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To be, or not to be, WIRED!

You would have heard the following sentiments many times over the last couple of years.

Wireless is VERY insecure!

Wireless is VERY slow!

And they were correct to begin with. Wireless was insecure and slow. Many large corporations across the globe rolled out countless wireless networks without first waiting for the technology to stabilise and develop an industry wide standard on which to base the future direction of wireless networking.

Now that wireless has stabilised on the 802.11g (54Mbps) standard, and with the introduction of WPA, filtering, encryption and thoroughly tested, server based authentication, fears can be put to rest and we can begin to embrace the concept of wireless networks.

Wireless, due to the key improvements mentioned above, is a very real alternative in many businesses, from small entities right up to the large ones with hundreds of PCs in multi-storey buildings, even across WAN sites. The significant level of adoption of wireless has pushed prices down rapidly, so that now it competes, and often betters traditional wired hardware on price and functionality.

Wireless can be enabled on almost any PC running Windows 2000 or better which has a free PCI expansion slot. For laptops, PCMCIA cards can be purchased. But, many new laptops come with wireless capability either built in or configured to be easily upgraded to make use of an installed antenna.

The Benefits of Wireless

The most obvious benefit of wireless is self-explanatory: one less wire that you have worry about for each workstation. No more crawling around under desks to find that elusive network point. No more running cables through ceilings and walls. No more expensive cable technicians to run that extra point.

Wireless enables many small PDA type devices to interact with your network, with the correct permissions of course! This increases the return on investment of these types of devices, which were previously classed only as executive toys.

Wireless gives freedom to a mobile office where staff move about freely with their laptops and other wireless devices. Imagine large boardroom presentations without the ugly network cable running from one corner of the room to the presenter’s laptop. Wireless gives users the ability to do what they want, where they want, when they want within your office.

Wireless also spreads into many other areas outside of just connecting workstations. Wireless broadband modems, printers, video surveillance and even games adapters, all without the need to cable additional network points in your premises.

Implementation

All of this technology sounds fantastic, but you may be asking, “How do we go about implementing it?” The process is simple. In the first place, perform a wireless survey. In the same way that you would choose the most suitable car to match your requirements and budget, so you must determine the most appropriate approach to any wireless network implementation.

A wireless survey involves three key elements:

1.      A physical mapping of the structure

2.      Determining signal strengths, and

3.      Analysing the security of your potential setup and interaction of any surrounding wireless networks.

This type of survey will determine the best location for your routers and additional wireless access points, the most appropriate channel to avoid interference and signal overlap with other wireless networks and a unique SSID to assign within your wireless networks physical range to avoid interference from other wireless networks.

Selection of wireless hardware can make a big difference. Businesses should always implement business quality hardware with the appropriate facilities, warranties and support services. Home users may pay less for hardware, but the hardware will often not have the same feature set as its business counterparts.

Rolling out your hardware is the second to last step. Smaller site can generally be installed in an afternoon. Businesses, on the other hand, may need to stage their wireless implementation. This lessens the impact of downtime on staff and on the enterprise as a whole. Selecting a less critical area of your business to begin with is generally the best way to go. Any issues or changes can be addressed and this experience will streamline subsequent stages of the implementation.

Whether you are a home user or business running hundreds of workstations, reviewing your hardware is critical to assess user demand on the network and to make sure that any new security developments are incorporated into your system, if applicable. This review should be done within 6 months of going live.

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Thank you.

Stewart Rankin Pty Ltd – ACN 007 972 901 & DL & LD Greenhough trading as

TRIPOS IT


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STOP PRESS

Beware Windows XP Service Pack 2

Much has been made of the security benefits of Microsoft’s latest service pack for the current release of its Windows operating system. But applying SP2 is a two edged sword.

There is a significant risk that the numerous benefits touted for this update may be offset by the problems it causes to many applications.

Before applying SP2, and we do not recommend this action yet, please ensure you have a complete backup of your system, preferably an image of the whole drive. We have found that unloading SP2 can regress your system to a much earlier level and also effect Internet Explorer.