1. What is Wireless Local Area Network?
2. What is a Wireless Wire Area Network?
3. What is a personal area network?
4. Can wireless networks compete with wired networks?
5. Are wireless networks really secure?
6. Will I have to replace the computers and networking I already have?
7. Where do I start?
8. What is Bluetooth?
9. What is the Bluetooth SIG?
10. What will Bluetooth wireless technology deliver to end users?
11. Can a Bluetooth-enabled device be connected to multiple devices?
12. What will the wireless LAN environment look like?
13. What are Simply Wireless's plans in the WAN environment?
14. Can Bluetooth and WiFi co-exist without problems?
15. What about security?
16. Are transmissions secure in a business and home environment?
17. Will Bluetooth products work only in certain areas of the world?
18. What is the anticipated volume for Bluetooth-enabled devices in the near future?
19. Will the Bluetooth technology expand the market for mobile data and mobile products?
20. Will consumers have to pay a higher price for Bluetooth-enabled products?
21. Is it possible to "upgrade" my current communications/computing technology to make it Bluetooth-enabled?
22. What is WECA and what is Wi-Fi?
23. What are the benefits of Wi-Fi to business users?
24. In what markets and target segments will Wi-Fi certified products be sold?
25. How does Wi-Fi compare to Bluetooth?

1. What is Wireless Local Area Network?
A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is aflexible data communications system that can either replace or extend a wired LAN to provide added functionality. Using radio frequency ( usually IEEE802.11b but occasionally 802.11a or Bluetooth.

WLANs transmit and receive data over the air, through walls, ceilings, and even cement structures, without wired cabling. A WLAN provides all the features and benefits of traditional LAN technologies like Ethernet, but without the limitations of being tethered to a cable. This provides greatly increased freedom and flexibility. Wireless LAN is the driving force behind corporate ability to provide real-time access to rich data.

2. What is a Wireless Wire Area Network?
A Wireless Wide Area Network (Wireless WAN) uses the voice mobile networks (standards like CDPD, GSM, GPRS, and 3G) to switch data packets onto the public Internet. Using virtual private networking (VPN) or Simply Wireless solutions business users can accesstheir corporate information securely through a laptop, phone, PocketPC, Palm, or other computing device.

4. What is a personal area network?
A personal area network is the bubble of connectivity that moves around with you. If you have a pda, phone and laptop each with bluetooth inside. Your laptop can be online via your phones's GPRS connection. Your phone can synchronise with both your laptop and pda. Make a change on a phone number on you pda, it automatically updates your address book. Add a headset to allow you to pace around within range of your phone and have both hands free. Great for driving. Send/view/store SMS's from your desktop or your handheld. Add in a camera and you can send video or still's to your friends via your MMS connection. A personal area network has potential to radically alter how you live work and communicate with people.

4. Can wireless networks compete with wired networks?
Wireless technologies have advanced in quality and decreased in cost to the point where you can get the performance, connectivity, reliability, and access you'd expect from a business-level network. You can depend on wireless networking for Internet access, communications, and transactions, and to support the desktop applications you're using now:

5. Are wireless networks really secure?
We understand that business data can be your most important asset. Simply Wireless technologies meet industry standards to safeguard your business data, with four layers of security:

• Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering restricts access to a WLAN to computers that are on a list you create for each access point on your WLAN.
• Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an encryption scheme that protects WLAN data streams between clients and APs as specified by the 802.11 standard. It uses the RC4 encryption algorithm.
• The IEEE 802.1x standard features a port-based authentication framework and dynamic distribution of session keys for WEP encryption.
• In addition, Simply Wireless WLAN's fully support Virtual Private Network(VPN), which offers additional WLAN protection important for mission-critical data. This secures a WLAN by creating a tunnel, shielding the data from the outside world.

