The Case For...Wireless

Dispense with the clutter of cabling… wireless networks are simple, cheaper than wired, transportable and no longer insecure

Wireless networks are relatively cheap, straightforward to secure and fairly easy to implement. By contrast, wired networks require careful planning and ongoing cable maintenance, and are a complete pain to extend.

Anyone who administers a wired LAN will know that there are several unavoidable facts that will cause you headaches within a year of completing the installation. The first is that management will decide to re-plan the entire office, moving all the open-plan cubicles around and leaving you tearing your hair out while you rewire the whole network. If you’d gone for a wireless LAN, you’d have saved yourself the hassle.

Then there’s the delight of the carefully planned extensions into the next floor up or down, the office next door, the temporary relocation down the road where they want to keep the costs to a minimum, and so on. Let’s face it, whenever you’ve got your network running smoothly, some twit is bound to come along and wreck it for you.

Fatal attraction
The second immutable fact about wired LANs is that workmen are fatally attracted to the cabling. It doesn’t matter how well you’ve shielded your network conduits or how many times you’ve shown the workman where it is – give him a power drill or the remit to move offices around, and he’ll find your cabling in a way you really didn’t want him to.

By contrast, wireless networks are simple. Almost all laptops come with wireless interfaces built-in, making adoption simple and attractive. Increasing numbers of office workers are being issued with wireless-equipped laptops and, for those machines without them pre-installed, wireless LAN cards are cheap enough to make installation costs much lower than for a wired network.

And should you want to move, you can take just about all your kit with you very simply.

Cable clearout
For some, just the lack of wires is wonderful! My corporate laptop, a Dell Latitude D8920, has a b/g card and both at work and at home I typically rely on wireless for communications. I only ever plug in to the wired network if I need to copy across large files, such as a VM or ISO image, or a large Grateful Dead concert.

Of course, people do get into a bit of a tizzy about the security of wireless networks. The main issue with wireless is that the transmission medium is the air. Thus, unlike a wired LAN, anyone with a wireless card-equipped PC (ie a laptop) can access the wireless network.

It’s true that the early wireless security protocol, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP, a total misnomer), was weak and very easy to hack, and anyone relying on that isn’t really secure. However, a later standard 802.11i (WPA and WPA2), provides great security, and in addition an entire industry has grown up to provide security of the wireless network, so it can be as secure as any wired network.

Talking of which, how secure is a wired network if someone gains physical access?

The simple life
Another key benefit of wireless is simplicity, especially for the road warriors or those who move around your building with their laptop.

There’s no need to provide cables for each user (and replace them when the RJ45 connector breaks). For most users and most usage, the speed and reliability of the wireless network is rarely an issue. Earlier this year, I downloaded a couple of large DVD ISO images (Windows Server 2008) via wireless. And while it wasn’t fast, it was more than adequate.

A final benefit is that wireless Internet access is now ubiquitous both inside and outside the organisation. I regularly use it in the many airports I travel through, at the hotels I stay in, and at the coffee shops and restaurants I frequent on my travels. As someone who travels extensively, I’m not sure what I’d do without wireless. It’s true that some hotels and other venues use wireless as a way of fleecing the customer, but there are plenty of shops, airport lounges, and so on that offer free or low-cost wireless access.

All in all, wireless LANs cost less than wired LANs, they can be as secure as you wish, and they are ubiquitous for the road warrior. In other words: wireless is a real winner.