Wireless networking (WiFi) has been one of most disappointing technologies of the last few years. It promised a lot but has often only delivered frustration. On paper a $200 WiFi access point and $1000 of WiFi access cards could make $6000 of cabling redundant and avoid the clutter of using cables. It hasn’t panned out.
Security has been a headache for WiFi from the start. Traditionally your standard cable based local area network came with some very good security built in. It’s called your front door. For a hostile user/hacker to get a device onto a standard network running on standard twisted pair cable they have to physically get into your building. With a wireless system they can often sit across the road.
The WiFi industry has a poor record in addressing the fact that your WiFi network can be very accessible to anybody near your building. From day one most WiFi Access points have shipped ‘open’ which means that the default mode is to accept connections from anyone. Remarkably this continues in the name of usability.
There are ways you can secure your wireless access point. The WiFi industry got this wrong as well. Their original security regime WEP (Wired Equivalency Protocol) was difficult to hack but still hackable. You needed specialist software and that software needed a week or so of encrypted packets to break your encoding. But after a week of sitting in a van on the road next to your office your opposition were now able to connect to your network without having to be in your building. Not good.
After much anguish the WiFi industry got it right and brought out the WPA (WiFI Protected Access) encryption protocol. This was done properly and for all intent and purpose is unhackable.
The affordable units suffered from overheating and consequent freezing. In 2005 sat in a meeting where a representative from the largest wireless manufacturer told me this was a fact of life until the next model.
All wireless services – radio, television, cell phones, WiFi - suffer from the same two curses - Interference and blockage. Cordless phones share the WiFi frequencies as will your neighbour’s WiFi systems. WiFi has difficulty getting through concrete floors and walls.
One of the reasons WiFi has looked so poor is how reliable twisted cabling (the stuff you use now) actually is. Those long in the tooth will remember the Coaxial that was widely used before twisted pair and how one user unplugging his/her computer could bring down the entire LAN. For all practical purposes twisted pair cable doesn’t fail. So even a relatively stable WiFi system that well planned that falls over an hour a month (that’s 99.98% uptime) is seen as far less reliable.
If you are going to have one access point for casual use or the use of visitors (make sure you firewall properly) then you can deploy a single access point quite simply
For anything else the only effective way to deploy WiFi widely is to do a comprehensive site survey that measures each room and determines how many access points are necessary and where they should be. Even after all this planning an inconsiderate neighbour could ruin it all. For this kind of hassle twisted pair cable starts to look attractive again.
As ever the technology is getting better and there will come a tipping point. It just isn’t here now.
