Wireless Networking (Wi-fi)

Welcome to UKorbit's Wireless Networking Advice page

Overview

Wireless Networking (802.11) or Wi-Fi as it's more commonly known is the buzz word of the computing and internet world these days. Due to the ease of set up and running it has become increasingly popular not just for those that want to connect to the internet but in the home it can be a great convenience for a number of good reasons.

What is it?

A self explanatory term in itself, wireless means exactly that and allows any capable device to connect with another via radio signals instead of wires. Typically a wireless type connection can come in two forms; an optical device such as Infra Red (IR), and a sonic device such as Radio signals. In the case of Wi-fi this is the latter and it's advantage over an IR connection is that it doesn't depend on line-of-sight. Walls may weaken the signal a bit but won't stop it as in the case of Infra Red.

Wi-fi radio operates at quite a high frequency to support the high data rates needed for any networking application to work at a reasonable speed and distance.

There are 3 standards currently given by the IEEE standards as 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g. Actually the first version to appear was the 'b' version followed by 'g' and 'a' , the latter two being enhancements to the data rate and frequency. This table gives the main differences:

Most systems these days should aspire to 802.11g at least.

What is it good for?

The use of wireless is most common with the advent of broadband and wireless network points. These days wireless hotspots are plentiful often supplied as a convenience for customers in cafes, restaurants, hotels, railway stations, airports etc. Most modern laptops or PDAs will have the Wi-fi capability built in, in which case you are ready to go.

With a small investment in some inexpensive hardware you can set up a network in your home that the whole family can access using different computers, laptops, PDAs or XDAs. The most common reason for doing this in the first place would be to allow everyone to get on to the internet using a single connection. However, once Wi-fi has been installed it's easy to make use of the networked computer where everyone can share other resources like the printer, faxes and any other device connected to one machine.

Once you are connected up you will also be providing a hotspot for other users typically within 30meters or so. Naturally you may want to stop anyone other than your intended using your hotspot but it's easy enough to do this see the security section below.

What do I need?

The bare bones of a wi-fi system is pretty simple. On a desktop machine you'll need to add an 802.11x PCI card or usb device. If your laptop does not have Wi-fi built in you can add this usually via a PCMCIA card or the usb device. Once the card and drivers are installed you are ready to roll.

Providing internet to everyone that connects to the main internet enabled pc usually requires a wireless access point which connects your cable or ADSL modem, provides ethernet or wireless connectivity to the main PC. These come usually as a single multifunction box which provide all of the following in one neat box.

• Cable or ADSL modem
• Router
• Ethernet hub
• Wireless Access Point
• Firewall

This makes life very simple and easy providing a complete solution for a home network with and without wires. An Ethernet card fitted to a PC would be one other necessity and a lot of modern PCs will already have one fitted. Very cheap to buy if not.

How easy is it to set up?

Once cards, routers etc are installed on the machines and all relevant drivers loaded (pretty much automatically via cds supplied with the equipment), setting up the software is easy especially with Windows XP. It is beyond the scope of this document to cover this (see resources at the bottom) suffice to say that the network cards like any other device are instantly recognised by the operating system and will direct most of it's setup procedure through a wizard.

This not only gets the machines connected and recognised but also allows you setup shared folders, printers and of course the modem making sure that computers that connect to the main pc only access what you want them to access whilst keeping other areas private.

Security

What happens with a wireless device such as a laptop for instance, is that when someone is looking for a connection they will set the machine to search for signals in the immediate area. It will report all signals found within range and indicate the relative strength of each. So more often than not the person would choose the strongest signal available that was accessible. Typically this would include your network if the person trying to access it was within 30 meters or so.

Security is important with wireless networks and easy to set up. There are two basic ways of setting up your wireless system. Unsecured and what is known as WEP (Wired Equivalency Privacy ) which provides strong encryption. Obviously the former is just going to allow anyone to enter your system and at the least access the internet through you. If your network in general has no security then they could get at the other resources easily too. WEP is a pass code basically and without it no one will be able to enter the system or use the internet connection thus securing the network against anyone that may happen by. It is of course possible to set different levels of security.

What should I be aware of?

An important thing to aware of about wi-fi and your own search for hotspots is that internet criminals will exploit all those not taking enough care about what or how they use their wireless connections. Phishing is one example of the way in which hotspots can be exploited. In it's simplest form phishing is getting you to give away your personal details by somehow getting you to type these in on a site that you think belongs to your bank or other trusted institution where you might have an account. The most common form is to send an email that looks like it is from one of these organisations which provides a link for you to log in and "confirm" your details. Whilst the site and email look authentic they are not and this leads to your details being stolen.

A very similar technique is to use hotspots where the unsuspecting victim is lulled into believing that they've connected to a trusted hotspot and in fact they've logged into someone's laptop sitting perhaps only a few yards away. A typical example of this might be a travel hotel where you think you've logged into the hotel's system but the scammer has got you to log into his system using software that may look convincingly like the hotel's own. However, he is able to log everything you type on your machine and may even have software that mimics a service that requires your credit card details.

Ideally you should avoid doing any banking or shopping via a hotspot, period! If you must for some reason then make doubly sure you know and trust the connection you are on. Ask at the hotel desk for instance, "how do I know this is your hotspot?". If you available plug directly into a socket.

In conclusion: security issues are not a reason not to set up Wifi but being aware of the issues is a must and taking the appropriate action to close any open system is all that it takes to make sure your wireless experiences are a pleasure.

Resources

For those requiring a bit more in depth, technical explanation or further reading can check these links out.

Wireless Networks explained
Securing your Wireless Network

Buying the hardware you need is easy enough, there are some suppliers listed in our computer section on the shopping pages or you can visit your favourite computer supplier who should have everything you'll need under one roof.

Visit UKOrbit's Consumer & Advice Centre for further help and information.