I’m a paralegal at a small law firm (about 20 employees), but I also handle a lot of the day-to-day technical issues that come up. I was recently asked to do an analysis of the firm’s computer needs, as we’re due for a round of new equipment.
I turned in my report yesterday, and it went over very well with the partners. But then the question sprung up about the possibility of converting our office over to a wireless network. My immediate reaction was that there wasn’t a ton of advantage to doing it, and that there would be potential security risks. Beyond that, I didn’t have much information to offer, and I was asked to look into this further.
So, before I went running to our outside IT guy, who will bill just for asking the question, I wanted to turn to you folks and get your advice. In essence, I’m trying to determine the following:
How difficult is it to convert to a wireless network within a small business?
How expensive is it?
Are there major benefits to converting, other than getting rid of lots of Cat-5?
Just how bad are the potential security risks?
What other downsides am I not aware of?
If it helps, we’re in a space that covers roughly 10,000 square feet. There are somewhere between 25-30 workstations within the office, and only about five of those are laptops. If there’s any more information you need in order to help me out, please just ask.
I appreciate any and all input. Even if it’s just to say they’re crazy for considering it in the first place.
I’ll try to answer your questions in order to the best of my ability, but I’ve got a couple of things for you to consider first. First is it really necessary to have everybody convert over to wireless? In most cases, you may only have a handful of users that might wander from room to room with their laptop or have outside clients who may need to have wireless internet access at their disposal. Second, you have to consider that wired connections (for now) have a higher data transfer rate. If you’re transferring large files across a network this will have a large impact on your users.
On to your questions:
It’s not really tough to convert. Purchase either a wireless router which can adequately cover your office area or buy wireless access points to do the same. You can also get signal repeaters to cover weaker outlying areas. Replace your wired network cards with wireless network cards. (I’m not going into all the details that are needed to do this, but it’s not really that bad.)
Wireless equipment is getting cheaper all the time, but you shouldn’t always buy the cheapest equipment you can find. Look for equipment that offers the best security and dependability you can afford. If you’re working at a law office, security should be extremely important.
Unless you’ve got CAT-5 cable hanging loose everywhere, there’s no need to get rid of it. The only real advantage that you’re getting is the ability to connect to your network and the internet without being tethered to a network cable.
Security risks are definitely an issue if you are using an outdated or weak security protocol. I’m not up on all of the flavors of wireless security, but all of the equipment you get should at least be WPA-capable.
I think I might have covered the obvious downsides that you might have. Potentially slower data transfer rates, possible security breaches from improperly protected access points, slightly more expensive equipment costs. From what you said, you pretty much covered this with your co-workers already
That’s all very helpful, thank you. It will allow me to elaborate more on why that isn’t necessary. No one here wanders with their laptops, and the only place I can imagine that being useful is in the conference rooms.
I think part of their motivation, although I haven’t been told this for certain yet, is that they’re thinking of moving, and that there’s some consideration of having a wireless office rather than stringing Cat-5 throughout the new premises.
Would this change your opinion of the feasibility? I still don’t feel that it’s worth the potential drawbacks.
I once set up a company to use a wireless network when they were moving to a new building. It worked out great for that purpose. We could just move people’s computers around anywhere as construction and moving dictated. It wasn’t supposed to be a permanent solution though and one of their core applications couldn’t tolerate even millisecond of a dropped connection so that was a problem.
I don’t understand why it has to be an either/or. You can have both wired and wireless connectivity. I don’t think it is a great idea to start unwiring things just because. Just set up a wireless access point and add devices using it as you see fit. If you needed too, you could buy a bunch of USB antennas and convert the whole office over in an afternoon for something like a move.
I’m on a local wireless net right now. One DSL line broadcasting to 4 stations. If there is any downside, I’m not aware of it. And it’s a lot cheaper than cable for a single business station.
[QUOTE=Asimovian]
I think part of their motivation, although I haven’t been told this for certain yet, is that they’re thinking of moving, and that there’s some consideration of having a wireless office rather than stringing Cat-5 throughout the new premises.
QUOTE]
This helps to clarify things a bit more. If they’re considering a move to a new office location that doesn’t have pre-existing CAT-5 wiring in place, using a wireless network may be worthwhile. In your current situation, Shagnasty brings up a good point by suggesting that you simply add a wireless access point to your existing network to handle the odd wireless user.
ProTem,
What you’re describing doesn’t appear to be quite the same thing that we’re discussing in the OP. It sounds to me like what you’re doing is simply sharing a broadband internet connection using a wireless router. While this type of arrangement offers a small subset of networking features, it’s not as complex as a true office network which can have one or more file servers at its center in addition to shared print devices and broadband connectivity.
I just got confirmation on this a few minutes ago. I still have some concern over the loss of speed if we switch entirely to wireless, but I don’t know what the cost of having to run CAT-5 everywhere would be. In the current budget-conscious mode around here, it might be worthwhile for them to save money on that and just go completely wireless.
Depending on the layout of your new office and how the building is constructed, it might not be all that expensive to stick with a mostly-wired network. Instead of having a bunch of long cable runs going back to your central network area, you could set up network switches in strategically placed locations and do shorter cable runs to the end users with one long cable going back to your server room. If your new building has a drop ceiling with conduits or pass-thru holes between rooms, it might be fairly simple to get this going with a minimum of fuss. Heck, replace one of the switches with a wireless router and you get both wireless and wired connectivity all at the same time.
Whatever you do, be sure to use enterprise-grade devices. The cheap Linksys appliances are fine for home use, but they just don’t have what it takes to provide 24/7 reliability for a business.
WPA encryption is a must. Both to prevent neighbors from poaching the firm’s internet connection and from eavesdropping on data.
For that large a space, you’ll need to do a site survey sit down and plot out where the APs (access points) or antennae need to be. You may want to dedicate an AP per conference room on the assumption that several laptops may be active during meetings.
As for costs, basic PCI cards for desktops start at around $50 each. Enterprise-grade APs are sadly, not cheap, but you’ll soon curse a decision to buy a handful of $60 home routers the first time one dummies up and you have to figure which one went dead and go off to restart it.
