Wireless Networks And Wireless Security (WiFi)
Submitted by Louis Lopez, MILE Technologies
713-783-6453, LLopez@MILEtechnologies.com, www.MILEtechnologies.com
The goal of this article is to take the mysteries out of WiFi, wireless networks and how to secure them. The questions answered here should eliminate the myths of what it means to go wireless and where to use it and where to not use wireless WiFi, wireless.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
• What is a WiFi or wireless networks?
• What is wireless cellular?
• What do all of the connection speeds and signal strengths mean?
• How do I know if my WiFi is secure?
• If I have a choice to set my office up for Wifi versus a wired network, which one do I choose?
What is a WiFi or wireless networks? WiFi and wireless loosely mean the same thing. They are a means of connecting without a wire to something I would normally connect to with a wire in very close proximity. Wireless LAN (Local Area Connection) has a limit of about 1000ft, but reality is more like 100ft-200ft with obstacle like walls and doors in the way. Let’s just put it this way. A house may only be 40ft long, but I almost can’t get a signal on the other side of the house. Place the Wireless Access point or Router in a central location to get the best results. A wireless card in a desktop, laptop or built into your device is needed to connect to a wireless LAN. Devices such as iPod, iPhone, laptop, PSD, gaming device other phones and more.
What is wireless cellular? A wireless cellular device is a special card, USB, or phone connected to your laptop or desktop to get internet access. It uses special software that usually is provided by the cellular company to help you connect to the internet via a cell tower nearby. Some are easy to setup some are difficult. Speeds vary from 0.028Mbps to 1.5Mbps. Not all 3Gs are alike. Some are 0.2 Mbps, 0.384Mbps, 0.7Mbps. And if you leave a big city or get a wimpy signal, you get dialup speeds.
What do all of the connection speeds and signal strengths mean? 802.11a, 802.11g and 802.11y all have a speed of 54Mbps and all operate at different frequencies ranging from 5GHz, 2.4GHz, and 3.7GHz respectively. Actual speeds of them are 19-23Mbps. 802.11b works at 11Mbps with a typical throughput of 4.3Mbps. 802.11n has a speed of 600Mbps and an actual throughput of 130 Mbps. Signal strength of Weak, Good, Strong, Excellent almost means nothing. The speeds that your connection states are 54Mpbs, 22, 11, 5.5, 4, 2, and 1 are almost worthless too. It depends on the maker of the driver and the marketing techniques of the manufacturer. To know what your throughputs are you would need to measure the amount of bytes over the connection for a period of time. It’s the way to know for sure.
How do I know if my WiFi is secure? It isn’t. WiFi can be cracked using special tools. Think of it like this. You can lock the front door to your house or car, but if someone sees you use the code to get in, they can get in. A glass window can always be a work around to get in too. Securing your WiFi can help prevent people close to your wireless router or access point from getting in easy. WEP is a type of encryption that is 10 or 20 characters you would have to type in to get on the network. MAC filtering is a way to allow a particular network card from getting to the network ass allowed or denied. The stronger the WEP, the slower the throughput. A MAC filter is a little more complicated to setup, but is faster because there is no encryption. If you connect to an unsecured network, someone can connect to you. Right? Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. If you have no password on your laptop, it is more secure than having a password, because the Windows XP and Vista policy by default, doesn’t allow you to connect remotely.
If I have a choice to set my office up for Wifi versus a wired network, which one do I choose? Many businesses try to save a buck and go wireless. Don’t do it. If you have the choice to run a wire, do it and you will not suffer the speed issues and dropped connections headaches. The cost is worth it. Wireless is for convenience, freedom and less reliable than wired connections. Your real speeds on wireless are 2Mbps to 11Mbps normally in good conditions. Get your data at 100Mbps or faster with a wire. Open a document in 6 seconds or 60 seconds. Remember this, if you have a slow connection WiFi user working at 2Mbps and they are opening a 100MB file, the entire network has to suffer the grandpa opening the file and has to wait their turn even if they have a Gigabit connection.
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