Gateway releases wireless networking products
Gateway Inc. unveiled several new products to allow PC users to connect to wireless networks Thursday, as part of its year-long rollout of new products. The new wireless routers, USB (universal serial bus) adapters, and PC cards use the 802.11g and 802.11b standards for wireless networking. The 802.11g standard enables wireless connections as fast as 54M bps (bits per second), although in most cases users will experience connection speeds of around 20M bps. The 802.11b standard allows connections as fast as 11 bps, but is also somewhat slower in most cases.
Gateway on Thursday introduced an 802.11g router at $99 and an 802.11b router at $69. The Poway, California, company also released a $59 wireless USB adapter that connects desktop PCs to 802.11b wireless networks via a USB port, and a $69 PCI adapter that is installed inside a PC's case through a PCI (peripheral component interconnect) slot for connections to 802.11g networks.
For notebook users, Gateway now offers two PC cards for wireless networking. The Gateway 802.11g Cardbus Card costs $59, and the Gateway 802.11b card costs $49.
