Set up a wireless LAN : do it

Once you have a business plan in place that defines how you want to add wireless networking capabilities to your office you can get down to the business of actually setting up your wireless network. It's easier than you might think. The first step is understanding the equipment involved in a wireless network.

A wireless LAN consists of two main components:

• A wireless LAN-enabled client
  
  
• An access point

A wireless LAN-enabled client is a notebook computer, printer, handheld, or any other device capable of communicating over a wireless LAN. Wireless-enabled devices come in two flavors: those that are built with wireless networking functionality embedded in them and those that have it added to them later. A variety of notebook PCs, PDAs, printers and other devices from HP come with wireless functionality built right in.

Devices that aren't already wireless-enabled can quickly be made so with the simple addition of a wireless LAN card. A wireless LAN card is a PC card for a notebook computer, or PC card and a PCI adapter, or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device for your desktop computer. Printers and PDAs use similar cards for their wireless communications.

The center of the wireless to wired LAN connectivity is the wireless access point. These points aggregate wireless radio signals and then connect the two LANs. The access point is generally book-sized. It contains a radio transceiver, communications and encryption software, and an Ethernet port for a cable connection to a hub or switch on the wired LAN.

The radio transceiver built into the access point negotiates a connection between the end user and the wired LAN, hooking the user up to the LAN in the same way a cable would. The greater the distance is from the computer to the access point, the poorer the signal and the slower the connection. Because of this limitation, large offices often deploy several access points with overlapping ranges. In an open-space environment free of obstruction, access points can be as much as 300 feet apart. Where walls and ceilings jut out, 50 feet is a useful maximum range.

There is no single way to build a wireless LAN. Your particular needs and budget will drive how and when you integrate wireless networking technologies into your network infrastructure. Even so, building your own wireless LAN is very much a step-by-step process that includes:

• Identifying the equipment you want to buy.
  
  
• Determining the number of users who need to have access to the network.
  
  
• Planning for the connection to your wired LAN.
  
  
• Configuring your wireless devices to work with your network.
  
  
• Testing the installation before it goes live.
  
  
• Establishing a procedure to manage your wireless LAN.

Your shopping list should include wireless-enabled devices such as wireless notebooks, access points, wireless LAN adapters, and wireless cards. The quantity of equipment you buy will depend on the number of users that you will have.

Next, you will need to determine where to install the access point. Ideally, you would want a professional to do this, since they could design a network that would give you maximum range within your building. However, it is very easy to do it yourself as well.

You probably want to install your access point in a central location because there is a limited wireless sphere around it in which wireless devices can access the LAN. You also want to make sure that the access point is installed in as open an environment as possible, so that there are not many obstacles between the access point and usage points. This maximizes the access point's wireless range. To install the access point simply plug in an Ethernet cable that is connected to the wired LAN and use the software that ships with the access point to assign a network name and an encryption key.

Once you buy and configure all of your equipment, you should test your new wireless setup. A good test would not be unlike a rehearsal for a play. With several users and devices, work up a realistic scenario for an exchange of data on the wireless LAN. Using link test software provided by such vendors as Agilent Technologies, you should test for the percent of data sent correctly, the time it takes to receive a response from the destination device, and the strength of the transmitted signal.

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