Look Ma, no wires!

For the last six months, I have been conducting an experiment with Wi-Fi (802.11 wireless Ethernet) that has led me to four conclusions. First, no company should continue deployment of wired technology where special applications don't demand it. Second, your wireless deployment should focus on systems that have Wi-Fi built-in. Third, companies must be prepared to help employees with Wi-Fi installations at home. Finally (the vendor recommendation always comes last), systems vendors must be aware that corporate IT will require Wi-Fi that is built into the system (and not added as an afterthought through an existing expansion port). Wi-Fi notebooks from IBM and Toshiba exemplify this built-in approach. Fortunately, my experiment included neither, which allowed me to understand the pitfalls of the afterthought approach.

Wi-Fi: Go for it
I'll never forget the first LAN I had to manage. It was a 3Com 3Share Plus-based setup: an 8088-class PC server connected to a 30MB disk drive the size of a Volkswagen Rabbit. The drive interface, from a company called Emulex, was very finicky. It had more jumpers than I could count, and the only reference manual was a yellow sticky note filled with illegibly scribbled notes and diagrams. But the worst part of that LAN wasn't its heart. It was its circulatory system: a coaxial cable whose circuitous route stretched through raised floors, dropped ceilings, treacherous precipices, and across the floor underneath every person's desk. I do not have fond memories of running around with a coaxial terminator to isolate the misbehaving segment each time the LAN went down.

When the first twisted-pair Ethernet hubs came, we didn't even wait for the standard (10BASET) to be ratified. We just went for it. For me, the result was like breathing pure oxygen. From that point forward, the LAN went down plenty of times, but never because of a wiring problem. There were days where I would visit the wiring closet for no reason other than to pinch myself.

If twisted-pair Ethernet is your oxygen, Wi-Fi will be your nitrous oxide. There are numerous benefits to be gained from deploying Wi-Fi. For starters, simply getting someone connected to the network is a no-brainer. No more crawling under desks, or figuring out what port in the wall to use, or going back to the wiring closet to manage contention for ports during growth periods (admittedly not a problem right now).

Just yesterday, I had to bring up a Windows XP system (in addition to the Windows 98, Red Hat, Mac OS X, and Windows 2000 boxes already in my office). It took me all of one minute to get it connected to the network via Wi-Fi. Granted, most people don't have this sort of contention for ports in their offices, but the experience was a reminder of how much easier it is to get someone on the LAN, regardless of the reason. Maybe they were just hired. Maybe they moved from another part of the building. Or maybe they're visiting from another office and need access. Wi-Fi is infinitely easier.

This ease of deployment translates into an insurance measure as well. In the wake of last month's tragic events, several stories have emerged about wireless technologies stepping up to the plate. Should you find yourself in a situation that demands the rapid deployment of an entire LAN, there ain't nothing like Wi-Fi. Not only can it be deployed faster from scratch, but if by some stroke of luck, you have surviving systems that, because of your foresight, were already Wi-Fi enabled, your ETA to be up and running will be even sooner. Even if this isn't the case, just having developed the background in Wi-Fi will get you there sooner.

Don't settle for second best
My experiment included Toshiba's AccessPoint Wi-Fi solution and a bunch of notebook computers. The Toshiba solution -- OEMed versions of Lucent Technologies' Orinco wireless hubs and PC Cards -- demonstrates why a PC Card-based solution is smooth, but not nearly as smooth as something built into the notebook's chassis.

The wireless PC Card creates several problems. First, with a protrusion that can potentially obstruct the path of a second PC Card, it doesn't look like it can withstand a lot of stress. Fortunately, I haven't bent or broken mine, but I've come awfully close. PC Cards with protrusions or dongles are more prone to damage and consequently more trouble than they're worth. Second, protruding cards also obstruct the functionality of other cards with protrusions. Within days of receiving Toshiba's wireless solution, I received a test unit from the same company for a PC Card-based fingerprint reader (for biometric-based security). This card has a protrusion as well, and there is simply no way to use the two cards at the same time.

With all sorts of cards out there for all sorts of functions, security-related or not, Wi-Fi is something that simply has to be built-in. Toshiba knows this and now offers notebook computers with built-in Wi-Fi for forward-looking corporate technologists.

For desktops, chassis- or motherboard-mounted Wi-Fi is less of an issue. Then again, I would highly discourage use of desktop systems. Notebooks cost more, but they're worth the extra expense. Not only do notebooks make telecommuting really easy, but your users will be astonished to see how their productivity goes up when they start bringing their notebook computers to meetings -- without losing any connectivity. With Wi-Fi up, I leave my composition notebook behind. I bring my ThinkPad and hammer out meeting notes in much more detail than I ever could in my regular notebook or on a PDA. When a meeting's action items require a few e-mails to be sent, I usually have them sent by the time the meeting is over. Attendees without Wi-Fi will be insanely jealous when they see how much more productive you are (or very angry with you if you can't resist using instant messaging during the meeting).

Mixing work and pleasure
Another part of my experiment was putting Wi-Fi hubs at work and at home with the hope of moving somewhat seamlessly between the two locations. If you want to be a hero at your company, you will show the executives who already spend countless hours working from home how Wi-Fi can make it so much easier to move back and forth.

At home, I have a cable modem connected to a router, which is connected to a 10BASET hub, which is connected to another Toshiba wireless hub. You can combine those last three devices into one small unit using a Linksys' wireless router. With Wi-Fi running in my house, moving between work and home is a breeze. When leaving the office, I simply shut the lid on my ThinkPad (putting it into suspension mode) and go home. At my house, I open the lid, and Windows 2000 -- smart enough to know the computer may have moved to a new network -- renews its IP address. I am back on the Internet without ever connecting a wire. (Eventually, I have to plug in the power cord.)

My only complaints: I have to manually re-establish a VPN connection to regain access to the corporate network, and I have to remember to shut down Microsoft Outlook 2000 at my office, and then restart Outlook in offline mode when I get home.

Once you get a taste of this convenience, you will never, ever go back. Once you give the executives in your company a taste of this convenience, you'll be a hero.

Oh yeah, security
I once read somewhere that if you had a Wi-Fi notebook, you could travel up and down Market Street in San Francisco without ever losing connectivity. The implication is that the many Wi-Fi-enabled companies along that street are keeping you constantly within range of a wireless hub.

The truth is that Wi-Fi has had some well-publicized security problems. People can access your network without your knowledge. While in a hospital waiting room the other day, I popped the lid on my notebook to get a little work done. Much to my surprise, I was connected to the Internet. I'm sure the hospital doesn't want to be an ISP for its visitors. On the other hand, I had no malicious intent. About the only possible harm done was that I took up a bit of someone else's bandwidth.

But, even with malicious intent, I'd have to be pretty sophisticated to do more harm. For starters, in every place where my wireless notebook worked, my protocol analyzer revealed that the wireless hub was behaving like a switch. (Yes, I tried, knowing that one day I would write this story.) This meant that the only traffic I could see was my traffic, and broadcast traffic. I could not very easily spy on the nurse's e-mail. If I really wanted to, I could. There are ways to sniff at wireless signals and sometimes go beyond the switch to get at other information traversing the corporate backbone. But three conditions have to exist for this to result in serious compromise. First, the person must have malicious intent. Second, the person must be pretty sophisticated. Third, there must be something worth tampering with on the backbone.

No doubt, these three conditions exist in many places. When they do, you have to think twice about deploying Wi-Fi. But, there are many more situations where this simply isn't the case. Most traffic on most business networks isn't worth an outsider's time of day. But Wi-Fi is definitely worth yours.

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