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Wireless networks let your computers share - sometimes unintentionally
04/04/2002
Walking around his East Dallas back yard with his laptop – surfing the Web
wirelessly for the first time using his spanking new Apple AirPort home
network – Mike Foley couldn't have cared less that his new rig was using
the technical standard called 802.11b.
Until, that is, he stumbled onto something weird. Another network
suddenly appeared as available on his iBook screen. It belonged to Tom,
the guy across the street."The way it was set up, I could have had
access to everything on his hard drive right then," says Mr. Foley,
marketing director for an Atlanta-based real estate company, The
Alliance Group. "I freaked out."
With some friendly cooperation, Mr. Foley and his neighbor adjusted
security settings to batten down their wireless networks. But the two
men learned something important about technology. Wireless home networks
based on 802.11b can be incredibly insecure, allowing access to the
Internet and hard drives for anyone within a 300-foot range.
The episode illustrates the attraction and the disadvantage of this
popular wireless standard. With 802.11b cards installed in laptop
computers, consumers can access a growing number of wireless "hot spots"
being set up nationwide in hotels, airport lounges, college campuses,
coffee shops and office buildings.
On the other hand, it can leave users vulnerable to others. There is
even a new class of malicious hacker known as a "war driver," who
cruises around in a car with a laptop, latching onto open 802.11b
networks.
Experts say security is one of many considerations computer users should
weigh when selecting from a growing number of wireless networking
alternatives.
Networking kits on sale today use an array of radio technical standards,
each with upsides and drawbacks. Many analysts believe Apple's AirPort
and other PC products based on 802.11b will grab the majority of the 25
million home networks they predict will be installed by 2004.
But there are alternatives, and even more radio networking standards
will soon arrive on the consumer market.
HomeRF
HomeRF radios "hop" around frequencies to avoid interference with other
household devices occupying the same range – microwave ovens, baby
monitors and cordless phones.
They are, therefore, inherently more secure. However, this group of
products, such as Proxim's Symphony line, emerged with relatively slow
networking speeds. If a kit is labeled with HomeRF 1.0, file transfers
are limited to about 1.6 megabits per second. HomeRF 2.0 products hit
the market this year offering faster speeds – up to 10 Mbps.
PC World Magazine tests of the $200 Symphony HomeRF Base Station
and two $99 PC cards showed actual speeds may be as much as 40 percent
slower than 802.11b.
HomeRF is also limited to about 150 feet of coverage, which can reduce
its usefulness in large, sprawling homes.
Wi-Fi
This standard got the jump on the rest of the wireless networking
options by providing fast transfers from the very start. Kits in the
same price ranges as HomeRF offer a maximum transfer rate of 11 Mbps and
can transmit their signals up to 300 feet.
On the downside, microwave ovens and other appliances using the same
crowded 2.4 GHz radio frequencies can interfere with connections.
For travelers and other mobile workers, however, Wi-Fi is hard to beat.
It has been adopted by commercial installers such as Wayport of Dallas,
which has installed it inside Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
and more than a dozen local hotels (see www.wayport.com for locations).
College campuses and businesses have also adopted Wi-Fi, leading many
computer manufacturers to offer 802.11b cards as installed equipment in
new laptops and desktop computer models.
More Wi-Fi hot spots are appearing nationwide every day, and some
analysts have estimated they will proliferate from 3,700 this year to
41,000 by 2007.
Beyond that, neighborhood networks are being established using groups of
home Wi-Fi-equipped computers woven together in free networks. Called
neighborhood area networks, NANs or nanny nets, the groups are the
subject of experiments across the country, especially in Silicon Valley.
Wi-Fi 5
It can operate about five times faster than the alternatives – up to 54
Mbps. And it suffers less interference from common household devices.
But it is more expensive and less available than HomeRF or regular Wi-Fi.
Intel, for example, only announced its Pro/Wireless 5000 series of
802.11a products in September, and Proxim's line of Wi-Fi 5 products
just hit the market this month. PC cards and wireless Wi-Fi 5 access
points on the market are about double the cost of 802.11b products, but
analysts expect prices to drop throughout this year and next.
The range of Wi-Fi 5 products is considerably less. At top speeds, it
can only transmit signals about 60 feet. And, experts point out,
products using this standard are not necessarily compatible with 802.11b
networks.
Regardless of the technology selected, Mr. Foley and others say the
freedom of connecting to the Net wirelessly is exhilarating.
"My first reaction was, 'Why doesn't everyone do this?' " says Mr.
Foley. "It rocks."
E-mail: dbedell@dallasnews.com
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