Review Broadband is the future of home and small business Internet access - the difference between slow dial-up and fast always-on speeds differentiating those that can from those that can't. Better still, stick a wireless ADSL router on the end of your Broadband connection, then not only do you get fixed line access, but also wireless access all behind a firewall. In my case, I've just been implementing the 3COM Office Connect ADSL wireless 11g Firewall Router: so how does it measure up?

How hard can it be to get this little box to do the business? OK – Let’s start at the beginning – way before we even get to putting the 3Com box in place. Through my trusty ISP I ordered my ADSL connection. All seemed to be going well it estimates that it should be installed and fully functioning seven – ten days after ordering.

Three days after ordering, my phone line goes dead - BT apologises and suggests it might be something to do with its ADSL commissioning. In the meantime it will redirect all calls to my mobile phone – free. Four hours later I am still not receiving diverted calls and my phone is still dead. BT apologises again, and explains that the engineer must have forgotten to reapply the divert after testing the line. Unfortunately it can’t fix the problem today but will try to fix it within two working days of the fault report, which will be Monday.

The weekend comes and goes, then as promised the BT engineer turns up first thing Monday morning. Two visits later and my telephone is restored and the broadband connection is apparently on. Now the complicated stuff is resolved it should all be fairly simple to get it all working - surely? Now we get to the fun bit – the 3Com ADSL router/ firewall/ wireless access point.

After a final check I try to connect again, and it works - my desktop PC can surf the Web at broadband speeds over my wired Ethernet connection. All I need to do now is configure my Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook Tablet PC to use a wireless LAN connection. You would expect it to be a little harder than just plugging the cable in, but not that much harder; so little did I know.

Security guards

Having spent a little time reading up on wireless network security, it seems to me that wireless security is still relative, rather than absolute. Apparently, hiding your SSID and using MAC address filtering is not much of a deterrent to the determined hacker. And all things being equal, WEP of any security level can be cracked in about an hour with the right kit. Since WPA as yet has not been cracked (apparently) you have to wonder why the Wi-Fi Alliance is releasing WPA version 2 later this year.

With this in mind I dutifully setup my router with WPA-PSK encryption. Next, I go to the laptop to enter my ‘shared secret’, except it only supports WEP. Thinking WEP is better than nothing, I downgrade the router encryption to WEP 128bit, back to the laptop and now I’m told my key is too long. Once again, back to the router and downgrade to WEP 64bit encryption, back to the laptop and at last it works.

Satisfied that this is at least vaguely secure I start to appreciate the benefits of wireless computing. Except... every five minutes or so, Windows (in its infinite wisdom) offers to switch my wireless connection between my router and my neighbour's. Of course, while I can see my neighbour's connection I am unable to use it. So every 5 five minutes, Windows suspends my connection while I make a decision on which network to use.

While reviewing what to do about this, I decide to pursue this WPA business again.

Ain't misbehavin'

Since it seems to be the operating system that is misbehaving, I start with the Microsoft update site, reading fascinating articles on the wonders of WPA and how to configure it. I duly download and install the appropriate patch and go back into my network settings to pop in my WPA key, except it still only supports WEP. Now what?

I now move on to checking the wireless LAN drivers under the Windows Device Manager. Conveniently, there is an option to update the driver - except when executed I am informed that I already have the latest driver.

A bit more searching later and I track down an article from the Wi-Fi Alliance stating that the router I am using and the Intel Pro/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI adapter in my laptop definitely support 11g and WPA. So what can be wrong? I’m sure I have done everything possible by now.

A couple more ever decreasing circles later and I end up back at Windows help (now updated courtesy of Windows SP1). There, lo and behold, the help page more or less describes my symptoms and points me to the Intel website suggesting that there may actually be an updated driver after all. Sure enough, I am informed on the Intel website that my existing driver does not support WPA and that I need a newer driver, except Intel doesn't supply them - it lists links to three PC suppliers, but not Fujitsu Siemens.

Half an hour later I manage to track down this illusive driver - it doesn't actually tell me it will fix the problem - but it's quite new, so I hope that it will.

Halleluiah, it works! The driver is installed and at last my laptop supports WPA-PSK, I enter in my shared secret and off we go. The connection is secure and it's stopped offering me alternative networks; but what an experience.

Since wireless networking is only an incremental step, it seems incredible that the support structure appears to collapse so easily. Configuring my wireless network was no mean feat.

Yet it would be so easy to offer that unified experience: connecting the driver update tool to the Intel support page would have been a nice start. Actually, finding real objective information about wireless networking and the security pot holes to be avoided could also have been much easier.

The whole system seems to be aimed at the security specialist - not the person who has the need to utilise the system. To the small business for which this router is positioned, the likelihood that these businesses would understand the security implications, let alone have the ability to configure it, seems fairly slim. Yet the implications of an unsecured wireless network are just as real.

In fairness I suppose I should at least be grateful that all of the components were actually available, the 3COM ADSL router was very easy to use and configure, even if it the help does offer little more than dictionary definitions. Once the appropriate patches were in place on my laptop, Windows help did point me in the correct direction and Fujitsu Siemens did have the updated driver that I needed. Yet the entire experience didn’t exactly hang together. This experience can only get easier. Can't it?

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