Adding wireless to wired LAN

Dilbert75

This is a real noob question for ye wireless experts. Please excuse the elementary nature of the questions.

I have been trying to encourage the IT guy in work to add some wireless facilities to our 10/100 plant LAN, primarily for when visitors come in and bring their laptops with them but also for doing presentations in one particular area where the wired LAN is limited. Would in theory save me, as a facilities person, a lot of hassle getting plugged into hubs / ethernet sockets etc.

Access to the wired LAN is normally by logging on to a workgroup via Windows logon. Presumably a wireless router will allow laptop users to log on to the network in exactly the same way as a wired connection, just without wires?

Given that access to the network is password controlled, are there any security issues to be considered with the use of wireless? Will the network be exposed to the threat of "wardrivers" or whatever they're called? Do wireless routers require the same type of setup as a typical wireless modem / router (from which I get my only basic experience of wireless networking)? Will use of WPA or WEP be necessary? Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

irlrobins

IMHO I think its doable. There shouldn't be any difference using a wired connection or a wireless one.

Having said that they might not want to install a wireless system if it means extra work/support/etc.

Obviously if you are logging into servers etc over the wireless then security is important. WEP at a minimum would be advised. Although to be honest a WEP protected system can be accessed in a matter of mins (Tom's Hardware have a good article on how easy it is). WPA is more secure, not 100% secure but a lot better than WEP.

my 2c.

Dilbert75

Ta for your 2c. The concern with using WPA is that every visitor we connect will have to be set up individually with the WPA key. Could be tedious?

irlrobins

Yea always a balance between security and ease of use when it comes to wireless.

Karoma

Are there sockets in the location that you're considering placing an Access Point (AP) - because,obviously,proximity is important..

Access to the wired LAN is normally by logging on to a workgroup via Windows logon. Presumably a wireless router will allow laptop users to log on to the network in exactly the same way as a wired connection, just without wires?

spot on. A wireless NIC is just a NIC that uses radio waves as opposed to cables, don't let anyone or anything make you think it's significantly more than just that.

Given that access to the network is password controlled, are there any security issues to be considered with the use of wireless? Will the network be exposed to the threat of "wardrivers" or whatever they're called? Do wireless routers require the same type of setup as a typical wireless modem / router (from which I get my only basic experience of wireless networking)? Will use of WPA or WEP be necessary? Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

It's best to encrypt the traffic still: prevent potential Replay and MiM attacks. Any WPA is strongly recommended (for a corporate environment. i.e. Where money is at stake.)! However, the password length could be a challenge to some users..
How do you plan on providing the password to guests, or shall you be putting it in for them?
You could mitigate this problem by rotating passwords for the A.P. very frequently and using WEP..

Dilbert75

Is there any way that we could use say a USB key to validate permission to join the WLAN? So if someone is permitted, they are given a USB key and hand it back on departure. The validation of the WPA could then be performed automatically and without having to enter passwords each time. Am I shooting in the dark here or am I a visionary???

I suppose the only alternative is to see if there's a corporate standard setup - 120000 employees worldwide - and possibly there could be a standard security setup to allow employees to join the WAN at any point worldwide without having to alter the setup.

Karoma

MAC filter: and let them only use USB dongles which you supply.. not where you were going.. i'm thinking about that.. Got Radius? (EAP?)

Dilbert75

What's Radius / EAP?

Mac daddy

Dilbert75 wrote:

What's Radius / EAP?

Its a server setup to autheticate wireless clients connecting, the server makes use of Windows 2000/2003 with Active Directory.

Dilbert75

Thanks for the explanation. Its a question I shall ask of someone who will know.