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Making the right connections
By Yves Godbout
There’s no two ways about it, our world gets more and more connected,and
technology will be more available, anytime, anywhere
It’s finally here. That is, the time to be wireless— or is it? Well that all depends. There is a case to
be made for wired versus wireless for your house, your small business and the larger enterprise.
The networking requirement
For most, the requirements can be for basic file sharing, printing, Web applications and Web
browsing. In such cases the real bandwidth requirement is quite small. Most high-speed home Internet
connections are only two or three megabits (your high-speed Internet connection is probably rated at four to
seven megabits, but if you look at the real throughput, the latency imposed by the Internet usually only
delivers closer to two to three for most sites) and that is sufficient to work on the Internet without
problems.
When discussing a connection to enterprise servers the issue is the reliability of the connection, and
reliability is something you cannot afford to compromise. There is not much sense in having a 100-megabit
connection if it drops out when you are working on a large document, communicating with the mail server or
with a database.
For the most part, a more reliable connection is preferred to a faster, less stable connection. At home or
in an Internet coffee shop, you may be happy to have a connection that is not as solid as long as you can
browse the Internet and read e-mail.
This is probably why there are different connection speeds. Visit
www.camagazine.com/savytable for a chart showing a quick and easy comparison of readily available
connection speeds, methods, protocols and acronyms to help enhance your “network savviness.” Not all terms in
the table are used in this article but are provided as a reference.
The wired home
If you have a newer house, you might have a structured wiring plant, which includes a central patch
panel in the basement where all connections terminate. From this panel, you can connect all room connections
to your Internet connection or to each other to form your home network.
Eventually, this will be more useful, if you are technically inclined, as you may want to use your network
for home entertainment so you can listen to music or watch TV or movies throughout your home, using media PC
software. With time, there is a trend for such technology to be more available, affordable and easy to
use.
If your house is older or not wired, you may want to “wire it” to allow for Internet and printer sharing.
Wiring can be difficult if your house has more than one storey with a finished basement. Doing a neat job
could involve a lot of wire fishing, wall patching and refinishing.
The wireless home
If your house is not wired and you want to share an Internet connection or do basic networking,
consider a wireless network. With a few dollars and a little time to read up and install, you can have a
shared wireless Internet connection at home. No wires, holes in the wall or attachments to where you choose
to use your wireless notebook computer. Free at last — even when sitting out by the pool.
Well, maybe not. As many people have discovered, the range stated on the device is usually optimistic, and
a network connection can be cut at any time by another wireless device sharing the frequency. In many cases,
unless you are within the line of sight of the router, your connection can be flaky. Causes for
disconnections can range from wireless phones, microwaves, Bluetooth and other wireless devices, which
typically share the same consumer frequency of 2.4 GHz.
Another barrier can be physical structures within the house — concrete walls, metal studs and metal doors
can interfere with the wireless signal.
For Internet browsing this is fine, but it can be a terrible nuisance if you are connected to your office
through a virtual private network (VPN) or through a remote desktop connection. A dropped connection could
mean a dropped session resulting in a need to reauthenticate causing delays and possible loss of
information.
When you install wireless, remember security. For the home user who has a wireless network, steps must be
taken to ensure it is secure by encrypting the traffic on the network. This can easily be done by
implementing Wi-Fi protected access security on the wireless device. Never use unencrypted wireless
connections unless you are ready to share the Internet connection with the neighbourhood, and you probably
don’t want to be the Internet service provider for your neighbours. Implementing basic security on these
devices is relatively easy and well documented. For home use, you don’t need to go overboard; basic security
should be fine, but as with any security measure it pays to do your research and implement a solution that
works in your environment.
The wired enterprise
Today, most businesses that are recently wired or retrofitted have Category 5, 5e or 6 wiring. These
categories represent the capacity the wire has to carry a signal. There are all kinds of technical standards
that dictate how wiring plants are to be implemented to obtain a specific rating and there are many companies
whose business it is to implement the wiring.
For most business applications that move a lot of data or require users to have a strong connection, a
good connection is a must. A few years ago, a dedicated 10-megabit connection was considered sufficient, but
now a 100-megabit connection is the norm. Category 5 and up wiring can handle this requirement easily.
Recently we have seen a migration towards one-gigabit connections to the desktop. This requirement can be
met by Category 5e and Category 6 wiring. You do not need to rush out and buy gigabit net-working hardware
for now. It is wise to invest in better structured wiring such as 5e or 6 if you are doing any new
installation or retrofitting, but it is still early for network hardware. This technology is expensive and
not required except in the server rooms and major network distribution points.
There are many offices and businesses that are wired using Category 5 wiring and this should be sufficient
for some time.
Another requirement popping up in the enterprise is that to support Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Many VoIP phones require power to work; the better implementations deliver this power to the phone set by
using Power over Ethernet. PoE is simply a mechanism that allows the use of the same network cable while
adding the required voltage that the phone can use to power itself. Although this sounds simple, it can
affect how the network wiring will be implemented and what type of equipment should be bought.
The wireless enterprise
There are a multitude of success stories, and there is the reality that wireless networking may not
be appropriate for business. It is simply not robust enough. It does not have the sustained bandwidth, the
reliability and the security and scalability of physical wiring.
This is not to say you should forgo wireless connectivity in your office. If it is well implemented and
for point applications such as boardrooms and conference rooms, it works well.It simply cannot deliver the
rock-solid performance of a dedicated physical connection.
In the home, we may not be as concerned about security on our network beyond basics, but in business, we
cannot risk exposing enterprise or client data to outsiders, therefore significant countermeasures such as a
VPN or other authentication scheme must be used to protect the network effectively.
Connecting wirelessly
It is becoming easier to connect from almost anywhere in the world to the Internet and if your
business is accessible via the Internet, you can have access to the network from anywhere. You must ensure
that appropriate security surrounds these connections to secure your data, but wireless connections do make
connecting much easier.
There are Wi-Fi wireless connections available everywhere — coffee shops, hotels, conference rooms, train
stations, airports, trains, planes and even tourist rest areas. Some are free, some expensive, but all offer
an easy way to connect to the Internet and your network. Your PC, when equipped with an appropriately
configured personal firewall, should ensure you are protected and productive when you are away from the
office.
You can also make use of another type of network connectivity called cellular connectivity. These connections
are now faster and more reliable, but they are expensive and somewhat impractical for most applications.
There are various protocols used for this type of connectivity and some offer speed advantages over
others, but all are expensive and capped at a limit — about 250 megabytes a month. Not very high if you plan
to make extensive use of your Internet connection.
Network savvy
We live in an increasingly connected world, and this will not change. Within a few years, we will
likely see improvements that will make technology more available to us anytime, anywhere.
We do not need to know all the intricacies of networking to be able to function well in this connected
world, but it does help to understand the basics. Visit
www.camagazine.com/primer for a networking terminology primer and tables that can serve as a reference,
but beware: as with most technology, it has an expiry date. Changes happen constantly in this area, they are
many and never-ending.
Yves Godbout, CA•IT, CA•CISA, is the director of IT services with the Office of the
Auditor General of Canada. He has extensive experience in information technologies as they apply to the
enterprise and in audit and is the chair of the CICA Alliance for Excellence in Information Technology.
Godbout is also Technical editor for technology
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