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Which wireless network suits your business?
To have the mobility to do business wherever and whenever you wish, there's no better solution for your small business than a wireless network. Fast, easy to set up and affordable, wireless networks can be your company's shortcut to increasing productivity, decreasing networking costs and enhancing employee collaboration.
The server decision
When selecting a wireless network for your company, you will have two primary options: A network that includes a server and one that doesn't. Which is best for you? The answer is mostly a matter of your business needs.
If you're the sole employee of your business or maybe have a partner or two and don't anticipate your company to grow anytime soon, you can set up a fast and fully functional wireless network without a server. But if there are more than a handful of people on your payroll or you expect your business to grow significantly in the near future, you need to consider including a server in your network to ensure that it functions as fast and reliably as possible. The chart below should help you decide what kind of network to set up for your company.
Wireless network without a server
- Best suited for small office/home office (SOHO) environments.
- Relatively easy for a novice to set up.
- Requires a wireless gateway or wireless router.
- Does not require significant technical knowledge to set up, but novices may need outside technical support/help desk.
- Provides limited methods to control or manage workgroup members.
Wireless network with a server
- Smart choice for small to medium businesses, especially those with aggressive growth plans.
- Does not provide centralized management of user accounts or user authentication.
- Requires one or more wireless gateways that support 802.11X network.
- Enables centralized management of user accounts and user authentication.
- Provides robust methods to manage domain member accounts.
- Controls can be fine-tuned.
Whichever option you choose, you can gain a wealth of advantages with your new wireless network, including an instantly more flexible office environment. As opposed to a wired network - in which you have to drill holes in your office walls and floors and run cables to and from phone jacks, network devices and peripherals - a wireless infrastructure enables you to easily reconfigure your office space as your company grows and changes. Wireless networks also allow you and your employees to use your notebooks throughout the office, unchaining you from your desks. But to fully leverage these and the many other benefits of a wireless network, it's critical to set up a network to be as secure as possible. A secure network setup will enable you to:
- Dramatically reduce your network's exposure to viruses, spyware and spam - all of which can bring your systems to their knees if left unchecked.
- Limit access to the network to only those people you have explicitly authorized to use it, such as employees, customers, vendors and partners.
- Keep malicious hackers and snooping competitors from getting into the network to steal or manipulate important company information.
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