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Why Wireless Interference is an important consideration in Wi-Fi networks
Unlike a Wired Network, where adding more network switches gives better performance, a wireless network cannot be optimized for performance by adding more access points/ denser deployment of access points - mainly due to the Wireless Interference. In this article, we'll try to understand frequency bands, interference, interference from 802.11 Wi-Fi enabled devices, interference from Non-Wi-Fi devices and how to identify and mitigate wireless interference.
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Why a Site Survey is crucial before implementing a Wi-Fi network
Planning for a Wireless network is not as simple as Wired network. Unlike wired networks, over-provisioning (of access points) is not a very good idea with wireless networks because of the increased possibility of co-channel interference with many access points. That's why wi-fi site surveys are crucial, and in this article let us understand why.
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Honeypot & Man In the Middle (MITM) Attacks on Wireless Networks
What is a Wireless Honeypot Attack? Normally, when a wireless client (PC, Laptop) is switched on, it will try to probe the nearby area for access points for a particular SSID (SSID is like a name for the network, which is advertised in order for users and clients to associate with the access points). In this scenario, if a hacker is nearby (perhaps in the car parking), he could use access points with high power (gain) antennas with the same SSID as the corporate network SSID and respond to such client probe requests with a valid probe response. As the wireless clients generally associate with an access point with the…
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What are Rogue Access Points and how Rogue Access Points are detected & blocked
Rogue Access Points: Sometimes, an employee, or a guest might bring along inexpensive consumer grade access points and connect them to the corporate LAN to get wireless access. This can happen if the company does not provide wireless access (or) can be done by guests with malicious intent. Of course, roghe access points might be brought in and connected even when a corporate wireless network is in place.These type of access points that do not belong to the corporate wireless network but still attached to the (wired) corporate network, are called Rogue Access Points. If a rogue access point is in place, there is no guarantee that it will have…
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Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS) Deployment Architectures – Overlay, Integrated & Hybrid
As you might be knowing, a wireless network consists of a centralized wireless controller, access points, and some servers for specialized functioning. All the laptops/ wi-fi enabled devices connect to the access point to communicate with the network over the air (wireless medium). Now, some organizations deploy a wireless intrusion prevention system to secure their wireless networks. WIPS can be deployed in different ways. We discuss some of the popular WIPS architectures, and their merits and demerits, in this article.
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Six security tips for securing your Wi-Fi Access Point/Router at Home/SOHO
This post gives six important security tips you need to follow to secure your Wireless (Wi-Fi) connection from being misused by neighbors / intruders. Every wireless access point comes with a lot of settings, and you need to change some of them for secure internet access on wireless.
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Why is a Controller required in a wireless network
What can you do with a controller based centralized wireless networks of today? Read on to find out the features and functionality provided by controller based wireless (Wi-Fi) networks for medium and large institutions/ enterprises.
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Using Directional and Omni-Directional Antennas in Wireless Networks
This post gives an introduction to the two types of Antennas used in Wireless Networks - Directional Antennas and Omni-directional Antennas. We also have a look at in-built antennas and external antennas and the options available with Access Points for the same. We discuss the type of coverage provided by either and particular situations where their usage is recommended.
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Managing multi-vendor wireless access points in Wi-Fi networks
This article gives an introduction to the software applications that manage multi-vendor access points, controllers and other Wi-Fi devices on a huge disparate network. We look at the user, device monitoring, visual heat maps offering live coverage of the Wi-Fi network, security features like rogue access point detection etc. that can be uniformly applied to a large network of multi-vendor access points.
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Difference between Stand Alone Access points and Controller based Access points
This article discusses the difference between Stand-Alone Access Points (Thick) and Controller based Access Points (Thin) - the basic structural difference, authentication, radio management, security, access control and other management features in both of them.
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Location Tracking using Wi-Fi based RFID Tags
This article gives an introduction to the Wi-Fi based RFID Tags, how the location of assets can be devised by the combination of Enterprise Wi-Fi and RFID technologies, what can be accomplished by such a system, advantages and limitations of Wi-Fi based RFID Location tracking technology.
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Guest Access in Wireless LAN
This article explores the ways in which the guests can be given access to wireless networks, whether they could be authenticated, whether their access can be restricted to certain services in the network and whether usage statistics and logs can be generated for guests.
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Advantages and dis-advantages of having wireless (Wi-Fi) as primary network
Since Wi-Fi has become a very popular standard now for network access at the edge level, this article looks to ponder if an all wireless office is a possibility. We will look at what all can be made wireless and what cannot, what are the advantages and dis-advantages of having wireless as a primary network. We will look at the following factors:
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Does having a “No-Wireless” Policy make your organization secure?
How safe is an organization (like a bank) which has prevented the use of Wi-Fi systems in its premisis? That's what we are going to see in this article. We will also see how Wi-Fi infrastructure (Wireless Intrusion Prevention) can be helpful in enforcing the "No Wireless" policy.