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Businesses must prepare to use wireless technology

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CIOL Bureau
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SAN JOSE: According to a new study by Gartner Inc., which is expected to be

released on Monday, there will be almost 800 million wireless data users

worldwide by 2004. These users are expected to access data and information from

the Internet remotely through various devices including mobile phones, laptop

computers, handheld PCs, e-mail devices and other products that may be

introduced in the future.

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Gartner vice president and research director, Bob Egan said, businesses must

readdress their network security and data access options to accommodate the

growing use of these mobile devices by employees. "(Companies) are going to

have to re-engineer their networks in ways that allow people to actually get

access to network resources from outside the company walls," Egan told

Reuters.

Egan pointed out that companies have typically set up their networks on the

assumption that employees will be accessing data only from within the office.

Egan said companies must consider supporting three kinds of wireless

technologies: technology that allows employees to send data over national

wireless networks, technology that would allow employees wireless Internet

access to a local network and technology that would allow employees to transfer

information wirelessly between devices.

"Enterprises will be well-advised to remember that no single wireless

access network topology will meet anywhere near 80 per cent of the requirements

of workers," Egan said in a news release. Bluetooth, a new technology, has

often been touted as a good technology to enable wireless access to local area

networks (LAN), but Egan said that technology should be considered carefully due

to security issues.

He recommended that Bluetooth be used for its originally intended purpose: to

transfer files between devices, to replace wires, and to synchronize file and

data between devices. Egan said companies should consider the more secure 802.11

wireless technology to enable wireless access to local area networks.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.

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