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Keep up the Shelf Space section

I am a regular reader of Network Magazine and I enjoy reading it. From its inception, I have been happy with the variety of topics that are covered in each issue. In the past, I have benefited on several occasions by reading the neutral and in-depth analyses of various technologies and products.

This time I thought I should let you know about the benefits we derived by reading the Shelf Space section of the magazine’s July 2005 issue. The coverage of WatchGuard Technologies Inc’s Firebox X Peak range of products and Allied Telesyn’s AT-ARW256E wireless bridge/router were especially significant for us.

Our company has been able to take advantage of the content, and we want to congratulate your editorial team for providing such insightful information.

Regards,
Sanjay Mittal
Head, IT
Navin Flourine International
Mumbai

Dear Sanjay Mittal,

We are pleased to know that the products covered in the Shelf Space section have been useful to you and your organisation.

We are committed to provide our readers insightful information in every issue. We hope that our articles continue to benefit you in the future as well.

A wireless cyber cafe

I regularly read Network Magazine, and find the information interesting and useful. One of my friends wants to set up a cyber cafe with seven PCs and wants to use wireless technology to connect the PCs.

Can you tell me about the equipment needed?

Regards,
Vivek Pant
Bangalore

Dear Vivek Pant,

Here are a few suggestions for your friend:

• Use wireless network adapters on every PC.
• Use a single 802.11x access point at a strategic location in the room.
• Use a broadband link with facilities for failover.

802.11b provides 11 Mbps shared bandwidth, while 802.11g provides up to 54 Mbps. For plain vanilla Internet access, 11 Mbps of shared bandwidth for seven PCs should be enough.

Wireless LAN equipment is available from vendors such as Cisco, D-Link, 3Com and Krone.

Visiting the nearest computer product reseller or posting a request directly to the company's Web site would be a good way to start.

A little SIP for better business

I read Network Magazine regularly, and find the articles related to VoIP communications, which you publish from time to time, quite interesting.

Our organisation has offices in multiple locations across the country. All the locations have connectivity links through multiple ISPs. There are, however, no dedicated links present between the head office and branch offices.

I want to set up an infrastructure that will help me reduce the cost of communication between the various offices of my organisation. I wish to install a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server and use it to communicate between the office locations without using a PSTN line.

This will be purely an intra-office communication infrastructure. Can you t ell me if this is legally allowed in India?

Regards,
Dinesh

Dear Dinesh,

It is legal to use VoIP communications between a Closed User Group (CUG). However, it is important to ensure that the locations in the CUG are registered offices of the same organisation.

You can choose between the various VoIP protocols that are currently in use, but ensure that your router supports the protocol as well. Contact the manufacturer for any hardware plug-ins and technical support.

We also suggest that you contact a consultant who can study your systems and provide you with more information on the legalities of it.