Wireless Networking

Convenience - The wireless nature of such networks allows users to access network resources from nearly any convenient location within their primary networking environment (a home or office). With the increasing saturation of laptop-style computers, this is particularly relevant.

Mobility - With the emergence of public wireless networks, users can access the internet even outside their normal work environment. Most chain coffee shops, for example, offer their customers a wireless connection to the internet at little or no cost.

Productivity - Users connected to a wireless network can maintain a nearly constant affiliation with their desired network as they move from place to place. For a business, this implies that an employee can potentially be more productive as his or her work can be accomplished from any convenient location.

Deployment - Initial setup of an infrastructure-based wireless network requires little more than a single access point. Wired networks, on the other hand, have the additional cost and complexity of actual physical cables being run to numerous locations (which can even be impossible for hard-to-reach locations within a building).

Expandability - Wireless networks can serve a suddenly-increased number of clients with the existing equipment. In a wired network, additional clients would require additional wiring.

Cost - Wireless networking hardware is at worst a modest increase from wired counterparts. This potentially increased cost is almost always more than outweighed by the savings in cost and labor associated to running physical cables.

Security - To combat security issues, wireless networks may choose to utilize some of the various encryption technologies available. Some of the more commonly utilized encryption methods, however, are known to have weaknesses that a dedicated adversary can compromise. Novice home users may make themselves vulnerable by not utilizing proper security precautions when setting up a wireless network at home.

Range - The typical range of a common 802.11g network with standard equipment is on the order of tens of meters. While sufficient for a typical home, it will be insufficient in a larger structure. To obtain additional range, repeaters or additional access points will have to be purchased. Costs for these items can add up quickly.

Reliability - Like any radio frequency transmission, wireless networking signals are subject to a wide variety of interference.

Speed - (2018) The speed of wireless networks continues to improve with the lastest IEEEE standard 802.11ac reaching speeds up to 866.7 Mbps and the less expensive 802.11n version tops out at 150 Mbps are still far slower than wired networks which have also seen speed boosts in recent years. The current IEEE 802.3bz standards for Ethernet are 2.5 Gbps for 2.5GBASE-T and 5 Gbps for 5GBASE-T. It won’t be long until standard speeds will reach up to 10Gbps on a Cat6 cable. Cat5e can deliver speeds of 1 Gbps.

Wireless router - A router is network device that determines where data packets should go and sends them to their destination by the shortest, most efficient route. A wireless router is a router that uses radio waves to transmit data.

Wireless adapter - A wireless network adapter connects a computer to a wireless network so that they can communicate. Virtually all laptop and smaller computing units come with a built-in wireless adapter. If you want to convert your desktop computer to a wireless unit, you have to obtain a wireless adapter. The adapter slips into a slot inside the computer, with an antenna that projects out the back of the computer. You can also buy adapters that plug into a usb port.

Extender - Wireless networks have a finite range. If you find that your signal is not strong enough to cover the areas you want, a wireless extender can fix the problem. A wireless extender captures the router signal and rebroadcasts it. Plug your extender into a wall socket about halfway between the router and where you are having difficulty picking up the wireless signal.

Technology adopted by majority of mobile carriers.

Uses packet switching technology for both data and voice.

Capable of 300Mbps download speeds and 75Mbps upload speeds.

Most 4G networks use this technology.

"3rd Generation" cell phone technology first avaliable in cell phones in 2003.

Depending upon carrier 3G networks use either EDGE, EV-DO or HSPA data protocols.

Speeds range between 400 kilobits and 2Mbps, depending on the carrier and region.

"4rd Generation" cell phone technology first avaliable in cell phones in 2008.

Depending upon carrier 4G networks use either Wi-Max, HSPA+ or LTE data protocols.

Most carriers have moved or are moving to LTE.

Speeds currently range between 3.5Mbps and 19Mbps, depending on the carrier and region.

There is currently very little standardization in 4G technologies. In some cases, one company's 4G speeds could be inferior to another carrier's older 3G network.

Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) - is an older network security method from the late 1990's that is still available to support older devices, but it is no longer recommended. When you enable WEP, you set up a network security key. This key encrypts the information that one computer sends to another computer across your network. However, WEP security is relatively easy to crack.

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) - first used in 2003 to improve on or replace the flawed WEP encryption. WPA provides much stronger encryption than WEP and addresses a number of WEP weaknesses.

WPA2 - in 2006 WPA2 replaced WPA to again improve security by requiring use of stronger wireless encryption than what WPA requires. Specifically, WPA2 does not allow use of an algorithm called TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) that has known security holes (limitations) in the original WPA implementation. WPA2 uses the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), which provides government-grade encryption capabilities that are stronger than the TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) used by WPA. In fact, AES is thought to be uncrackable by even the most skilled hacker.

WPA2-PSK is intended for home and very small office networks. Each wireless device is authenticated by the same 256-bit key. With this mode, you set an encryption passphrase that must be entered by each user when connecting to the network. This passphrase can be stored on each computer, but it must be entered for each device. All users share a locally stored passphrase, which can be found and copied from a computer by anyone. This makes WPA2-PSK less secure than the WPA2-ENT mode.

WPA2-ENT is made for the enterprise network, but it's a smart choice for any business network. It provides security against more attacks than WPA2-PSK and separates users from the router's passphrase to the network. WPA2-ENT creates new encryption keys each time users log on to the network with their unique passwords, and the passphrase to the network is not stored locally. It also allows for centralized control over users' access to the wireless network, which makes management easier than with the WPA2-PSK mode.