Wireless networking has evolved rapidly over the past few years, when it first came out hardware was very expensive and for the most part unreliable, speeds were poor and security was a big issue, this has all changed now of course and wireless networks are expanding and playing a bigger part in home and corporate networks around the world.

For those who are considering implementing a wireless network it is important for you to realise the differences between them (apart from the obvious of course!) so let’s take a look:

Convenience – Wireless networks offer huge convenience benefits over standard wired networks. With a wirelessly connected device you can move around and still stay connected providing you are in range. This is great for office users who are frequently moving from office to office and for just about any scenario when you want to be outside or are not sat close to the nearest switch. Wireless connectivity offers a huge freedom that a wired network will never be able to do.

Performance and speed – Whilst wireless technology has had some huge advancements with the latest wireless N suite it is still nowhere near capable of gigabit speeds that can be found in wired networks. The biggest issue with wireless speed is fluctuation and the fact that the speed you get will depend a lot on your distance between the nearest access point and whatever happens to be in between the wireless device and the access point itself. This is a factor that will always be present with wireless networking. With a wired network you will always get the speed that the wire is capable of (providing there is no flaw in the cable) and the speed you get today will be the speed you get tomorrow and the day after and so on.

Whilst wireless N is theoretically capable of 300mbps it is unlikely we will see these kinds of speeds for a long time! In fact it is safe to assume that 100mbps is the maximum throughput you are likely to see, and this is under perfect working conditions (i.e. perfect line of sight and very good range to the access point). The other problem is that an upgrade from wireless G to wireless N can be expensive, especially in a large distributed wireless network.

Security – Probably the biggest issue with wireless networking is the security aspect. By default if no encryption is used your wireless network would be exposed to absolutely anybody who is in range. These means that a hacker could intercept all the traffic travelling between you and the wireless router or access point. Stepping up from this you have WEP encryption which is extremely unsecure and can be comprised with relative ease and freely available software. Luckily WPA and WPA/2 address these issues an offer a more robust security algorithm. With a strong pass phrase you can ensure that hackers are going to have a very tough time breaking into your network.

With wired networks this kind of concern isn’t applicable and security issues will stem from how well your network equipment is physically secured and from the kind of protection you are using that will stop external intruders (firewall, access-lists etc)

Reliability – If setup correctly a wireless network can be very reliable, however for a large one there are many factors to consider and the whole process can get very expensive. Without proper consideration for the environment that it will operate it and the conditions, wireless networks can be very unreliable. Signals can fluctuate and speeds can drop, in worst case scenarios you can experience frequent disconnections that can be very annoying. Wired networks on the other hand will very rarely give you any problems, under normal conditions the cables will last a very long time and the switches (if from a reputable manufacture) will last many many years.