Girl Geekette

There are many people like John Hancock in this world. They hear about the benefits of Wireless Networking and decide it is a great opportunity. As mentioned earlier, it can be a break from the "Corded World". It is easy to set up most wireless connections out of the box. Technology has pretty much made them plug and play. Most of the time, you do not have to have much knowledge of what goes into wireless to get it to work. Answer a few questions in the setup about how you normally connect to the internet and you are on.

In the first article, it was mentioned that the Wireless Access point he had bought also had a firewall built into it. So, he did not even blink twice when his Norton Firewall alerted him the the fact that someone else was on the network. This other computer that joined the network might have broadcast a "HELLO" to other computers on the network to see if there were any other computers on the network that answered. This is most likely what set off the alarm on Norton’s Firewall on John’s computer.

You have now been introduced to John Hancock. He is among the millions of people each year who now use the comforts and benefits of wireless networking to ease his life. You may already know him, or someone like him. He has a high speed internet connection at home, purchases a new laptop, and decides to take advantage of the wireless technology. Along with being able to use his new laptop wirelessly at home in any room or outside, he can also take it to places such as airports, restaurants, and "wifi hotspots" and use wireless to search the internet and read email.

Although with the comforts, there are also insecurities. The insecurities are in the local wireless network itself. 

In the previous article, we met John Hancock who had just bought a new Dell laptop from Circuit City. He also bought a wireless router and sat outside purchasing a new domain name from Godaddy.com. Enjoying the freedom of the wireless technology, John sat outside in his lounge chair and also purchased a place to host email and a new website he is going to build.

You might have noticed that John did look for the "HTTPS" instead of the "HTTP" when he made a secure transaction. This is a good thing! Kudos to John for remembering to do that. The extra "S" in the URL stands for "Secure" meaning he is making his transaction with a credit card over a secure site. This will prevent anyone else from seeing the credit card numbers on the website (Basically).

Wireless networks have SO many conveniences to them. No cords to tangle up and tie you down, no running unsightly cables through walls, stairs, basements, floors or ceilings, and the ease of being able to move around - but at what cost? And, I do not mean monetary costs - or do I? 

With so many reasons to want to go wireless with computers on a network, sometimes the most obvious reasons are overlooked. At what expense do people risk giving up the security of cables to go wireless? Sure, you can move around a room or floor, and you are not tied down by a cable, but the cable actually adds a layer of protection to your network.