Pro’s and con’s of going wireless at work?

[Jonny M]

The speed thing is going to have a massive impact especially if you use roaming profiles, depending on the profile size you could be shifting lots of data around on each logon, and in education where everyone logs on and off at roughly similar times (start and end of lesson blocks), this is going to kill a wireless setup.

[gobbo]

We had Apple Airport installed at my school.

This was about a year ago, when it was very very slow. I know since then they've had some issues with hackers etc, kids with laptops getting into the network.

I can see it being really useful in a school/college/university, allowing students to access the intranet/internet along with documents stored on central servers, from literally any location on the site. Obviosuly there will be security risks, but with the 64/128bit encryptions and WEP security, i don't think there is any REAL huge risks. Especailly useful as a lot of students have laptops these days, and a lot of those laptops have wireless networking built in, or you can buy a wireless PC card for £20.

Wireless is very good at the moment, at home i used to run wired, but all wireless now. In my uni room I bought a wirelss router and network cards and hooked all the guys up in my flat with wireless internet access.

[[GSV]Trig]

Wireless in IT rooms is a good idea if u have laptops for teachers or your IT support people have PDA's or whatever, chances are your idiot that suggested it has read it in a magazine and now wants to appear to know his earhole from his, erm elbow..

Wireless can be accessed form outside the building and poses a security risk if not setup properly, electrocute your idiot to let him know who's boss and carry on as u were...

[Jimmy Little]

yeah i just wanna buy the new computers and use the cable network and then add wireless to the classrooms at some stage in the next 18months... you can have both wireless and cable running hand in hand can't you?

[EvilMunky]

Here is what i think are some of the Cons of Wireless - sorry if already mentioned

-Security Risks
-Are your users mobile? I doubt it at a school - most of the machines are locked to the tables
-How far are you really going to be away from the network port?
Although its cheap to implement - you also have to spend time and effort ensuring its secure and locked down enough that rogue users cant hack it
-Stability issues - you will get black spots where the signal doesnt get tooo
-The technology whilst being great - is relatlively young, and not ready for large institutions yet - especially kids

Many more

[EvilMunky]

yeah i just wanna buy the new computers and use the cable network and then add wireless to the classrooms at some stage in the next 18months... you can have both wireless and cable running hand in hand can't you?

Yeah - altho best to be on seperate networks!

[Jimmy Little]

ok thanks mate!

[Jimmy Little]

this is what i will have sat on my lap when he asks!!

Wireless Network Disadvantages

· Wireless is not stable enough for School use.

· Not suitable for large scale unless you spend a fast amount of money.

The security becomes more of an issue as ‘outsiders’ can attempt to gain access in or around the school grounds using laptops. This has become a common problem in London with individuals attempting to gain free Internet access within a radius of the wireless set up.

· Wireless is slower than the current set up. 54mbps (MAX) compared to 100 mbps that we currently have.

· With users roughly logging on and off at the same time speed would be comprised.

· We already have a fully working cable network set up in the areas we intend to purchase the new computers for.

· Wireless routers will broadcast on different frequencies so they don’t contradict each other, wireless it can be interrupted over a large area, so you lose your signal rather quick, losing a connection mid way through a data transfer may result in corrupted documents and data.

· Wireless is relatively new and is changing fairly rapidly, it would be sensible to ‘wait and see’ over the next year.

[Paul Adams]

I would rather state "may not be stable..." than categorically state "it is not stable" - this is dependent a lot on the kit you use and the environment it is used in (building construction & other wireless/cordless devices intering, for example).

Also, the speed comparison isn't 54 vs 100 exactly like that, as a 100Mbps wired, switched network gives you 100Mbps per client, but a 54Mbps WLAN gives you (up to) 54Mbps for all the connecting clients to share.

So if you had, say, 5 wifi devices connected to 1 AP, they get 20% of the bandwidth in a contention situation - realistically around 10Mbps each.
(And do you want to divide your potential wireless userbase by 5 to work out the number of APs required to get a 10% perfomance comparison to your existing wired LAN?)


Don't forget the pros!... er... you can use stuff without plugging it in (unless you want to use it for a while in which case you'll need power at least anyway)...

[Jonny M]

And the 100mpbs wired can be full duplex with the correct switches

[EvilMunky]

Good Luck Dude. I hope they dont go for it until next year
hehe

Dont you just hate those governing people who sit on these decision boards - and have read one edition of pc magazine or woteva, and think they know best.

[Jimmy Little]

yep! it all went well... the numb nuts was there saying we should go wireless now everywhere.

I stated that we needed to spend the money on new computers and use the existing network setup and presents some of the disadvantages, I also put forward the pro’s and said adding clusters of wireless setups around the school was in my thinking for 2005/2006 year…. They gave the green light to 35k of new computers and other IT stuff..

Thanks chaps!

[Grey M@a]

not a problem what was their reason for wireless? school image wasn't it?

[Jimmy Little]

^

yeah he said 'that what eveyone else wants' and we should have it! i pointed out we are a JUNIOR school and not a senior or college!!

[Donny John]

Well done m8 :bang: As a school site manager I have to sit on a few commitee`s so I know what you're talking about - numpty governors trying to look good, cause more problems than they solve usually! It ain't easy trying to present common sense arguments to chumps like that

[Jimmy Little]

yeah i know mate, some people like to be on the commitee because they care about the school and wanna help, others do it for personel gain or to look good! guess which ones cause the probs!