Wireless network standard allows for more freedom
by ALAN ZISMAN (c) 2001
First published in Business
in Vancouver,
Issue #622 September 25-October 1, 2001: The High-tech Office
column
A few weeks ago, this column looked at a
new-ish technology with
the charming name of IEEE 1394, perhaps more easily remembered under Apple's
trademarked name of Firewire.
Try not to confuse it with this week's IEEE 802.11b.
While 1394 is a
way to connect high-speed devices such as digital camcorders to a
computer,
802.11b is a standard for wireless networking.
(Inquiring minds might like to know that IEEE stands
for the Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a nonprofit industry
organization
that tries to set standards so that hardware for different
manufacturers
can communicate.)
Like Firewire, 802.11b has been around for a couple of
years, slowly
gaining acceptance. Apple has pushed both standards -- in the case of
802.11b,
it created the Airport, an increasingly popular option particularly on
the company's Powerbook and Ibook notebooks. And like Firewire, 802.11b
is finally on the verge of popular acceptance in the much larger PC
market.
Apple's Airport add-ons, while affordable, have been
Mac-only. And PC
products, such as 3Com's Airconnect, which this column looked
at
in issue 592, tended to be expensive and aimed at large corporations.
As
well, the first generation of 802.11b devices weren't particularly
standard;
there was no guarantee that one company's hardware would play nice with
gadgets with a different brand name.
What a difference half a year or so makes! Suddenly,
there's a new generation
of 802.11b, sometimes marketed as WiFi devices. They come from
companies
such as Linksys, Dlink
and Xircom, which have
brought
prices down to Apple's loss-leader levels, and they mostly manage to
talk
to one another. Add-ons aimed at PCs come in a variety of forms: PCI
cards
can be installed inside a desktop computer, PC cards can be slid into a
notebook or USB add-ons can be easily plugged into either a desktop or
notebook PC. Xircom is even marketing products for Visor or Palm
PDAs.
In addition to adapters for each computer, an 802.11b
wireless network
requires a base station to plug into your network or Internet
connection
device. Typically, each base station has a range of about 100 metres to
250 metres. For larger areas, multiple base stations can be used.
(Building
construction can affect signal strength, so setting up a wireless
network
can take a bit of trial and error.) Speed is advertised as 11 Mb/sec,
but
in reality people get about half that, making it more or less
comparable
to standard Ethernet networking speeds.
With 802.11b's standardization and growing popularity,
it is starting
to show up as an option in public places. This summer, Simon Fraser
University's Education Faculty set up a collection of base
stations,
enabling students to connect to the campus network and Internet
anywhere
in the education building or out on the plaza. The Four Seasons
Hotel
and the Ramada Vancouver Centre have both contracted with
Austin,
Texas-based Wayport Inc. (www.wayport.net)
to provide wireless Internet access in their meeting rooms and other
public
spaces.
I could almost recommend 802.11b without
qualification. However, worries
exist. There are increasing concerns about security. 802.11b offers
optional
encryption, but there have been reports of "drive-by hackers" logging
onto
corporate networks from nearby parked cars. SFU put extra care into
placement
of its base stations to ensure access in the Education Faculty's
outside
plaza, but not at other locations. And turning on encryption slows
network
performance.
Just when it seems safe to standardize on 802.11b,
another, noncompatible
standard is looming. 802.11a (are we confused yet?) devices are just
starting
to appear, promising speeds up to five times that of earlier standards,
but minus compatibility with existing 11b devices. Yet another
standard,
802.11g, promises faster performance and compatibility with
existing
11b devices, but is stalled as different vendors are proposing
different
specifications.
Take a look at my GearGuide
column in this
week's CurrentZ section for some wireless devices.