Why You Shouldn't Install A Wireless Network

It's hard to argue with a technology that promises as much as wireless networking. Computers, communications devices and -- not incidentally -- workers can be liberated from the constraints of the desktop, while organizations can deploy networks at surprisingly low cost and bother.

"The reality is that wireless is a good thing, and the cost savings that you can have from not wiring an office are real," says In-Stat research analyst Victoria Fodale. "If you're a new company, in a greenfield situation, it can get you up and running in a hurry, and that can be pretty attractive."

Yet for all the promise and advantages, a wireless local area network (WLAN) might not be the panacea for all network infrastructure woes. It might work very well in some circumstances, but in others, it might not work at all. For some organizations, wireless, for all of its inherent coolness -- and, let's face it, networking without wires is cool -- isn't an answer for anything but headaches.

One of the biggest headaches for many companies is just keeping up with rogue deployments. Anyone can traipse down to Circuit City and pick up a $60 wireless router, and it seems that just about anyone does. "Companies are annoyed because wireless started ad-hoc, and now they have to use rogue access point detectors to clean things up," Fodale says. "They're annoyed that this is something that they have to get in front of."

It's not just that the IT department doesn't like individual departments poaching on its preserve; organizations have some very real and serious concerns about wireless that aren't alleviated by having employees set up rogue access points. "Wireless might simply be outside an organization's comfort zone," Fodale says. "Like everything else, businesses have to evaluate it against the business value that it brings to the organization and the risks of where they could be exposed."In an age of worms, viruses and Sarbanes-Oxley, risk is the principal consideration for companies weighing the pros and cons of wireless networking. It might be cheap, and easy to do, but going wireless -- even partly -- means giving up the sense of security inherent in hardwired network drops. An unsecured wireless network gives intruders and malware an additional door to knock on that isn't protected by a firewall.

"It really means extending the network beyond an organization's physical boundaries," Fodale says. "Companies are concerned about meeting regulatory requirements and passing security audits. Wireless adds a big wrinkle of complexity."

Not of this is to say that a wireless network cannot be secured. There are a wide range of security products and solutions available that can lock down the network. Moreover, the ratification last June of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11i wireless security standard should deal with many of the concerns surrounding the much-maligned Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) standard.

But new security equipment and software isn't exactly free, and an organization's decision of whether or not to go with a WLAN should consider how the investment in new security technology will offset whatever cost savings and ease of deployment offered by a WLAN.

The bottom line is that a company that already has a wired LAN and has no immediate plans to rewire the network and no pressing need for mobility within the organization will get little real benefit from a WLAN. "I don't think anyone would realistically want to rip out old cables just to make way for a wireless LAN," Fodale says. "People know wired networks, and they work."

Indeed, Fodale says that there could even be some advantage to taking a wait-and-see approach to Wi-Fi. After all, as ubiquitous as it has become, wireless networking is still a relatively new technology, compared to wired Ethernet. Fodale wonders how many companies really want to be technology pioneers if they don't have to be."Depending on the business of your organization, it's practical to be wary of first-generation technologies," she says. "And there's the added benefit of whatever wireless equipment you buy sometime in the future will be both better and cheaper, so it can pay to wait in that sense, too."

Nevertheless, wireless networking shows every indication of someday being as ubiquitous a part of the enterprise LAN as category-5 Ethernet cables are today. For that reason alone, Fodale says that it might be a good idea to start experimenting with the technology now, at very least to see how it might work within the organization.

"I always think that an incremental approach to new technology implementation is best, anyway," she says. "You can learn your lessons in a contained environment. If things go well, and it delivers what you want from it, you can accelerate the deployment."