Wireless Networks - Wi-Fi.. a blessing or curse?

Most if not everyone connecting to the internet these days would have used some kind of wireless connection at some point. It seems the CAT5 cable is going out of style when it comes on to personal and even business uses.  Wi-Fi is  hip and cool and you don't have to contend with the cables that are time consuming to run and sometimes hard to look at, and are at times, hazardous. Wi-Fi is really such a simple piece of technology we use everyday that it almost becomes a requirement for every household. Yes, you need electricity, water, and wireless! I'm just now waiting for the 'Wi-Fi is the next best thing since sliced bread' phrase to start taking over the airwaves.

Industry Wi-Fi manufacturers have made the domestic Wi-Fi  so easy to setup that a caveman can do it. You just buy a wireless router from a store, brands like Linksys, Dlink, Netgear… etc… plug it into your ISPs connection and just like that you and your neighbors have wireless access to the internet. Of course you'll need to add some security to your wireless network to keep those neighbors out. It's illegal to steal your neighbors wireless by the way. With all that being said lets look at some basics of wireless networks.

WIRELESS NETWORK STANDARDS

802.11 is the Wi-Fi standard and was introduced in 1999. The wireless router and end device (laptop, iPad, PS3, etc) will need to be compatible with one or more of these standards:

• 802.11a - up to 54Mbps and uses 5.1 GHz range - 1999
• 802.11b - up to 11Mbps and uses 2.4 GHz range - 1999
• 802.11g - up to 54Mbps and uses 2.4 GHz range - 2003
• 802.11n - over 100Mbps and uses both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz ranges - 2009

Your SSID (Service Set Identifier)is the name of your wireless network. And can typically be broadcasted up to about 100 feet without anything in it's way before the speed and signal starts degrading. There are many variations to this but just know that you'll never get the highest speed from your flavor of Wi-Fi  unless you are able to stretch your hand out and touch the wireless router.

There are unlicensed Radio Frequency ranges that are used to broadcast Wi-Fi networks. You will notice that your Wi-Fi routers may operate within one of three RF ranges:

• 900 MHz - (902 - 928)
• 2.4 GHz - (2.400 - 2.483)
• 5.0  GHz - (5.150 - 5.35)

These unlicensed RF ranges can be used by anyone and thus by any piece of equipment. Some people don't like that fact and now there are wireless Jammers for these unlicensed ranges. I think I might try to get one to cause some trouble. RF Jamming is illegal by the way!

The 2.4 GHz range allows you to get wireless access over a longer range but only has 3 clean channels (1,6, and 11). These are the only channels that do not overlap with each other. It also has the problem of being the most popular RF range and thus suffers from many different sources of interference. Appliances like cordless phones, baby monitors, microwave ovens, and your neighbors Wi-Fi network, among other things like walls and trees can interfere with your wireless coverage.

The 5.0 GHz range operates over a shorter distance but gets you a higher throughput and there are at least 23 clean channels available for use. The 900 MHz range does also allow you to operate over a longer range but was troubled by interference and soon lost a foothold due to the emergence of the 2.4 and 5 GHz ranges. You'll hardly ever hear of a 900MHz device going forward. Both these ranges suffer from the same interference issues as the 2.4 GHz range.

SECURING YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK

In 1996, WEP was introduced as a form of protection for your wireless network. WEP means Wireless Equivalent Privacy and not Wireless Encryption protocol like many people think. The fact is that WEP is the weakest form of wireless protection and is easily bypassed by the tech savvy intruder.

WPA was introduced in 2003 to bolster wireless security. WPA means Wi-Fi Protected Access and includes enhanced key management features that WEP lacked at the onset.

WPA2, which means Wi-Fi Protected Access version 2 was released in 2004 to improve on WPA by using stronger encryption and more secure user authentication mechanisms. WPA2 comes in two modes, WPA2-Personal and WPA2-Enterprise.  So if you really want to protect your wireless network you should use WPA2-Personal if you’re at home and WPA2-Enterprise if your setting up a production network.

THE HARSH TRUTH ABOUT WIRELESS

Wireless networks are both a blessing and a curse. It gives you mobility while  allowing you to do what you do on the internet but only allows one connected device to transmit at any one time. This is called Half-Duplex mode. And if two devices do transmit, then there is a collision and the data must be re-transmitted. This is what results in your web page taking longer to load, or your YouTube video pausing, Your Skype video chat loses the video and or voice traffic, or your download taking an extra few minutes to complete. The technology behind this is called CSMA/CA and stands for Carrier  Sense Multiple Access - Collision Avoidance. A bit intuitive as it states that Wi-Fi will try to avoid any collisions by limiting who can access the network at any one moment.

CSMA/CA effectively turns your wireless router into a one way street that only one car can use at a time. This issue worsens when more and more devices connect to your Wi-Fi network. Just imagine what happens on St. James street in Montego Bay and Trafalgar Road in Kingston at 5pm on a week day. Yes.. Frustration… frustration… and more frustration. Lets all just stay at work late and get paid overtime!

Currently I live in an apartment complex where everyone..and I mean everyone has their own wireless network… one SSID is even called Marz…. I kid you not! Now there's a reason for me to get a wireless RF Jammer. I can't afford for those Aliens to interfere with me. 

So one day I was home minding my own business and playing Fifa 12.. .. There is no one better  than me on that game and I am willing to put money on that claim so let your money talk!!!!!.. Anyways I connected my PS3 to my wireless network to humiliate some internet foes but every now and again I found myself kicked off the internet without any obvious reason. What's worst is if I'm in the middle of a game and this happens, the report would show that I lost by some ridiculous score. And you already know how good I am. So I thought oh no, my Cisco Linksys Wireless router must be at the end of it's life. I love that Cisco router so much because it's blue and glows in the dark…. I'm really sad. Either that or I need to change My ISP.

I decided to use a Ethernet CAT5 cable with my PS3 instead.. And voila, no problems ever since. Yet the problem was not my Linksys Wi-Fi Router, but that there were so many wireless networks around using the same frequency and channel that I used. So essentially, every now and then I'd lose wireless access because my neighbor was doing something special like downloading the latest episode of Teacher's Pet. After all the Jail boss is really searching for love. 

I digress. The point is that when there are multiple wireless networks using the same channel and frequency, there is bound to be some cancellation and degradation of the wireless signal. The crazy thing about this is that there is no magic fix to this RF congestion right off the bat. You may change to another channel within your current RF range only to find that you are still experiencing wireless congestion and occasionally lose connectivity. 

The intermediate solution is to switch over to the 5 GHz RF range, but that will eventually become the next congested Wi-Fi frequency. Just imagine every body slowly switching over and you'll get the picture.

Hopefully very soon there will be some kind of magical Wi-Fi standard that allows full duplex connectivity to all connections and also effectively eliminates Wi-Fi interference for those of us who like to be wireless….