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What is Wireless LAN?
A wireless LAN is a wireless local area network that uses radio waves to give a network connection to all users in the surrounding area. Areas may range from a single room to an entire campus. The backbone network usually uses cables, with one or more wireless access points or routers connecting the wireless users to the wired network.
Advantages
One of the advantages of wireless network is its flexibility. The radio waves go through the walls and the wireless computer can be anywhere within range of an access point (up to 300 feet with few obstructions). There is no need to install new network cables when a computer is moved. The wireless networks are superficially very easy to set-up and use. Just plug-in an access point or router and equip your laptops or computers with wireless network cards. Prices are not high anymore and wireless LAN is a common choice for home networks. The price of wireless products were once quite high for home users. Wireless networks are more convenient when mobility is required, and are sometimes the only feasible choice (like in old buildings where installing cables is difficult or impossible).
Disadvantages
Security is a major concern. The fact that someone can sit in the building next door, pick-up and store all your wireless traffic, and crack the most common implementation of Wireless encryption (and then read all the stored traffic) has to be a concern. Changing the wireless LAN encryption key on a daily or weekly basis is an extra overhead. Equipment has to be located to take into account the limitations of wireless operation. Users need 'line of sight' to a base station. Typical 802.11b wireless LAN base stations have a range of approximately 300 feet. However the more walls (or floors) that are in the 'line of sight' the more the transmissions will be degraded (and the slower the network will run). Data transfer speeds will typically not be as good as in a wired network. All users of the same base station have to share the bandwidth (typically 11Mb/s or 54Mb/s) whilst those wired to a hub or switch typically get almost the full 100Mb/s. Also, wireless data rates degrade rapidly with signal strength/interference. Wired networks are more secure, more reliable and offer a higher data transfer speed. Wireless networks can also pose a significant security risk when not properly installed and maintained.
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