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The wireless LAN unquestionably has proven itself for warehouses, airports - any place where the floor covering is cement, tile, vinyl, even dirt. So far WLAN has not been a big go-to technology for carpeted offices. But this is changing as network executives discover the value of WLANs in places such as boardrooms and waiting rooms - areas that play host to visitors and shifting arrays of devices.

This small step onto the carpet has been followed by a leap into this marketing-driven fantasy: Most office workers already use laptops and PDAs with embedded WLAN adapters. WLANs are becoming super-speedy. The next logical step is making wireless the only LAN connection inside the office and out. Or, in the words of a Cisco Aironet white paper on total cost of ownership, "It is shortsighted to consider wireless as a small, pilot trial without considering the scalability and the TCO benefits across multiple organizations and buildings."

Certainly, a few corporations have discovered the truth in that. After a fast-food giant held a small WLAN trial about five years ago, it rolled out a production network that became wildly popular. Today wireless is the only connection most employees want to use, noted Gary Tomanich, a senior network analyst for the fast-food chain in a recent Network World story.