Digital Home Advisor

The Wi-Fi Alliance celebrated the first anniversary of the 802.11n draft 2.0 certification last week, and said the faster Wi-Fi technology's "upward trajectory ... continues unabated."

Nearly three weeks after security vendor Symantec released a free tool to clean up PCs crippled by the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) update, Microsoft issued a fix that should reestablish lost Internet and wireless connections.

With Wi-Fi already available in many coffee shops and coming soon to some airplanes, it was only a matter of time before a US carmaker started offering Wi-Fi access for automobiles.

Fujitsu Microelectronics has announced a new mobile WiMAX chipset optimized for mobile WiMAX devices such as smart phones and PDAs. The chipset includes a baseband LSI, MB86K22; an RF LSI, MB86K52; and a power management LSI, MB39C316. These three devices are essential to produce a competitive WiMAX module. The chipset was designed to fit in the 12x12mm WiMAX module. The standby current - which has a direct impact on battery life - will not exceed 0.5mA, facilitating the development of more competitive mobile WiMAX terminals.

E-mail collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange has released beta software that adds an enterprise-critical feature to Apple's popular iPhone -- the ability to receive calendar and contact updates wirelessly instead of plugging the device into a computer.

Faster and farther-reaching networking are just a couple of the advantages of an 802.11 draft-n based wireless network, so if you're in the market for a new wireless router, you should ensure that you get one that's capable of running the latest standard.

I'm a big fan of wireless mice, and at home -- where my only PCs are notebooks -- I've been using wireless optical notebook mice for years. All use a dongle, and while the dongles have been getting smaller, they're prone to breakage and sometimes I just lose the darn things.

Increasingly, the world is becoming wireless. At home, at work, and on the road, you'll often connect to Wi-Fi networks and hotspots for Internet access. But doing so isn't always simple. You can use some assistance in finding and connecting to hotspots and networks, making sure that you don't link to any that are dangerous, and protecting yourself when you do connect.

Network security can be a thorny issue for small businesses because they generally lack pricey equipment and dedicated IT people who have the expertise to lock down a local area network. But addressing security is nevertheless essential: Just one customer data breach could easily wipe out a small business, and constantly battling viruses, spyware, and spam can sap employee productivity.

Does all this talk of WiMAX, 3G and 4G make your head spin? Here's a quick primer about what each technology really delivers.

Even if you're paying top dollar for high-speed Internet service, you may not be getting the performance you expect. Follow our guide to boost your broadband speed.

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Wi-Fi that crawls, connections that come unconnected, and printers that stop sharing -- our expert provides remedies for these common network woes.