Wireless USB Is Here at Last

The Promise
Imagine strolling into your home office, collapsing in a chair, placing your notebook on the desk and--that's it. No sifting through a rat's nest of USB cords for the single cable that connects the printer or the mouse or the digital camera or the BlackBerry. With Certified Wireless USB, placing your notebook in proximity to all your peripherals would instantly dock you into a fully wireless environment.
 
Based on the WiMedia Alliance's Ultra-Wideband common radio platform, Certified Wireless USB can handle up to 127 simultaneous device connections without a cumbersome pairing process. (Take that, Bluetooth.) CWUSB also claims to offer quick data transfer speeds: up to 480 Mbps up to 10 feet (comparable to USB 2.0), and 110 Mbps up to 33 feet.
 
The first CWUSB products are limited to wireless hubs and adapters, as well as notebooks like the Dell Inspiron 1720 and Lenovo ThinkPad T61. So for now, you're really only cutting the cord between your notebook and a hub--and whatever peripherals are plugged into that. However, the idea is that wireless USB will soon be baked into the peripherals themselves, including devices like printers and hard drives.

 

The Gear
We tested the Belkin Wireless USB Hub ($224) in a home office, where docking is a nightly ritual. Our peripherals included the Archos 604 Wi-Fi media player, 4GB Verbatim USB thumb drive, Lexmark X3550 printer, Motorola RAZR V3xx phone, HP Photosmart R937 digital camera, and a Logitech USB mouse.
 
Installing the Belkin hub was a breeze. We popped in the disc and installed drivers without a hitch. To sync the hub with the included USB adapter, however, you need to first plug the hub into your PC using the included USB cable. Also, keep in mind that you'll have to repeat this synching process for every computer you want to use with the wireless hub.

 

The Results
After we synched the hub with the dongle plugged into our notebook, we were free to place the hub anywhere within the allotted 33-foot range. Belkin includes an adapter dock, so you can position the adapter wherever you like, albeit by running another wire. All of our devices were recognized immediately, and drivers installed automatically (when necessary).
 
At close range (less than one foot), data rates were almost indistinguishable from a wired connection, and our file-transfer test took only two seconds longer from six feet. At a little more than 12 feet away, however, file transfers took much longer, and any farther away we were unable to get a signal.
 
Print jobs queued and executed in just a few seconds when the hub and adapter were nearby. At about 15 feet, our Lexmark printer took about 15 seconds to start the job. Clicking on our digicam's icon in My Computer instantly brought up the device's internal memory, and importing photos with HP's Photosmart application took only about ten seconds at close range. Our wireless mouse also performed indistinguishably from that of a wired connection.

 

The Reality
The Belkin Wireless USB Hub is a great proof of concept: The ease of use is unparalleled and far superior to Bluetooth, since the pairing process is literally plug and play. The super-fast data rates are perfect for moving large files from a portable hard drive, and the responsiveness of all our USB devices hardly made us pine for a wired connection. However, the limited range of wireless USB could pose a problem for those who like to spread out their peripherals. And the cost will need to come down--way down--before users embrace this promising wireless technology.


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