Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Putting your company on the road to Wi-Fi requires a well-designed plan.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 23:51:01 -0400

Mobile Professional

Wi-Fi Primer

By Jason Imber
July 2003

Putting your company on the road to Wi-Fi requires a well-designed plan.

Just when you thought you had finally figured out the speeds and
feeds of your wide-area wireless strategy, along comes Wi-Fi. The wireless
local-area network technology is, if you believe the vendors and pundits,
going to revolutionize the way mobile workers do their jobs. Wi-Fi promises
to offer high-speed wireless data (and, soon enough, voice transmissions)
through both corporate access points and public hot spots throughout the
country. But how to get your arms around this burgeoning trend?

We asked Patrick Parker, CEO of Nomadix, a Westlake Village,
Calif.-based company that provides technology for more than 5,000 public
wireless networking points throughout the world, for a primer on Wi-Fi
strategy. Here's his response:

It is clear that keeping employees wirelessly connected to the network as
they travel in and away from the office increases productivity. Wi-Fi is
here
to stay, so it's time to get in the game.

The question is: which game should you play, and what is the best strategy?

With a host of options available - from having to choose a particular radio
frequency to picking a security scheme-going - Wi-Fi can be a daunting task.
But a clear game plan will get you through it. Follow these simple
guidelines
when creating your wireless strategy:

1. Keep the roll-out focused on a group of employees with whom
you hope to see the most productivity gains. This allows you to see a quick
return on your investment and to fine-tune the deployment as it moves
forward.

2. Standardize equipment that provides the most compatibility
and offers some investment protection. Most vendors now produce products
that support 802.11b and 802.11g standards, as both work in the 2.4GHz band.
This gives you the broadest level of compatibility (802.11b) and some
investment protection as more bandwidth is needed (802.11g).

3. Put some security in place. Truth be told, a Wi-Fi network
can be secure. The encryption mechanisms available today are suitable for
most applications. When combined with an 802.1x authentication scheme, they
do the job. This covers you when your Wi-Fi team is at the office.

When your employees are away from the office and accessing one
of the many thousands of public Wi-Fi access locations in airports, hotels
and the like, set up your Wi-Fi system to require the use of a VPN allowing
employees to safely connect back to the corporate network.

You're now on your way. Keep the rollout focused at the start,
standardize on products that support both 802.11b and 802.11g, use
encryption and 802.1x at the office and require VPNs when using Wi-Fi
Public-access locations.

Leisure Publications
http://www.destinationffa.com/

http://www.destinationffa.com/APCM/templates/mobile_professional_template.asp?Articleid=914&Zoneid=18

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