi at home is not just about the convenience of surfing the internet while you watch TV. For starters there are online services like Skype that offer free calls from computer to computer, anywhere in the world. You might argue, why would one need to be wireless for the calls? Well, there’s certainly no need, unless you put these services to innovative use like Mumbai-based Sujata Sharma did.
Sharma has a two-year-old baby, who stays with a sitter all day while she and her husband are at work. “She is impossible to handle when she is upset and only my voice can soothe her down,” says Sharma. “So I decided to set up Wi-Fi at my place and leave my notebook connected to Skype. Now whenever the baby cries, I can talk to her from work for free!” she says.
Many geeks are already lapping up this technology. Some even go a step further and turn themselves into hotspot providers—like Anil Batra from Bandra, Mumbai. He not only has his entire two-bedroom apartment under wi-fi coverage, but also shares it with his neighbours for free. “I don’t mind neighbours piggybacking my Wi-Fi,” he says. “I don’t use it always, and if I need to I can lock it down.”
People that do so, however, should pay special attention to security to prevent hackers stealing their data, says Narendra Bhandari, director - Asia Pacific (Intel) SSG, global developer relations division.
But that’s simple too, he explains: “To secure your network you can just change an open network—one that can be entered by anyone within range—into a slightly closed network that can be used only by people who have authorisation, by ‘encrypting’ it. This allows the person setting up the network to assign a password that authorised users are given to obtain access.”
However, not everyone can afford to give out freebies. In such cases, instead of taking the entire cost upon yourself, you could build a community Wi-Fi—a concept similar to a car-pool, where everyone shares the costs.
And this is not difficult at all says Sunil Rao, account manager for Enterprise Cisco Systems India & SAARC: “Many buildings already have a high-speed broadband connection installed. So all you need to do to allow tenants to dip into the existing bandwidth is to install a wireless router that can beam the signal around the building—it is a one time cost of about Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. This again can be shared.”
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