Cat 5 vs. wireless: Pros and cons
When your teleworkers need a home network, be wary of cost and security.
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The results of last month's meeting weren't good: Your teleworkers wanted multiple network jacks for their families' computers. Your IS staff specified Category 5 for everything. But hardwiring your teleworkers' homes would have broken your budget.
So you thought 802.11b wireless might be a good solution. At 11M bit/sec, 802.11b's 2.4-GHz spread spectrum ap-proach offers reasonable throughput, and its Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) seems to satisfy the security requirements. But after your trial rollout, your teleworkers were grumbling about speed - about six times slower than Cat 5 for LAN throughput - and your IS staff was grumbling about WEP's security.
The boss wants details, but every Internet resource you find is heavily biased. Some tout WEP as the security solution it was designed to be, and others, such as Berkeley in a recent report, claim the design has "significant security flaws."
This story compares the strengths and weakness of 802.11b wireless and Cat 5 by looking at two teleworkers. John is a family man with a wife and three children. He has a company-provided workstation and asymmetric DSL (ADSL) connection. His wife and son have their own computers and want to access the Internet over the ADSL connection. As a video-effects guru, John needs lots of storage, as well as throughput between his workstation and the network-attached storage unit in his wiring closet.
Cindy is a claims processor. Her storage requirements are modest, and she needs iron-clad security due to the sensitive data in her files. Her firm has installed a secure VPN. Her family of three also wants to share her LAN and Internet access.
Assessing the costs
While Cat 5 installation costs vary considerably, a three-jack installation can cost about $450 for materials and $400 for labor. By comparison, the costs for wireless stop after you've installed and configured the wireless access point and the network interface card (NIC). For example, LinkSys' WAP11 lets you tap into existing Ethernet LANs for $99.95, plus an additional $40.26 per NIC ($98.95 per PC Card NIC).
Even though the cost for the wireless hardware is approximately $100 more than the Cat-5 hardware, you save almost $300 on labor.
Comparative analysis
So wireless is the way to go, right? Not so fast. Cat 5's 100M bit/sec puts 802.11b's 11M bit/sec to shame. Wireless may work fine for Cindy, but John's video applications need some speed.
Also, the biggest problem with wireless is security. Numerous security experts have recently detailed WEP's "significant design flaws" that let any determined hacker gain access, regardless of the chosen key length. If your teleworker is accessing sensitive data, ensure that you're using a unit with 128-bit key, enable authentication and encryption, and encapsulate your data via a proven VPN.
Fortunately, some wireless systems, such as those from 3Com and Cisco, are leaping ahead of the standards and including tunneling, IP Security and centralized key management in their wireless products. Both vendors also provide Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service applications
If you're mixing vendors, make sure they all have the Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) logo. Wi-Fi is the interoperability certification granted by the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance. Products with this logo are certified to work with other Wi-Fi products.
Because the level of interoperability is limited to the 802.11b standard, however, Wi-Fi doesn't cover any of the desired security enhancements, such as interoperability, while using 128-bit keys.
Wireless may be inexpensive and convenient, but it's neither fast nor particularly secure. Until WEP undergoes some needed improvements, we recommend you consider any 802.11b wireless LAN as potentially vulnerable, and use a firewall between it and your corporate network.
Cat 5 caveats
However, before you start installing Cat 5 cable in your teleworker's home, check your local building codes. Most specify that plenum-rated cable is a must for all dwellings. Be sure you seal the holes you drilled through the fire stops with foam sealant, too. When laying cables, keep them at least 18 inches away from electrical wiring to avoid throughput-robbing interference.
If you think your teleworker really needs Cat 5e, go ahead and splurge. Keep in mind, though, that 100M bit/sec is at least 60 times faster than the uplink - the Cat 5 won't become a bottleneck for several years.
As for differences between 568A and 568B, remember that the 568B wiring scheme uses the following pinouts (1-8): W/O-O, W/G-Bl, W/Bl-G, W/Br-Br. Because this is the standard for Cat 5 patch cables, going with 568B patch panels and RJ-45 jacks will save you time because you can't mix the two.
Back to John and Cindy
The throughput John needs for his massive video files clearly dictate Cat 5. Without a good VPN, Cindy would need Cat 5 for its security. But because her data is safely encapsulated by the VPN before traveling over wireless, Cindy's firm chose a wireless solution for her home office.
Next story: Peripheral vision - printers, faxes, scanners, multifunction devices and more.
Janss is the president of Jansys Information Systems, a consulting firm specializing in IS technologies for small businesses. He can be reached at bizcom@jansys.com.