Unlike WEP and MAC address filtering, a VPN solution isscalable for large networks. Wireless networks also can be managed to control access to certain types of data by individual or work group. By taking the available security measures, you can conduct your critical business transactions over a reliable wireless network

6. Will I have to replace the computers and networking I already have?
Simply Wireless solutions are based on industry-approved open standards. What this means is that you can depend on compatibility with your current systems. Wireless networks can also be easily configured to work in perfect harmony with your existing wired networks. They offer a viable way to protect and extend the life of your technology investments.

7. Where do I start?
Give us a call to discuss your needs. We can chat about your business requirements, and recommend the wireless solution that's best for you. You can call us at 1300 888 166. And remember - it costs nothing to talk.

8. What is Bluetooth?
The Bluetooth wireless technology is a low-cost, low-power, small-size radio communication language enabling easy to use wireless connections between a lots of different electronic devices. With a range of up to 100 metres, ' and a total data transfer rate of 1Mbps (megabit per second).

Bluetooth connects laptops, desktops, servers, handhelds, mobile phones, printers, mice, projectors, network access points, security devices, audio equipment, toys, and much much more.

Unlike the IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi technology, which is designed specifically for wireless networking, Bluetooth is suited to a very wide range of applications – from file transfer and information synchronisation to dial-up networking through mobile phones, and LAN access through Bluetooth Access Points.

9. What is the Bluetooth SIG?
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group was established early in 1998. It is a group of more than 3500 companies from the computing, telecommunications and networking industries.

The aim of the Bluetooth SIG is to specify the development of bluetooth and bluetooth's suite of Profilesthat define how to bluetooth works in a standard way, so that products- even different brands will inter-operate with each other.

Simply Wireless is an associate member of the Bluetooth SIG.

10. What will Bluetooth wireless technology deliver to end users?
Bluetooth enable us to connect a wide range of computing and telecoms devices easily and simply, without the need to buy, carry, or connect cables. It delivers opportunities for easy ad-hoc connections, and the possibility of automatic, unconscious, connections between devices. It has potential to remove the need for cabling.

Because Bluetooth wireless technology can be used for a variety of purposes, it will also potentially replace multiple cable connections via a single radio link. It creates the possibility of using mobile data in different ways, for different applications such as "Surfing from the sofa", "The instant postcard", "Three in one phone" and many others. It will allow users to think about what they are working on, rather than how to make their technology work.

11. Can a Bluetooth-enabled device be connected to multiple devices?
Yes, a Bluetooth-enabled device will be able to actively communicate with seven devices simultaneously. The specification defines both point-to-point and multi-point connections. This workgroup of eight devices forms what is called a piconet . Using Bluetooth LAN-access devices and servers, many piconets can be connected to form a scatternet.

12. What will the wireless LAN environment look like?
Simply Wireless delivers comprehensive mobility solutions that give travellers and remote workers the freedom to work anytime and anywhere through faster access to the Internet and corporate intranets to upload and download e-mail and other documents and files. Access to these services is available via "hot spots" in airports, hotels and other public facilities.

13. What are Simply Wireless's plans in the WAN environment?
Simply Wireless is building alliances with leading manufacturers and Telco’s to create a seamless environment for simple and fast communications between laptops and the office - wherever they are in Australia.

14.. Can Bluetooth and WiFi co-exist without problems?
Bluetooth and the 802.11b Wi-Fi technology both operate in the 2.45 GHz ISM band, so each may create some interference. Because Bluetooth changes to a new frequency or hops 1600 times per second, and the Wi - Fi uses a similar part of the radio spectrum,, the interference tends to be intermittent and of short duration. In tests carried out by Ericsson in a WiFI /Bluetooth mixed environment, Bluetooth will slowly decline in speed by a maximum of 22% as it concedes bandwidth to WiFi.

Simply Wireless has an assortment of methods to assure co-existence experience between the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technologies.

