Increased use of laptop computers and an increase in worker mobility has fueled the demand for wireless networks. Up until recently, wireless technology was a patchwork of incompatible systems from a variety of vendors. The technology was slow, and expensive or hostile environments where cabling was impractical or impossible. With the improvements of industry standards and the development of wireless networking hardware, wireless technology has come of age.

The benefits to users of laptops who move from location to location throughout the day are obvious, but there are benefits for users of fixed position computers as well:

Many older buildings and businesses have unsuitable building layouts or walls that cannot be wired for various reasons making it difficult or impossible to build a wired network. Wireless networking in these environments is a very cost-effective alternative also providing for future growth.

Wireless communications provide potential security issues. Possible intruders do not need physical access to the traditional wired network in order to gain access to data communications. However wireless network communications cannot be received or decoded by simple scanners, short wave receiver. This does not mean that wireless communications cannot be eavesdropped by using specialist equipment.

To protect against any potential security issues wireless network communications have a function called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), a form of encryption which provides privacy comparable to that of a traditional wired network.

The term wireless networking refers to technology that enables two or more computers to communicate without network cabling. This technology has produced a number of affordable wireless solutions that are growing in popularity.

Using a wireless network you can connect from 10 to 100 wireless computers. Of course the more computer systems that are attached require more expensive access hubs.

One type of wireless network consists of a number of computers each equipped with a wireless networking interface card. Each computer can communicate directly with all of the other wireless enabled computers. They can share files and printers this way.

A wireless network can also use an access point, or base station. All wireless network enabled computers communicate with a central hub connected to the main server. It can connect the wireless network to a wired network, allowing wireless computer access to file servers or existing Internet Connectivity.

The hub can either be a stand alone device called a base station or a computer already connected to the network equipped with a wireless network interface card.

Because most wireless networking hardware vendors are supporting the standard they can interoperate, but be sure to obtain guarantees from the vendors that the hardware will interoperate and follows the standards.

Of course there is a finite range within which a wireless connection can be maintained between the client computer and the access point. The actual distance can vary. Manufacturers typically state ranges to give a reasonable indication of reliable performance.

Typical ranges are 150-300 feet, but can be shorter if the building construction interferes with radio transmissions. Longer ranges are possible, but performance will degrade with distance.

Using more than a single access point or using a wireless relay /extension point can extend the basic operating range of wireless communications.

When using multiple access points, each access point wireless area should overlap its neighbors. This allows users to roam seamlessly within a given area.

A wireless computer can “roam” from one access point to another, with the software and hardware maintaining a steady network connection by monitoring the signal strength from in-range access points and locking on to the one with the best quality. Usually this is completely transparent to the user; they are not aware that a different access point is being used from area to area. Some access point configurations require security authentication when swapping access points, usually in the form of a password dialog box.

You can use a wireless network to share an Internet connection the same as you would if you were using a normal network. Wireless cards are comparable to normal network ethernet cards. These use empty space the same way a normal network uses network cabling.

If an existing wired network already has an Internet connection, then the wireless access points simply connect to your network and allow wireless computers to access the existing Internet connection in the same way as wired network computers.

Wireless network cards look just like normal network ethernet cards to your network drivers. In fact, wireless networking cards have unique hardware addresses that are formatted like network ethernet hardware addresses allocated from the same standards organization.

What this all means is that you now have another option to making a wired network work in a difficult situation. Many older buildings weren’t built with a computer network in mind. It might be impossible or cost prohibitive to set up a wired network. Or if your firm has just as many mobile computers as it does desktop systems then a wireless network might be the most practical and convenient method of communicating with the people in your office.

For more information try some of these links:

http://www.enterasys.com/technologies/wireless 

http://www.maxtech.com/ 

http://www.waverider.com/ 

http://www.lucent.com/ 

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