Increased use of laptop computers within the enterprise, and increase in worker mobility have fuelled the demand for wireless networks. Up until recently, wireless technology was a patchwork of incompatible systems from a variety of vendors. The technology was slow, expensive and reserved for mobile situations or hostile environments where cabling was impractical or impossible. With the maturing of industry standards and the deployment of lightweight wireless networking hardware across a broad market section, wireless technology has come of age.

What is wireless networking?

The term wireless networking refers to technology that enables two or more computers to communicate using standard network protocols, but without network cabling. Strictly speaking, any technology that does this could be called wireless networking. The current buzzword however generally refers to wireless LANs. This technology, fuelled by the emergence of cross-vendor industry standards such as IEEE 802.11, has produced a number of affordable wireless solutions that are growing in popularity with business and schools as well as sophisticated applications where network wiring is impossible, such as in warehousing or point-of-sale handheld equipment.

What about security?

Wireless communications obviously provide potential security issues, as an intruder does not need physical access to the traditional wired network in order to gain access to data communications. However, 802.11 wireless communications cannot be received --much less decoded-- by simple scanners, short wave receivers etc. This has led to the common misconception that wireless communications cannot be eavesdropped at all. However, eavesdropping is possible using specialized equipment.

To protect against any potential security issues, 802.11 wireless communications have a function called WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), a form of encryption which provides privacy comparable to that of a traditional wired network. If the wireless network has information that should be secure then WEP should be used, ensuring the data is protected at traditional wired network levels.

Also it should be noted that traditional Virtual Private Networking (VPN) techniques will work over wireless networks in the same way as traditional wired networks.