Wireless Comes With A Price

by: Jay Herling

With new technology, we now see the number of wireless applications exploding. For instance, you can use a wireless laptop computer, taking it from room to room within signal range of a router, working wire free.

The basic concept of "wireless" has been around for some time. Look at the remote control for the television. It used to be that to turn the television on or off, you had to stand up, walk to the television, and manually make adjustments.

The cell phone is the most popular, wireless invention used today. People everywhere have their right hands held up to their right ear and talking to who knows all the time now.

There are so many choices of wireless subscriptions with all kinds of different ways to use a cell phone. Free from the wire, people are free to to about their business and still keep in contact with who they need to. The network itself has gone wireless itself, which is great for the s maller businesses who need to stay connected to each other.

Nothing comes without complications though, and there always seems to be a price to pay, and wireless, especially the Internet, comes with a price. It may be easier and faster to use, however, since wavelengths travel through the air, anyone with the capability can reach out and grab that information. Most network services provide their users with security services, and connecting to the Internet Server is backed up by the security service of an Internet center that is housed within an infrastructure.

This type of infrastructure keeps the cost of having to buy expensive equipment, which is good for smaller companies.

A more specific problem with the Wireless Equivalent Privacy or WEP encryption is that it can be accessed by anyone quit easily. Internet providers are seeing some pretty incredible attacks toward the WEP, and have to scramble to stay one step ahead of them.

Insertion attack, is were an unauthorized device is placed on a wireless network and getting online without permission through the proper channels. This is a big problem in the world of wireless Internet today, if your getting service but not paying for this service, then it's considered stealing. Intercepting and monitoring traffic on a wireless network is another big problem, and this in itself is illegal also.

Jamming other peoples' access to where they want to go on their wireless network, or causing traffic jams to over-whelm wireless frequencies is another problem wireless networks are fighting to overcome. No matter how far we go into the future, there will always be people who think they are smarter than the system and will do what they can to prove it. We will always be helpless to some degree when we place our wireless computers into the airwaves, however, most of us choose to accept these risks and use commonsense when it comes to giving information about ourselves over the Internet.