Wireless Pros and Cons

[JRBeltman]

Dear all,
my company wants to go wireless.
It is moving by May next year and since the cabling in the new building is not sufficient they feel that going wireless is the solution.

I am greatly worried about speed, security and administration (we are running RIS and AD to do most installation work for us).

Can you help to highlight some pros and cons for wireless in a small company (about 60 desktops and 10 laptops)?

many thanks

PS this is a cross posting and my apologies for that, but I believe this forum is more appropriate (

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1101831)

JR
IT = Logic (except for a well known OS where it equals luck) -> Back to the Basics!

 

[johnherman]

When I was in the Army, I was in the Signal Corps, the Army's communication branch. We had both radio and land-line communications. Doctrine stated that land-line (cable/wire) communications were more secure than radio, which could be intercepted and jammed by the enemy. Other than natural interference and accidental jamming by nearby users, most businesses don't have the problems with radio which the military has. You will, of course, get better network performance via cable/wire/fiber than over the air.

-------------------------
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - George Bernard Shaw

 

[dkediger]

Well, the cost differential can be greatly affected by the physical nature of the building you would be occupying:
[ul]
[li]Obstructions requiring more APs[/li]
[li]Spread out distance requiring more APs[/li]
[li]Other use of wireless in the building by other tennants (I've seen a building that was oversaturated with tennant's APs to the point where performance was significantly degraded.[/li]
[/ul]

An increased need for APs can quickly offset any perceived cost advantage for wireless.

With heavy use of RIS, you could also periodically overwhelm an AP if mass installs are being done.

How is the voice system in the building? Will it need to be upgraded? If so, that lowers the cost of data wiring some?

How about VoIP? Allows you to get some dual use out of a hardwired cable plant.

 

[JRBeltman]

VOIP is actually a very interesting issue.
My superiors are considering this, but as far as I know this is only for site to site communication and thus not applicable for a company that deals with many individual customers with mainly anaogue lines?

The buildings here are usually concrete, thus effectively reducing the range of any radio signals.

It seems however that we are to assume we are starting from a clean sheet in this new building, with no solutions in place yet.

RIS can, and we do, use the boot from network option when wired to install the OS. But can this be done when we go wireless?

JR
IT = Logic (except for a well known OS where it equals luck) -> Back to the Basics!

 

[Glenn9999]

The main tip I'd throw out is to be sure and test your setup before things are too set in stone. That includes different places on the same floors and on different floors if that's a possibility. It may turn out that wireless may not be an option given what was described before, and you don't want to find that out when everything is in place and it's going to cost lots more money to jettison the wireless supplies and pull cable.

If it's a new building, you won't know what you're getting into until it's too late. So test first.

 

[dkediger]

For desktop phone service - you can run your in phone system over IP as well. Check out a couple of these - they are just a sampling. A local phone system vendor, or more likely, a larger computer integrator, can get you going on these.

3Com
Cisco

 

[chiph]

You need to determine if your business is subject to any of the federal privacy laws. For example, if you deal with medical data, you're probably subject to HIPAA. If you deal with consumer finance data, I don't think there's a current law governing it, but there's likely to be one soon.

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[JRBeltman]

We are dealing with individual and corporate customers and have personal details (name, address etc) in our database. This database is extremely data hungry at the client side and the speed of this over wireless also concerns me.

Thus far I have seen more reasons not to go for wireless as I have seen to do go for this.

More contributions are most welcome and thanks for the contributions thus far.

JR
IT = Logic (except for a well known OS where it equals luck) -> Back to the Basics!

 

[mikeydidit]

We have been installing wireless for sometime now. It seems that if you really need something that is unreliable and something to fix constantly, then wireless is your solution. We installed a new system here about 4 months ago that was a mobile type devices that of course need to be connected via wireless access points. Three weeks after the due date they were still trying to figure out why it wouldn't work and how to secure it in the few places that did it work.

The next floor to have that system installed in they had us run 5E to every outlet. It was finished ahead of schedule and not a single device has had a problem.

I am not talking about brand Rex Equipment. This is all Cisco's newest, latest, greatest stuff. From the access points back to the new powered 4505 chassis. This is a technology that will have its place for sure, but for something that you really depend on to work run some new cables and be done with it.

One more thing. The first floor we installed the equipment on. They have done a second study and yesterday they asked me to add 8 more access points now and that “Might” make them work now…

I also feel about the same way on VOiP if you are intersted.

Mike Jones
Louisiana State University Health Sciences center

 

[Mike2287]

LOL...sounds like job security

"It seems that if you really need something that is unreliable and something to fix constantly, then wireless is your solution."

Thanks Mikeydidit, I needed a good laugh.

 

[chelseatech]

I know of one company that went for wireless and wondered why things weren't working as they should.

It appears that the local power company had a substation hidden in their basement. Their new building had been built on top of that. The RF from the transformer generated so much interference they couldn't use any wireless solutions.

You could get similar problems with a neighbour with some industrial strength machinery.

Another company had a major problem with a large steel bank vault in the middle of their building. Wireless doesn't like that very much either.

Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

http://www.chelseatech.co.nz/pubs.htm

 

[johnpoole]

for long term scaleability and a dependable solution, look a combination, we use wireless cisco (ccm) and cisco voip with merridian tdm, the majority (8000)of our desktop users are tdm, maybe 400 wireless and less them 100 voip. our trunks to the world are pri, and eveything is totally redundant. total wireless would be a dream, until you get a major neighbor with killer emf or rf included. voip trunking works but bandwidth must match your needs, most users i have installed voip for either use tdm to the pstn or try and save on bandwidth and hate the system because of poor quality voice at peak usage. depending on budget and size, nortel, mitel and cisco all require a second look. remember, the system is only as good as your service provider. a tech that can't find the switch when he's in the switchroom is never a good feeling. and yes i've actually seen that..

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc