The Promise and Perils of a Ubiquitous Wireless Internet

Wireless Internet service shows great promise in allowing users to have nation-wide, ubiquitous Internet access. Two varieties of service are forming. In one variety, a user is given free wireless access either as advertising or as a public service. In another, the user pays for wireless access from a com-mercial provider, must like a wired ISP. However, the very nature of wireless creates some additional technical problems which wired connections do not have to consider. Because wireless connections use collision avoidance rather than collision detection, wireless connections have additional overhead. In addition, because wireless connections use RF signals rather than hard-to-tap wire, they are vulnerable to eavesdropping. Also, wireless connections are susceptible to freeloading if proper authentication is not implemented. The current security protocol,WEP, is fatally flawed due to improper imple-mentation and use of a weak key. Before commercial services can mature, these problems with authentication and security must be satisfactorily dealt with. 2