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The company is promoting the new 11Mbps wireless bridge, which is retailing in the US for around USD1,095, as a more affordable way for companies to connect new facilities to the network.
"Due to the expensive and complex nature of previous wireless bridging solutions, many organisations have shied away from using this very practical technology to get new or temporary sites connected," said Karen Oddey, vice president, marketing and business strategy, 3Com Corporation. She said the new bridge is available at a more affordable price point for businesses including those in education, healthcare, airports and construction.
When installed the bridges should permit data transfer between corporate buildings. The bridges can transmit data over distances of up to 1,300 meters using omni-directional antennas, or 4,100 meters (2.6 miles) using directional antennas.
To protect data while in transit the bridges support 40-bit and 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption. This data protection standard has come under serious criticism since multiple tests have proven it leaves data open to interception and decryption. Last month a new tool, AirSnort, was released publicly on the Internet, able to intercept and analyse data moving across wireless networks. Once enough data packets have been gathered, the tool can guess the encryption password. AirSnort's makers said they created the tool to prove that WEP alone cannot secure wireless networks.
But 3Com said the bridge can also support Virtual Private Networking protocols, which enable data delivery via secured tunnels. Security experts say that combining Virtual Private Networking with WEP offers one solution to the current vulnerabilities of WEP.
3Com said the USD1,095 list price for the building-to-building bridge does not include price for antennas and cables. More information is at http://www.3com.com.
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