 Wireless in the EnterpriseThis newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital SolutionsNetwork World's Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter, 07/04/07Are your users willing to carry around Wi-Fi APs?By Joanie WexlerHow amenable would your mobile workers be to carrying around a Wi-Fi access point? Enterprise-class wireless LAN maker Aruba Networks is selling software that you can load onto any of its APs to simplify security for users on the road, as well as telecommuters. The company is offering remote-access point (RAP) software that works with Aruba’s own APs and data center WLAN controllers. The telecommuter installs the RAP in a home office; mobile workers carry it around and plug it into an Ethernet jack in a hotel room.
The software sets up an IPSec tunnel between the AP and the Aruba WLAN controller in your company’s data center. From there, the per-user firewall policies on the Aruba controller get pushed out to the remote AP, which then identifies any legitimate devices that connect to it and applies their respective passwords, PINs, VLAN, access rights and so forth. The point is to make security invisible to the remote user, thereby enhancing security strength by having fewer frustrated users trying to circumvent the system. The AP, rather than the user, handles all the security logons. This would particularly unburden home users who continually log in and out of the VPN. In a hotel room, it is the AP that registers to the property’s $9.95-a-day Internet service. Then, any legitimate corporate wireless device the user has can then piggyback onto that same connection. The appropriate credentials and controls are pushed to the AP from the data center and enforced for each device. How would hotel guests using their own APs affect the performance of the property’s own AP infrastructure? Enterprise-class APs such as Aruba’s do have dynamic channel reassignment, notes Mike Tennefoss, Aruba’s head of strategic marketing. In other words, if a nearby AP is already occupying a given channel, the AP will move to another to avoid interference. However, most hotel properties currently support 802.11b/g networks, which occupy the 2.4-GHz band with just three non-overlapping channels. Theoretically, should such architecture catch on and there’s, say, an AP in every room, that’s a pretty dense deployment for three measly channels. Interference is likely to ensue.
|
| Contact the author: Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future article topics. Reach her at joanie@jwexler.com. This newsletter is sponsored by Arsenal Digital SolutionsARCHIVEArchive of the Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: security.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007  |
No comments:
Post a Comment