AFTER USHERING A PAPERLESS OFFICE TIME TO FULLY EMBRACE WIRELESS NETWORKS.

Technology has come along way since the times of Leonardo da Vinci the Italian painter, sculptor, engineer, scientist and architect - the most versatile genius of the Italian Renaissance (1452-1519) when he used to imagine future technological advancements through his quintessential and timeless paintings. Long before the calculator was invented he painted one, the Wright brothers probably saw his airplane paintings and on a light touch the ladies must thank this guy for make up and beauty products companies must have given the Mona Lisa a serious thought.

During the “dot com bubble” period in the USA, Silicon Valley is generally considered to have been the center of the dot-com bubble which started in the mid-1990s and collapsed after the NASDAQ stock market began to decline dramatically in April of 2000. Even after the dot-com crash, Silicon Valley continues to maintain its status as one of the top research and development centers in the world. A 2006 Wall Street Journal story found that 13 of the 20 most inventive towns in America were in California, and 10 of those were in Silicon Valley.
Since the early twentieth century, Silicon Valley has been home to a vibrant, growing electronics industry. The other world economic superpowers have also excelled with various inventions. Though Africa in the past decade has played her usual role of a dumping site with second hand devices flooding her overflowing market of cheap “made in china” gadgets, statistics indicate that there is a significant increase in computer users beyond just playing computer games. There has been a great leap to the paperless office,Plus a major offshoot of Computer Training Colleges, internet usage has surpassed expectations with increased data rates.

New ventures like the EASSY and TEAMS optic fiber cable are undergoing their completion are signs of good things to come. But before then we should be exploring ways to rip benefits from available technologies especially in providing high-speed data and telecommunications services. The new the easiest, least expensive way to connect the computers is to use a wireless network, which uses radio waves instead of wires. The absence of physical wires makes this kind of network very flexible. For example, you can move a laptop from room to room without fiddling with network cables and without losing your connection. The downside is that wireless connections are generally slower than Ethernet connections and they are less secure unless you take measures to protect your network.

If one wants to build a wireless network, you'll need a wireless router (a router is a computer whose software and hardware are usually tailored to the tasks of routing and forwarding, generally containing a specialized operating system e.g.” Cisco's IOS or Juniper Networks or Extreme Networks XOS” RAM, NVRAM, flash memory, and one or more processors - Routers are like junctions whereas subnets are like streets and hosts like houses).
Signals from a wireless router extend about 30 meters in all directions, but walls can interrupt the signal. Depending on the size and shape of your building and the range of the router, you may need to purchase a range extender or repeater (a repeater connects two segments of your network cable. It retimes and regenerates the signals to proper amplitudes and sends them to the other segments. When talking about, Ethernet topology, you are probably talking about using a hub as a repeater.)

To get enough coverage a wireless adapter is needed in each computer you plan to connect to the network. You can add printers and other devices to the network as well. Some new models have built-in wireless communication capabilities, and you can use a wireless Ethernet bridge to add wireless capabilities to devices that don't. If you decide to build a wireless network, you'll need to take steps to protect it - you don't want malicious people hacking your wireless signal. Wireless security options include:
• Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) • WiFi Protected Access (WPA) • Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering

You can choose which method (or combination of methods) you want to use when you set up your wireless router. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has approved each of these security standards, but studies have proven that WEP can be broken into very easily. If you use WEP, you may consider adding Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) to your operating system. TKIP is a wrapper with backward compatibility, which means you can add it to your existing security option without interfering with its activity. Think of it like wrapping a bandage around a cut finger - the bandage protects the finger without preventing it from carrying out its normal functions.

Some of the wireless technologies available include; WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology aimed at providing wireless data over long distances in a variety of ways, from point-to-point links to full mobile cellular type access. It is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard, which is also called WirelessMAN. The name WiMAX was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformance and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL."
Wi-Fi a wireless-technology brand owned by the Wi-Fi Alliance, promotes standards with the aim of improving the interoperability of wireless local area network products based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Common applications for Wi-Fi include Internet and VoIP phone access, gaming, and network connectivity for consumer electronics such as televisions, DVD players, and digital cameras. The Wi-Fi Alliance, a consortium of separate and independent companies, agrees on a set of common interoperable products based on the family of IEEE 802.11 standards. Wi-Fi technologies have gone through several generations since their inception in 1997. The Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X and open source UNIX and Linux operating systems support Wi-Fi to different extents. The two standards are aimed at different applications. Notably;1) WiMAX is a long-range system, covering many kilometers that typically uses licensed spectrum (although it is also possible to use unlicensed spectrum) to deliver a point-to-point connection to the Internet from an ISP to an end user. Different 802.16 standards provide different types of access, from mobile (similar to data access via a cell phone) to fixed (an alternative to wired access, where the end user's wireless termination point is fixed in location.)
2) Wi-Fi is a shorter range system, typically hundreds of meters, that uses unlicensed spectrum to provide access to a network, typically covering only the network operator's own property. Typically Wi-Fi is used by an end user to access their own network, which may or may not be connected to the Internet. If WiMAX provides services analogous to a cell phone, Wi-Fi is more analogous to a cordless phone.
3) WiMAX and Wi-Fi have quite different Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms. WiMAX uses a mechanism based on setting up connections between the Base Station and the user device. Each connection is based on specific scheduling algorithms, which means that QoS parameters can be guaranteed for each flow. Wi-Fi has introduced a QoS mechanism similar to fixed Ethernet, where packets can receive different priorities based on their tags. This means that QoS is relative between packets/flows, as opposed to guaranteed.
Due to the ease and low cost with which Wi-Fi can be deployed, it is sometimes used to provide Internet access to third parties within a single room or building available to the provider, often informally, and sometimes as part of a business relationship. For example, many coffee shops, hotels, and transportation hubs contain Wi-Fi access points providing access to the Internet for customers.
Finally to quote Albert Einstein after the destructive effects of the atomic bomb he said that he could not predict what the 3rd world war will de fought with but he could tell that 4th world war shall be fought with sticks and stones hence with the current trends the leap from wireless technology is unpredictable perhaps a puzzle for Africa to solve. I rest my case