15. What about security?
What can you tell potential enterprise customers about the security of their network should they want to enable wireless access to that network? Simply Wireless believes that good network security is key. If the wired network is vulnerable to unauthorised access, the wireless network is vulnerable to unauthorised access. Being able to talk to a network access point with a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth device is only the first step to accessing a network. If a network is not secure, unauthorised wireless access would not much different from someone plugging equipment into a RJ-45 jack in an empty office. In the context of someone intercepting a wireless signal, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) 64- and 128-bit encryption can be enabled on Wi-Fi PC Cards and access points along with many other security features to ensure the network is kept secure,

16. Are transmissions secure in a business and home environment?
Bluetooth wireless technology has sufficient built-in encryption and authentication and is thus secure in any environment. In addition, a frequency-hopping scheme with 1600 hops/sec is employed..

17. Will Bluetooth products work only in certain areas of the world?
Use of the Bluetooth wireless technology is currently restricted only in a few countries. One such country is France. The French government has recently changed their telecommunications law to permit operation of Bluetooth beginning in the year 2001.

18. What is the anticipated volume for Bluetooth-enabled devices in the near future?
The Bluetooth technology is designed for integration into products. We anticipate tens of millions of Bluetooth-enabled devices by the year 2002. According to Cahners-Instat, it is expected that by year 2005 close to 700 million Bluetooth devices will be shipped annually.

19. Will the Bluetooth technology expand the market for mobile data and mobile products?
Yes. Adoption of the Bluetooth technology is anticipated to be widespread throughout the computer and telecommunications industries. The move to implement this technology is expected to grow the market for personal mobile devices and increase airtime usage for mobile data. Recent Dataquest research shows that although only 2 percent of mobile users today are using mobile data, almost 40 percent indicate that they would do so if the facilitating technology were easier to use.

20. Will consumers have to pay a higher price for Bluetooth-enabled products?
Due to the low unit cost and royalty-free adoption model, it is anticipated that consumers will not experience any significant increase in product pricing directly associated with integration of the Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth modules will likely be available to add on to other products and it is anticipated that these type peripherals should also be very affordable.

21. Is it possible to "upgrade" my current communications/computing technology to make it Bluetooth-enabled?
We anticipate a broad range of legacy solutions to facilitate easy upgrading of current technology, including PC cards and USB "dongles" for PC's, and add-on devices for phones.

22. What is WECA and what is Wi-Fi?
The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) is a non-profit organization formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b High Rate) products and to promote Wi-Fi as the global wireless LAN standard across all market segments. WECA has defined a test suite that defines how member products are tested to certify that they are interoperable with other vendor products. An independent test lab, The Silicon Valley Networking Lab, Inc. (www.svnl.com) conducts the testing. When a product successfully passes the test, the company will be granted the Wi-Fi seal of interoperability and may display the Wi-Fi logo on that product and its corresponding collateral material. Consumers are assured that any product bearing the Wi-Fi logo will work with other Wi-Fi products.

23. What are the benefits of Wi-Fi to business users?
Wi-Fi allows PC users a more flexible way of working, enabling them to communicate using portable computing devices rather than with traditional hard wired devices. Wi-Fi achieves the similar performance as a wired 10BaseT LAN connection. Wi-Fi also offers flexibility with sustained performance in the office and provides seamless add-on to an Ethernet intranet.

24. In what markets and target segments will Wi-Fi certified products be sold?
Wi-Fi standard products are being developed for use across all market segments, from enterprise, small business, home, public access, education, so that everyone can benefit from using wireless LANs.

25. How does Wi-Fi compare to Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is a short-range radio interface that enables inter connectivity between a broad range of electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras and PC's. Its 1 Mbps data rate makes it suitable for the exchange of all sorts of data, including files, business cards, digital pictures, voice, music, e-mail, and Web content from the Internet. The 802.11bWi-Fi technology, on the other hand, has been designed specifically to be today's best solution for one particular application: wireless Ethernet. Therefore, it is meant for implementation in PC's and in network access points. In PC's it may be directly built in, or it may be added on, in the form of PC Cards and USB dongles. Because it offers data rates of up to 11 Mbps, Wi - Fi is a good technology to wirelessly link multiple users to broadband network equipment like DSL or cable modems.