1. Introduction

By now, I'm sure you've read enough about the low show attendance, impending bankruptcy of Key3Media - Comdex's owner, and Tablet PCs to become nauseous at the prospect of my going over them one more time. Never fear, because all I'm going to write about them is what you just read...

The main networking news from the show is the from-out-of-nowhere explosion of 802.11g product announcements, or more correctly "IEEE 802.11g draft standard" products, since 11g isn't slated to be ratified until May 2003. That little detail doesn't appear to be stopping some vendors, with chip-maker Broadcom leading the rebel alliance that's essentially trying to co-opt both the Wi-Fi Alliance and IEEE's role in interoperability testing and standards setting. More on that in the 802.11g section.

Since I posted news items on the formal announcements that were made for routers and existing wireless (802.11a, b, a/b) categories as they came in, I won't repeat that information in this report. Just use the Shown but not Announced section.

In other wireless news, or maybe I should say indication of future news, is the large number of inexpensive ~$50-$60 Bluetooth USB "dongles" that could be seen in the various Asian vendors' booths. Go to the Bluetooth page to see what's shakin' there.

Last, but not least, HomePlug seems to be trying a second run at the market with multiple vendors showing second-generation "wall-wart" type designs. Click over to the HomePlug area for that info.

And away we go!