In recent months, wireless networks have received a boost as products based on the 802.11g standard--capable of 54Mbps--have come into the mainstream. Are you ready for fast wireless?The growth of wireless local area networking (WLAN) technologies is now reaching critical mass. Certainly Intel has put a big marketing push behind wireless networking with its "un-wired" campaign based around its Centrino mobile computing concept.
While security is still a big risk, and the chief concern for many IT managers contemplating a wireless installation, there are more vendors these days actively trying to make wireless security that works. Predominantly in the business side of things, vendors are approaching security either by integrating virtual private networking (VPN) concepts using IPsec-based encrypted connections between the client and the wireless access point (AP) and/or using wireless security gateways.
Certainly as part of this review we will be noting the different types of security provided by these WLAN vendors such as wired equivalency protocol (WEP), network address translation (NAT), and built-in firewalls (packet filtering)
The recent ratification of the 802.11g standard goes a long way to allaying previous bandwidth concerns that many enterprises had about rolling out large scale deployments of these wireless technologies. The 802.11g standard allows up to 54Mbps connections with backward compatibility to the 802.11b standard with both operating at a 2.4GHz frequency. By contrast, the 22-54Mbps 802.11a standard operates in the 5GHz range and is not compatible with 802.11b equipment unless you have a "dual band" 802.11a+b access point.
I have already mentioned the 802.11a, b, and g networking standards, however in recent wireless testing that the Lab has performed for various customers we have found this term "standard" to be very loose when applied to wireless networking. For example when we looked at handheld computers that had integrated WLAN capabilities--we found that two out of the five units submitted for testing refused to connect to our chosen test rig (one saw the AP, but wouldn't connect at all, the other didn't even see it). It was not just the PDAs, we have had different wireless notebooks refuse to interoperate with various brands and models of APs too. So something that we will be placing emphasis on in this review is the interoperability between the brands of access points and cards received from the different vendors.
The writer of these reviews was not aware that the word "however" is an adverb and not a conjunction. This word was used incorrectly in practically every review, e.g., "Excellent value when everything is considered, however purchasers must intend to use all its features to get good ROI."
An example from the net,
and I can recommend the cheap and useful Strunk & White "Elements of Style",
which is an updated version of the below.
William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946). The Elements of Style. 1918.
V. WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS COMMONLY MISUSED
http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk3.html
"However. In the meaning nevertheless, not to come first in its sentence or clause.
wrong: The roads were almost impassable. However, we at last succeeded in reaching camp.
correct: The roads were almost impassable. At last, however, we succeeded in reaching camp.
When however comes first, it means in whatever way or to whatever extent.
However you advise him, he will probably do as he thinks best.
However discouraging the prospect, he never lost heart."