(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Panasonic KX-HGW200 Broadband Networking Gateway and KX-GFC200 11Mbps Wireless LAN PC Card offer an easy way to network your home and share bandwidth, peripherals, and files. The Concourse measures an unobtrusive 8x10x2 inches, and its beige shell blends right in with your PC. It connects with desktop and notebook PCs via Ethernet cables, existing phone lines, or wireless signals. The Concourse can also connect via all three modes simultaneously.

Getting started is a breeze. First, you'll need to decide which network interface to use. The Concourse Gateway is ready to plug into computers enabled for Ethernet (10BaseT),

the granddaddy of networking standards. If your computer doesn't already have an Ethernet NIC, then consider using existing phone wires. The Concourse supports Home PNA 2.0 (Phone Network Alliance), which lets you share data across the telephone wires already in your home, provided your computers have standard PNA plug-in cards.

The wireless option is the easiest network interface to install and use. The Concourse supports ShareWave's WhiteCap technology, a modification of the 802.11b standard for exchanging data wirelessly at speeds up to 11Mbps--plenty of bandwidth to stream an MPG or an MP3 file. ShareWave, claims that WhiteCap provides better multimedia support and reliability. Panasonic claims that the Concourse will work at distances of up to 100 feet indoors and 840 feet outdoors, but performance will vary depending on the environment. In our test, the system worked within distances of only about 75 feet indoors and about 300 feet outdoors.

We had just one complaint about the Panasonic Concourse: You'll need to buy two wireless PC Cards (at $150 a pop) to use the wireless networking feature. One card slips into the computer you wish to network, the other card slips into the Concourse device. Panasonic's marketing, advertising, and packaging do not make this fact clear, so be forewarned.

Panasonic; Secaucus, N.J.; 800-662-3537; www.panasonic.com; $100 router; $150 each card