Networking Mobile Clients

Two trends of the 1990s increasing worker mobility and increasing dependence on up-to-the-minute information drive mobile computing and make it vital for mobile computing clients to have network connections:

- Drivers for delivery services need addresses to pick up packages

- Insurance salespeople need estimates based on actuary tables located in the office database (and sometimes they need this information before they get to the client's site)

- Fishing boats need market information to tell them which port will get them the best price for their fish. The fishermen might even manage to sell the catch before they get to shore by contacting a client over a wireless link

In all these situations, the clients need information that they can't get using a wired connection. (It's ridiculous to consider connecting fishing boats with cables.) If these mobile computing clients are to have access to networked information, their connection must be wireless.

The advantages of a wireless modem connection are a little different from those of a wireless printer. With a wireless modem, you can potentially carry your office anywhere that you and your laptop go a much more likely scenario than lugging a wireless printer around.

Wireless dialup capabilities offer great advantages for people who work a lot on the road and must rely on hotels to act as their office. For one thing, some hotels route all calls through a switchboard, so using a traditional modem isn't possible you can't just unplug the telephone and plug your modem into the wall to get to an outside line. For another, printing on the road is often a major hassle and expense. Even if the hotel in which you're staying has a computer center (and many do not), printing charges in hotels range from fairly pricey to downright exorbitant. Via the modem, you can fax your document to the hotel's fax number and address it to yourself. The final product may be on thermal paper, but if all you need is hard copy and quality is not the main concern, then that's an easy and inexpensive way to get a printout.

Essentially, the advantages of wireless networking are mobility and flexibility. Wireless networking makes it possible to share information when the infrastructure or circumstances seem to make networking impossible. Wireless modems come either as PC-Card (PCMCIA) devices that fit into a slot on your PC, or as a separate device with an antenna, which can plug into any RS-23 2-compatible serial port.

Text 5

I. Memorize the following word combinations:

1. inherent disadvantages - присущие недостатки

2. perceived detriment - ощутимый вред

3. short-range - малого радиуса действия

4. Wide-Area Network = WAN - Глобальная сеть

5. to disrupt - нарушать

II. Look through the text. Guess the subject-matter of it. Write the subject-matter down into your exercise-book.

III. Read Text 5 again. Find all the disadvantages of wireless networks in it. Write them down into your exercise-book and translate them in written form.

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