Barely two weeks ago, Intel Corp. upgraded its AnyPoint line of home networking products from the 1.6Mbps HomeRF to the 11Mbps IEEE 802.11b/WiFi wireless standard. Now Intel is aggressively moving to put the next-generation 802.11a specification, which offers wireless data transfer speeds up to 54Mbps, into small and medium offices.

The Intel Pro/Wireless 5000 series, due to ship in volume in November, includes a desktop PCI adapter ($229), notebook CardBus PC Card adapter ($179), and LAN Access Point ($449). The latter supports up to 64 users, as well as eight channels (allowing eight access points in the same area to share up to 432Mbps of bandwidth). An optional, dual-mode expansion kit will enable access points to service both 802.11a and 802.11b networks.

All the 802.11a products operate in the 5.2GHz radio frequency band, which is free from the interference on the 2.4GHz band that can occur between 802.11b devices and other products such as Bluetooth or HomeRF adapters, some cordless phones, or microwave ovens. They will include Intel's Pro/Wireless Adapter Switching software, which automatically detects and opens connections and lets mobile users switch between wired and wireless networking configurations without reconfiguring their PCs.

For offices where 11Mbps is enough, Intel has also upgraded its Pro/Wireless 802.11b product line by adding a USB adapter ($169) and PCI adapter ($199) to its PC Card ($149) and access point ($699) products.