Chapter 53. Adding Wireless Networking to a LAN

SOME OF THE MAIN TOPICS IN THIS CHAPTER

Why Go Wireless? 986

Choosing Locations for Access Points 988

Security Issues 990

Wireless networking is one of the fastest-growing segments of networking in both business and small office/home office (SOHO) environments. As the family of 802.11-based wireless networks has expanded to embrace faster versions and Wi-Fi interoperability testing has helped assure that Wi-Fi Certified wireless hardware from different vendors can be used on the same network, the price of wireless LAN equipment has fallen dramatically. The introduction of a wireless LAN wizard in Windows XP, starting with Service Pack 2, along with vendor-specific improvements in setup, has made wireless networking easier to implement than ever before. You should consider, however, whether you really need to use wireless networking in your LAN before you decide to implement it. Wireless networking can solve many problems for your organization, but it can also introduce new management, security, and troubleshooting issues. You should make sure that the benefits of wireless networking in a particular situation outweigh potential disadvantages.

One particular environment that can benefit greatly from wireless networking is the SOHO network. Wireless networks are easier to install than having to run cables everywhere.

Note

Three industry-standard 802.11 implementations are currently certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. IEEE 802.11b, the original Wi-Fi standard, runs at 11Mbps and uses channels in the 2.4GHz frequency band. IEEE 802.11a differs in speed (54Mbps) and frequency (5GHz band). IEEE 802.11g, the most popular Wi-Fi standard, runs at up to 54Mbps (like 802.11a) but uses the same 2.4GHz frequency band as 802.11b and can co-exist on the same network as 802.11b hardware. Currently, 802.11g and various proprietary extensions of this standard are the most common standard for SOHO wireless networks. 802.11a is used primarily in corporate wireless networks or alongside of 802.11g in dualband SOHO implementations. 802.11b is used primarily in older networks, or by some specialized devices. 802.11b is no longer widely available for new installations.

You can read more about the 802.11 standards in Chapters 19, "IEEE 802.11b: Wi-Fi Pioneer;" 20, "Faster Service: IEEE 802.11a;" and 21, "The IEEE 802.11g Standard."