For security, the wireless WAN beats the wireless LAN

Computerworld - When Triac Industries Inc. wanted to move four of its key employees to a building across the street, the operations manager was given only a month to do it. So the local phone company wasn't an option.

As North America's largest swimming-pool lining company, Triac also had trade secrets to protect, so it needed something that was fast, reliable and secure.

David Rice, operations manager at Ajax, Ontario-based Triac, concluded that his only option for the building-to-building network was wireless technology. He ruled out wireless LAN products after learning they had poor encryption options and their emission signals (about 100 yards in all directions) were too easy to intercept.

So Rice settled instead on a wireless wide-area network (WAN), essentially a bridge between buildings, because its point-to-point signaling would make it more difficult to intercept. An eavesdropper would have to stand directly in the signal's path to collect data or hijack the signal, he says.

Triac now uses Tsunami, a product from Western Multiplex Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif. Tsunami speeds data along at 430M bit/sec. in each direction, encodes those transmissions and supports third-party encryption products.

Lots of companies start by trying 802.11b wireless LAN access between buildings, says Todd Thiemann, manager of the Tsunami product line. But they usually end up switching to wireless WAN gateways because they're faster and more secure, he says.

Another option is Stratum, a wireless WAN gateway product from Proxim Inc., also in Sunnyvale.