Wireless Computing

Wireless - The Future Of Connecting To The Internet
What is WiFi?
Wifi or Wireless Fidelity, allows you to connect to the internet from virtually anywhere at speeds of up to 54Mbps. WiFi enabled computers and handsets use radio technologies based on the IEEE 802.11 standard to send and receive data anywhere within the range of a base station. Wireless is a technology that's inexpensive, easy to use, and practical and yet... it's a technology that's still very young. Here's a quick look at what the future could hold for wireless.

The Radio and the Phone
Wireless networks will always win over wired ones, if for no other reason, simply because it is much cheaper for signals to travel through the air than it is to install and maintain wires. For example... consider that telephones were originally used for sending and receiving news reports. When radio was invented, this stopped almost overnight - why bother going to all that expense when it's free 'over the air'? The same principle applies to computer networking. Imagine having a choice between a wired Internet connection and a wireless one. The only reason to choose a wired connection would be cost because currently it's cheaper? However, that will change soon. Wireless is also easier. Once the cost gap closes, if given the opportunity, there's no logical reason why anyone wouldn't switch to a wireless connection.

WiMAX
WiMAX is the next generation of wireless. It will use a standard called 802.16. The current standard is 802.11. It's still a work in progress, but the possibilities are exciting. WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and is designed to complement existing wireless equipment... rather than replace it. The big advantage of WiMAX is that it greatly increases range. Rather than being measured in square meters, which is how the current standard is measured in, WiMAX ranges will be measured in square kilometers. Some estimates say the best WiMAX stations will be able to transmit up to 50 kilometers or about 30 miles! Clearly, this opens an incredibly wide range of possibilities. Wireless access would move from LANs (Local Area Networks) to MANs: (Metropolitan Area Networks) covering a whole town or city with wireless access. The question would no longer be if you could connect via wireless, but what WiMAX network you wanted to connect too. Other benefits of WiMAX include speed of up to 70Mbps (almost 10 MB per second) and better security. Imagine a future where ordering Internet access is as simple as connecting your existing wireless equipment to the network, opening your web browser and buying a low cost subscription. That's it - done. No more access points, no more routers, no more configuration... just wireless Internet, anywhere and everywhere at broadband speeds. WiMAX is in the process of taking the world by storm. For the latest news on WiMAX visit the WiMAX Forum (a non-profit industry group set up to promote WiMAX) at http://www.wimaxforum.org/home/. WiMAX has been in development since 2001 and the first WiMAX equipment is expected to hit the market in late 2005 or early 2006.

What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is a new standard for short range radio connectivity. It is the new and promising field in the wireless communications standardization activities, which will profoundly affect the operation and applications of electronic gadgets of the future. The most obvious purpose of Bluetooth technology is to replace USB and it's designed to eventually replace almost every wire there is? except power cables. What does that mean? It means that someday your TV could be connecting to your DVD player via Bluetooth or your speakers could connect to your radio with it, and so on and so on. As you get older, expect to see fewer and fewer wires. I know? people said the same thing about paper but it turns out that people like paper and don't want a 'paperless society'. On the other hand, how many people do you know who have cable or wire fetish? The biggest remaining article is reliable wireless power. When they figure out how to provide reliable wireless power (i.e. better batteries)? look out because the flood gates will really open up.

A Simpler Life Convenience...
The first benefit of wireless technology that comes to my mind. Wires have so many flaws, especially when they go long distances and the overall wireless project is to remove the vast majority of them from our lives. Of course, another nice benefit will be cost because once wireless if up and going full-bore it will cost less than wire based transmission.
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Wireless Router & Security: A Step-By-Step Guide
Setting up a wireless router is easy. Essentially you turn your cable or DSL modem off and your wireless router on. Then, you connect the router to the modem with a cable, and turn the modem back on. You are more or less done. The wireless network wizard on your computer will pick up the router and, if your ISP does not have any special requirements, away-you-go, you are on the Internet. For ease of setup and configuration, manufacturers ship wireless routers with all security disabled. Therein lies the problem. If you do not take any further steps to secure your router, and a surprising number of people don?t, your network will be wide open to all passersby and strangers. It?s like you?ve hung out a sign, ?The door is open. Please come in and help yourself.? The problem is not that strangers will be able to use your router to access the Internet but that, without further protection, would-be intruders will be able monitor and sniff out information you send and receive on your network. Malicious intruders can even hop on to your internal network; access your hard drives; and, steal, edit, or delete files on your computer.
The good news is that it is relatively easy to secure your wireless router. Here are three basic steps you should take.
1. Password protect the access to your router?s internal configuration
To access your router?s internal setup, open a browser and enter the routers setup URL. The URL will be specified in the manual. The URLs for D-Link and Linksys routers, two major manufacturers of wireless routers, are http://192.168.0.1 and http://192.168.1.1, respectively. For Linksys routers, leave the user name blank and type ?admin? (without the quotes) in the password field and press enter. To change the password, simply click on the Password tab and enter your new password. For other routers, please consult your manual. Alternately, you can search on the Internet with the term ?default login for ?. Don?t be surprised to find quite a number of pages listing default login parameters for many different routers, even uncommon ones.
2. Change the default SSID (Service Set IDentifier)
The SSID is the name of a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network). All wireless devices on a WLAN use SSIDs to communicate with each other. Routers ship with standard default SSIDs. For example, the default SSID for Linksys routers is, not unsurprisingly, ?Linksys?. As you can see, if you don?t change the default SSID of your router a would-be intruder armed with a few common SSIDs from major manufacturers will be able to find your wireless network quite easily. To change the SSID, click on the Wireless tab. Look for an input item labeled SSID. It will be near the top. Enter a new name for network. Don?t use something like ?My Network?. Use a name that is be hard to guess.
3. Disable SSID broadcast
Wireless enabled computers use network discovery software to automatically search for nearby SSIDs. Some of the more advanced software will query the SSIDs of nearby networks and even display their names. Therefore, changing the network name only helps partially to secure your network. To prevent your network name from being discovered, you must disable SSID broadcast. In the same screen that you changed the name of your network, you will see options for SSID broadcast. Choose ?Disable SSID? to make your network invisible. Now save all your settings and log out. Since your wireless network is now invisible, you will have to configure your computers to connect to your wireless network using the new name. On Windows XP, start by clicking on the wireless icon in the Notification Area and proceed from there. With these three steps, your network now has basic security. However, if you keep sensitive information on your computers, you may want to secure your wireless network even further. For example, you can
- Change the channel your router uses to transmit and receive data on a regularly basis. - Restrict devices that can connect to the router by filtering out MAC (Media Access Control) addresses. - Use encryption such as WEP and WPA. As with most things in life, security is a trade off between cost (time, money, inconvenience) and benefit (ease of use). It is a personal decision you make. However for the majority of home uses, the three basic steps plus WEP/WPA encryption provides reasonably strong security. Turning on encryption is a two-step process. First you configure your router to use encryption using an encryption key of your choice. And then, you configure your computer to use the encryption key. The actual process of configuring your router for encryption varies from router to router. Please consult the router?s manual. There are even stronger methods for ensuring security. A strong and robust security method is RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service). Using RADIUS requires additional hardware and software. However, there are companies that offer RADIUS security as a subscription based service. The fees are reasonable and dropping. Therefore for example, if you run a business on your wireless network, have sensitive data on your computers such as credit card information, and have a number of users who access your network, you should consider using RADIUS. Since the service sector for RADIUS is dynamic and growing, a search on the Internet with terms like ?RADIUS subscription? or ?RADIUS service? is probably the best way to locate one.