Wireless equipment is now more available to businesses. At point of purchase equipment comes packaged with the wires and power adaptors and chargers and cables ect. But more often than not it is wireless capable. But does this mean that your office should be entirely wireless? Below we will discuss the options, advantages and disadvantages of wireless and wired offices.

Wired offices are the traditional style of running IT systems. This doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination mean that it is outdated. Wired or Ethernet networks have three big advantages. Although three doesn’t sound like a lot they are certainly big considerations.

Wired

• Speed - Whilst home users and individual business workers can benefit from wireless networks in a short –term situation whilst in meetings or on the train, generally they do not require the networking speeds that would be required of a full team 15+ people with the potential to increase to 30+. Business networking speeds may be required, that a wireless solution may not be capable of.
• Reliability - Wired connections are vastly more reliable as they are not prone to interference and possible fluctuations in bandwidth.
• Security - Due to the physical nature of wired offices, no one can monitor your traffic or utilise your connectivity. A wireless network can be made secure but steps have to be taken and devices configured to securely protect your network.

Wireless

• You are rarely out of touch - you don't need to carry cables or adaptors in order to access office networks
• Greater flexibility and mobility for users - office-based wireless workers can be networked without sitting at dedicated PCs
• Adding new users or moving desk locations within the network range does not require costly changes to the network infrastructure
• Setting up a WLAN requires an access point (or 'base station'), antennae and an adapter for each PC, laptop or handheld that is to access the network. If you have more space to cover, you may need more than one base station.

Summary

The gains and losses of each are comparatively negligible, we would suggest that as a foundation offices should be wired however, the equipment available now is by majority wireless capable so you do not even need to invest or spend a great deal more than you would normally to gain the advantages of wireless. We feel that a wired office is more reliable and suits most businesses primary business needs.

We would recommend a mixture of wired and wireless to gain the advantages of both. This way non-mobile office staff and equipment are properly provisioned for, and visitors, meeting, and mobile users can work easily within that environment. You don’t have to choose between the two and they are not exclusive, they can and do work brilliantly side by side and this is how we believe you should use them.