Dear Final Debug: I travel for work all the time and am sick of my lousy options for connecting to the Net. Any modem faster than 28.8 always gets bounced down to 28.8, and don’t even get me started on cellular modems. Is there a better way? — Joe Fego, Springfield. Final Debug Responds: Joe, the best solution is to stay in the office all the time — a T-3 can’t be strapped onto a PalmPilot just yet. However, some solutions are on the way. One of the most promising I’ve seen is EtherLoop, a near-portable Ethernet solution invented by Elastic Networks, a division of Nortel. The company demonstrated the system at PC Forum last month, where it worked easily and flawlessly. Using my battered circa-1995 laptop with an Ethernet PCMCIA card, all I had to do was connect the card’s dongle to an Etherloop port, turn on the computer, and without having to dial anywhere or configure anything, the machine was connected to the Net at near-Ethernet speeds. It was simple and straightforward. To be sure, I stuck around the EtherLoop suite to learn how others fared and the results were mixed. Some discovered conflicts with their laptop’s existing network drivers, a few couldn’t connect at all, but most got on line as quickly and painlessly as I did. Granted, PC Forum is an extremely controlled situation — less than 25 concurrent connections and a dozen tech-support people in the same room — but EtherLoop was the only new product at the conference that solved an identifiable problem with little mess. Elastic Networks plans to market to the hospitality industry first. Devices are set to begin production this week with full production expected by June. Since EtherLoop forces little rewiring, it may have a good market there, and since Nortel is a massive company, it has some other corresponding initiatives, including a 1-meg modem geared toward the consumer market. There’s a danger of cannibalization here. However, Elastic Networks will face some fierce competition. GTE is launching ADSL trials in 16 states in June, and several other companies already offer fast (if cranky) Net access in various hotels and business centers. If Elastic Networks can scale, it might turn out to be one of the easiest solutions to get online on the road, yet. Are you using Ethernet on the road? We want to know.
This is your final warningDon’t any of you have children? Apparently not, because no one answered last week’s question correctly, so here’s a final chance to win a copy of Preston Gralla’s book “Online Kids: A Young Surfer’s Guide to Cyberspace” (Wiley). It’s a question that only those surfing children’s sites can answer:Which online children’s service includes a DigSig Zapper f you know the answer, tell us! The person to send the first correct reply will win.
