Smart ways to implement WLANs

Editor’s Note: You may have noticed that we changed the name of this newsletter from “E-Commerce” to “Web Business.” It’s a small change, but we feel it helps describe the kind of information Sandra Gittlen passes along every week. Sandra will continue to report from the field of e-business, sharing with you her unique take on doing business over the Web, both from a consumer and e-tailer point of view. We hope you’ll continue to enjoy this newsletter. Thanks for reading!

Right after Labor Day, Network World will launch its Technology Tour “Wireless LANs: Smart Growth for 802.11 Networks.” This tour was created following the tremendous success of our WLAN tour earlier in the year. There was enormous excitement about all the emerging news in the world of wireless networking, and that excitement has only grown.

Wireless networking, as we’ve discussed in this newsletter, will be a forceful driver in the world of e-commerce and e-business. As 802.11 hotspots become abundant – public and private – and 3G makes its mark on consistent roaming, wireless will be a mode of choice for many people engaging in doing business on the Web.

Just last week, SBC announced plans to deploy more than – get this – 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in 6,000 venues by 2006. These deployments have been earmarked for locales such as hotels, airports and convention centers.

This kind of ubiquitous connectivity is already resonating well with users who are starting to see business applications Wi-Fi will enable. For instance, I received this response from a reader:

“I believe that with the maturity, stableness and security of the wireless technology movement home, business and education users will realize a network connectivity flexibility never imagined before.  For example, users will be able to move to meetings, different offices, floors and outside of a building with seamless connectivity to all their network resources.

“And the great thing about this is that it will be with an acceptable performance level for data transfer.  With the advent of mobile IP addresses, this new-found flexibility will not be limited to PCs … PDAs, cellular phones and other data/video/voice related devices will enjoy continuous and seamless network connectivity no matter where they are at a particular moment in time.

“With the growth of satellite network connectivity, this seamless mobile connectivity can be spread to airplanes, bus trains, cars, taxi cab riders, etc. The possibilities are endless for providing constant information to a mobile world that craves to be in the know.” 

You can sense the excitement he is experiencing about the power of wireless. And as I look at the lineup for our Technology Tour, companies are capitalizing on this excitement. Look for presentations from Aruba, Bluesocket, Chantry, Extreme, Funk and Trapeze.

They all are bringing products to the table that help you create a wireless network that (safely) supports a buildout of your wireless network.

In his keynote, Tom Henderson, principal researcher at ExtremeLabs and a member of Network World’s Global Test Alliance, will capture this excitement and explain how to make it work for you. He’ll show you how to intelligently create a wireless network that is well integrated with your wired network, cutting down on costs as well as management headaches. And as for security, Henderson explains how to easily build security into your plans so data is not compromised across the wireless path.

To register for this event, head to https://www.nwfusion.com/events/wlan/index.html .