With wireless, husband's now allowed upstairs

A year and a half ago, tech hobbyist Benjamin Kern's dream cametrue. His wife, Stacey, gave him a wireless access point as abirthday present.

"It's changed my life," said Kern, 32, an attorney with Gordon &Glickson, the Chicago technology law firm.

He thinks wireless technology will be changing your life as well.

Previously, Kern, who his wife describes as a "computer nerd," wasconfined to the basement of his Lincoln Park condo to play with histech toys, which included a mess of wires for a wired network linkingseveral computers.

With the wireless network, "Ben's allowed upstairs now," saidStacey 32, a corporate lawyer. "I didn't want all his stuff in theliving room."

Now Benjamin roams all three floors at home--from bedrooms andliving room to kitchen and deck--connected to his wireless network.

"I'm not the kind of person who does one thing at a time," hesaid.

While sitting on a couch watching TV with Stacey, he uses thewireless network to connect over the Internet using high-speed DSLservice to his law office to read documents, answer e-mail and finishreports. He links to the office over a highly protected networkconnection.

"I can do anything on the wireless network at home that I can doat work," he said.

Kern also uses the wireless network to link the computers in hisbasement he uses to print out documents and to manage his largedigital photo and music collections. He pays his bills online fromany room in the house.

And his wireless world moves beyond the home.

He uses a wireless card on a laptop while in airport lounges towork on contracts and to complete other tasks. He is trying to launcha plan in Chicago through which companies would share excessbandwidth to offer free Internet access in public "hot spots."

Stacey also has become a wireless fan. "I surf the Web whilewatching TV to do research for our trips and book tickets online."

She wirelessly planned a recent trip to watch the running of thebulls in Pamplona, Spain.

And even in Spain, the Kerns were connected. Benjamin broughtalong his new toy, a Treo--a hand-held communicator that is personaldigital assistant and telephone. It connects to the Internetwirelessly.

"We were surfing the Web from Spain," Stacey Kern said. "It workedgreat."