Wireless LAN: Getting better with time

Two things have been happening in our computing life in the last couple of years.

First, our computers and other computing devices have tended to become linked to each other through a network. They may be connected to each other through a Local Area Network (LAN) using Ethernet cables and a router or a switch.

Second, the LAN is also getting increasingly wireless, which means that we rely more and more on radio frequency rather than the physical cables to transmit and receive data.

It is funny, because actually connecting your notebook to a conventional LAN is very easy. Most notebooks today have a built- in Ethernet port in addition to a modem. All you have to do is snap the Ethernet cable into the RJ-45 port at the rear of the notebook, and you are all set to use other resources that are available on the network, such as the network printer and modem.

But, as if to demonstrate once again how strongly tech companies influence the way we use our computing devices, we want wireless access to our LAN -- and the Internet. The wireless promise is that you can move around with your notebook in hand and stay connected to your network. Whether this really increases productivity depends, of course, on the people working in an office.

Wireless access devices are now available from various vendors, including Cisco, Intel, 3Com and Symbol. The majority of them follow the 802.11b standard, which is also known as Wi-Fi.

For shorter distances, Bluetooth offers an alternative. The theoretical maximum speed of data transfer is 11 Mbps for Wi-Fi, or around 1 Mbps for Bluetooth, but other factors such as interference and distance will certainly reduce this substantially.

IDC predicted in a report in April this year that WLAN would impact the LAN the way mobile phones have impacted the fixed-line PSTN. That shows how strong the popularity of wireless LAN is expected to be in the near future.

One big challenge in implementing wireless LAN (WLAN) access is security. How do you know that the data your notebook is sending to the network is not being read by a nearby device? One solution is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), but this requires a lot of investment and reduces roaming flexibility.

If standards are still evolving, and obstacles such as security issues are being ironed out, where would people need a wireless LAN? Certainly a workplace where the workers are on the move all the time is the most likely candidate for a wireless LAN.

Take the people in a hospital, for example. The nurses are constantly moving around, and so are the doctors. Patients may have to be wheeled into the operating room, and then into the ICU and then back to their wards. A tech-savvy hospital, with information and data on patients' conditions constantly fed into the computer, would certainly benefit from the flexibility of constant access to the network without having to plug and unplug the Ethernet cable into the RJ-45 jack all the time.

An article by George V. Hulme in Informationweek.com last month, however, underscored the fact that security in many large enterprises is under threat because managers and executives take the initiative to install their own wireless access points.

Without proper encryption or other security assurances, spies from competing companies can sit in their cars and use their Wi- Fi-enabled notebooks to share the network access and avail themselves of confidential data.

Anyone with a notebook, a wireless card and software such as Netstumbler (www.netstumbler.org) can drive around in his car and finds hot spots where he can have free access to the Internet, as well as important corporate data if the wireless LAN is not properly secured. Someone named Peter Shipley coined the words "wardriving" and "warwalking" for this kind of activity.

For home use, you can buy any of the low-cost wireless LAN access devices, which will also enable you to share Internet access. These wireless peripherals are already available in Ratu Plaza and other computer trade centers in Jakarta.

The access is, in many cases, still limited within the walls of the same room. However, in a corporate environment, it is clear that a very strict policy needs to be enforced and the wireless infrastructure has to be built properly.

The good news is that the technology is getting better every day. Two new wireless technologies, HyperLAN/2 and 802.11a, will make the market even livelier. However, the threat in the corporate environment is real, as we can see from numerous reports in the media, and therefore this technology will have to be handled with extra care.

-- Zatni Arbi