Like any true believers, executives in wire-free workplaces seem convinced they're just the first of many who will find the path to enlightenment.
Like many other innovations, the no-wire environment began on college campuses. In the past couple of years, at least a dozen schools, ranging from tiny Mount St. Mary College, in Newburgh, N.Y., to the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, have gone wireless. Students, faculty, and staff at those schools can log on to their networks from anywhere on campus. The colleges like the convenience of wireless networking. Beyond that it helps cut the phone-line congestion caused by hundreds of students dialing into the Internet simultaneously.
Early on, most businesses didn't have the patience for wireless systems, which, at best, moved data at about one-fifth the speed of normal networks. But thanks to recent advancements (see "Going Mobile," below), wireless data now moves at a respectable 10 or 11 megabits per second, about the same speed as wired connections provide. Meanwhile, costs for wireless-network cards dropped from as much as $600 two years ago to generally less than $200 today.
With speed and cost issues resolved, businesses began to see advantages to going wireless. Some adopted wireless LANs as a way to quickly expand their existing networks. Others went 100% wireless. Veritel Corp., in Chicago, which makes voice-verification technology, expanded from 6 to 32 employees last year and expects to reach 80 this year. Instead of rewiring its offices for each new staffer, the company opted to use an all-wireless network from CenterBeam, allowing employees to move around inside the building. Besides, "creativity at your desk is kind of an oxymoron," says Veritel CEO Christopher Tomes. "This allows you to take your technology into whatever space you choose."
The movement isn't limited to high-tech companies either. Hospitals, factories, warehouses, stores, car-rental agencies, and other businesses are converting to wireless LANs, too. (See "Where the Wires Aren't," below.)
At Blueprint Ventures, in San Francisco, all 10 employees switched to a wireless LAN last year. General partner Bart Schachter credits the change with streamlining the venture-capital firm's meetings. "We can pick up and go to a conference room, and it's like we never left our desks. You don't know until you have wireless access how often somebody says 'Oh, what's the answer to this question?' and you can look it up right there," says Schachter, whose company has invested in MobileStar and other wireless technologies. "You can take notes right there. You don't have to go back to your office and type them in. Productivity goes up 1,000%."
And at West Coast Office Interiors Superstore, in Santa Clara, Calif., employees can move freely through showrooms and offices, checking inventory, placing orders, and printing out receipts and invoices. The company's CenterBeam network helps salespeople close deals on the spot, instead of taking up to a week to complete paperwork.
With all the benefits of going wireless, are transactions as secure as they would be traveling through wires and cables? Early adopters insist their wireless LANs are at least as secure as traditional hard-wired networks, but even true believers worry about the potential threat from letting sensitive information literally float around.
WebLinc's Hill says that if he were running a financial company instead of a Web-design firm, he wouldn't use a wireless network. As he puts it, "All security can be broken." But in the case of his own company, he's confident that information is as secure as it needs to be.
"People can tap into any network, wired or wireless," says Pete Privateer, president of Pelican Security, a computer-crime-prevention company in Chantilly, Va. Theoretically, hackers can infiltrate a wireless LAN from outside the building, just as they can break into a traditional network over the Internet or telephone lines. (However, they couldn't be too far outside the building, given the technology's maximum radius of 150 feet and its inability to penetrate the building's brick walls.) But, Privateer and others say, the newer wireless technologies -- the same ones that enable high-speed access -- can be set to encrypt information so that only authorized users can decode it. "If there's encryption, the hacker won't get anything but garbage and won't be able to pick anything out of it," Privateer says.
He also suggests that companies adopt systems in which employees must change their password every time they log in. That measure, combined with encrypting every transmission, may frustrate some users. But such precautions can help companies like WebLinc ensure that the only people who are looking into their computer systems from the outside are their own employees, sunbathing on the roof.
Like all true believers, executives in wire-free workplaces seem convinced they're just the first of many who will find the path to enlightenment. "In 5 to 10 years, I think the world will be wireless," says Schachter, pointing out that other countries, including the Philippines, Finland, and Japan, already lead the United States in widespread adoption of the technology. "We don't have to dream the future," he says. "The future is happening."
Where the Wires Aren't ...
If there's still any doubt that wireless networking is about to go mainstream, consider this: Starbucks plans to offer wire-free Internet access in 2,100 of its 3,000 North American coffee shops within two years. In November 2000, desktop king Bill Gates introduced a prototype of the Tablet, the first Microsoft wireless computer, to much fanfare at the Comdex trade show; the device was among thousands of hot new wireless products dominating the event. Wayport Inc., in Austin, increasingly offers wireless access in airports, hotels, resorts, and conference centers; the service lets business travelers hop online without hunting for a phone line. And in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in downtown Cincinnati, a dozen start-up companies share a single high-speed wireless network, creating, in essence, a virtual business community.
Going Mobile
If you're thinking about switching to a wireless network, you need to know about Wi-Fi. Also known by the less-friendly designation IEEE 802.11b, Wi-Fi -- for wireless fidelity -- refers to the newest technical standard for wireless networking. The standard boosts networking speed from sluggish -- 2Mb, or 2 million bits of information per second -- to supercharged at 11Mb per second. That allows wireless networks to run faster than traditional Ethernet networks, which top out at 10Mb. And that's why businesses everywhere are suddenly interested in Wi-Fi. (Don't confuse Wi-Fi with the much-publicized Bluetooth standard, which permits only short-range radio links between small personal devices like handheld computers and cell phones.) The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance, a high-tech industry group, awards Wi-Fi certification to wireless-networking products that meet its standards. For more information, visit www.wi-fi.org.
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