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Wireless – What’s All The Fuss About?

Wireless networks are one of the most popular emerging technologies. Wireless networks use radio waves or microwaves to maintain communication channels between computers. This is the modern alternative to wired networking. But is wireless worthwhile? If you are unsure about the potential advantages of wireless, then you can use this guide to help you understand better the reasons why wireless is becoming so popular.

Stay connected

One of the major advantages of a wireless connection is that you can remain connected whilst moving around. Many businesses have reported that it allows their employees to stay online more each day, because when they move between rooms they can just use a laptop with a wireless connection, and so there is no need to reconnect or use a different computer. This means you can be more productive, and are less limited about where you can work. It also makes it easier for more than one person to use the Internet in your home. You can also stay connected whilst out and about, with more and more places having wireless connections that you can use. You can now sit and relax in a café whilst doing your work, rather than going to an Internet café or staying at home.

No wires

Obviously, the biggest advantage of a wireless connection is that there are no wires. Not only does this look better and save space, but it also makes setting up much easier. If you are moving house or office, there is no need to set up all the wires. This makes moving much easier, and gives you a definite return on your investment.

ROI

ROI, or return on investment, is very important in the IT business. Perhaps one of the most important reasons why businesses are switching to wireless is the excellent ROI they are getting. Many businesses are able to save thousands of pounds in cabling costs and labour, as well as increasing productivity. For the relatively low cost of installing the network, they are seeing excellent returns. If you have a business, then switching to wireless could really save you time and money.

Other advantages

There are other advantages to wireless that are harder to measure, but are still evident. Employees tend to be happier because of the increase in flexibility and time saving features of wireless. This increases productivity even further. This is a similar story for homes, with people being able to use their computers in more places, and so allowing for flexibility and greater comfort whilst working or performing tasks.

Disadvantages

Obviously, wireless is not without its disadvantages. Despite being easier to set up because of wires, when problems occur it is harder to work out why. When you have a wired connection, you can generally find out the cause of the fault by checking the connections. With a wireless connection, more things can go wrong. Interference can occur from bad weather, radio waves or other wireless devices. Connection speeds tend to fluctuate more than they do with wired connections. Also, signal strength is still relatively poor for home connections, and if you have a large house the connection might be poor in some areas. Wireless technology is also more expensive than a wired connection. However, many of these problems will be solved as wireless technology improves and becomes cheaper.

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