PC Help Jansant - Guide to Wireless Network Hardware

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Hardware required for a Wireless Network

Read also: Network setup and Network Topology

A wireless network is a good solution if you wish to eliminate the need for cabling. Although not potentially as fast as a wired ethernet based network it offers a speed across the network that's satisfactory for most types of use. Wireless network standards are set by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) committee 802.11. This is further broken into 3 subcommittee's such as IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, and IEEE 802.11g.

Wi-Fi is a certification program established by the Wi-Fi Alliance to ensure inter-operability between wireless devices. The term Wi-Fi was originally intended to relate to IEEE 802.11b devices but recently has broadened to cover any IEEE 802.11 device. All Wi-Fi devices conform to the IEEE 802.11 standard. Not all IEEE 802.11 devices conform only to the Wi-Fi Standard, some brands offer propriety enhanced specifications.

Wireless Local Area Network is referred to as WLAN

• IEEE 802.11a WAP/NIC will not work with IEEE 802.11b devices.
• IEEE 802.11g WAP/NIC are designed to be backwards compatible with IEEE 802.11b devices.
• IEEE 802.11b is widely used because it is more reliable than the faster IEEE 802.11a.

Some devices can operate using 802.11g, 802.11b, or 802.11a, but not at the same time.

WAP's and Wireless NIC's

A WAP (Wireless Access Point) is used to connect all your wireless network devices. A WAP is also referred to as a cell, but is different technology to that used with mobile phones. Some WAP's can be an ADSL connection, such as an ADSL gateway, and can also connect to an ethernet network. Referred to as an "ADSL wireless router" or ADSL wireless modem". Connect WAP to hub, switch, or router via ethernet connection. Almost any computer installed with a wireless NIC can act as a WAP, but dedicated WAP's are surprisingly cheap these day's. Wireless NIC's can be PCI or USB devices. The role of a WAP is to extend the range of a wired network without using cabling. A WAP must be assigned an IP address like many other devices on your network. The task of a WAP is to extend the radio sphere in the shape of a bubble so other wireless devices can communicate with it. Every computer or device wishing to communicate on the wireless network (except one wired to a WAP) must have a wireless network interface card (NIC) installed. If you wish to extend the range of the radio transmission and it's difficult to wire additional access points to the wired network, it's possible to use WAP's as repeaters to boost the signal to it's original strength, to gain increased coverage. When using a WAP as a repeater an IP address is not assigned, a different method of finding clients on the network is used. In some cases such as buildings with thick stone walls, the radio transmission may not pass through the walls. In cases such as this you will have run a wire into a room and add an access point to the ethernet cable inside the room. Before you buy your equipment try using a transistor radio in all the areas you wish to get coverage, this will give you some idea of what to expect. Each Wireless NIC must use the same IEEE standard except in the case of IEEE 802.11g which will work with IEEE 802.11b devices. Keep in mind when using IEEE 802.11g with IEEE 802.11b communication between the two will not exceed the speed of IEEE 802.11b, also the performance of other IEEE 802.11g devices on the network may suffer.





Bluetooth and infared are considered wireless networking methods but are better suited to temporary connections, such as synchronising your PDA or phone with your desktop computer.

The main advantage of a wireless network is the lack or cabling. Not all situations are suited to wireless networks. If your using large graphics or multimedia files across the network you may find wireless is too slow. For many the best solution is a mix of wired and wireless.

Security

Security is a very important issue on a wireless network. With a wired network, access to the local network can be restricted by physical means. We all understand the security implications of connecting our networks to another network such as the Internet. The geographical range of a wireless network is often significantly greater than the office or home it's meant to cover. Any neighbor or passerby may be able to sniff the traffic on your network and gain unauthorised access to internal network resources. In addition they could gain access to the Internet, possibly sending spam or doing illegal actions from your network, implicating you. Also running up a big bill by using your Internet connection to download large files. With a wireless network take security seriously. Consider the data stored on your network, including on the wired part of your network connected to your wireless network. Private information must be protected. As well as ensuring adequate security on your files and folders through your permissions (such as NTFS and share permissions), ensure your wireless network is as secure as you can make it. Wi-Fi certified and IEEE 802.11 compliant devices offer some level of security, through the use of Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and/or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2). There are other methods you can implement including a tunneling protocol such as IPsec, each offers varying levels of security. You can also configure all your access points to accept connections only from predefined MAC addresses. All NIC's wireless and wired have a unique Media access control (MAC) address. You can find the MAC address in win2000/XP by opening a command prompt, Start, Run, type cmd and press enter. At the command prompt type "ipconfig /all", information regarding installed network devices will be displayed. In Win95/98 start, run, and type winipcfg. Select the NIC and it's hardware (MAC) address will be displayed along with other information. A MAC address is also referred to as a physical address and hardware address. This will help prevent people browsing your network but not intercepting data being transmitted. The level of security you choose will depend on the sensitivity of the data stored within your network.

Networking standards like most things in IT change rapidly. You can check the latest Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards. IEEE 802.11 is set aside for wireless networks.

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