This document provides information on why it is important to have well-qualified network engineering professionals design, install, configure, and help you manage a wireless network at your hospitality center or your QSR location.

Having someone slap together a few wifi hotspots using consumer-grade devices from your corner consumer electronic store may save you some money to start with; but doing so is more than likely to not only prove very expensive in terms of your ongoing costs alone, but also in terms of the liabilities that you may incur because of potentially exposing your guests (and your staff) to harmful RF/Microwave radiations -and from possibly running afoul of FCC regulations.

Regardless of whether your hospitality center primarily caters to high-end markets (big-spender captive audiences with lots of money: e.g. cruise ships, conference centers, high-value tourism and business travel segments) or budget-conscious hotel/motel clientele; your clients expect you to provide them access to reliable (and secure) wireless data services.

Wireless devices that are equipped with Network Interface Cards (NICs) allow anyone that manages to gets through your wireless device to gain access to other wireless devices in your WLAN network neighborhood, and all devices connected to your wired network (LAN) segments. It is critical, therefore, to not only secure all wireless station adequately, but also to install firewalls between your WLAN subsegment and your Wired LAN segments so as to scrub all incoming traffic.

All traffic that enters your system over a wireless network (WLAN) interface must be thoroughly scrubbed. This is critical if your wireless device is also linked to your wired local area network (LAN). If malicious traffic is allowed to invade your wireless-enabled device unchecked, it should not be surprise if someone manages to breach many other network resources and data stores on your LAN that the wireless-enabled device in question may be interfaced with.

Here are two highly effective ways to cleanse/scrub all your inbound packets:

• Use a Firewall: A properly configured firewall creates a barrier between your trusted network on the inside and the untrusted or hostile devices on the outside. Firewalls are most commonly installed in what is commonly known as DMZ Region: The network segment that is outside an organization’s network, and inside of the organization's link to the outside -the Internet. Firewalls are also used within corporate Intranets to isolate, partition or regulate the flow of information across department or division boundaries. Firewalls provide an added layer of security mechanisms for bolstering security of all network boundaries -whether the traffic needs to be secured as the data traverses over wired LAN, or through the air over WLAN segments.