Wireless Security free-for-all
- 4. Wireless Security free-for-all
4. Wireless Security free-for-all
Wireless security is still a work in progress, and can be a very confusing topic. There are basically two aspects to the solution. The IEEE 802.11i committee is hard at work trying to improve the security of wireless connections, and Microsoft and others are using the 802.1X standard to address the problem of authenticating users (802.1X actually applies to both wired and wireless authentication) before granting them access to a WLAN. Although there were many WLAN security products at the show, a standardized solution still seems far away, especially for small network users. WLAN product vendors aren't waiting for the IEEE to put their blessing on any one solution, and are choosing partners and announcing alliances, or growing their own solutions. Here are some examples:
Partnerships
• D-Link and Meetinghouse
• Proxim and Funk
• Intermec and Funk [Symbol's MobiusGuard and AirBEAM Safe
• Cisco's LEAP
Although the various solutions have many common building blocks (Kerberos, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, TKIP, etc.) the fact is that each company's solution is not guaranteed to work with another's. You basically choose a supplier and are then locked into their solution. In addition, the solutions are not cheap, with most authentication products requiring per-user or expensive site licenses that run upwards of $1000, and/or standalone appliances or RADIUS servers.
I saw no sign that this situation would change any time soon for us little guys. Although companies may say that their products support 802.1X (the authentication standard), that just means that they should work with an (expensive) 802.1X based WLAN security product that you need to buy from someone else. And though some companies do include product improvements that try to address some of WEP's weaknesses in the price of their products, the solutions are once-again proprietary, and of no use if you mix products from different vendors on your WLAN. And I'm still waiting to see a common interface for setting WEP keys on WLAN clients, AP's and routers that gives you the option of setting keys manually, or auto-generating them via a keyword and letting you see the keys generated!
So although there's a lot of buzz in WLAN security, folks with small WLAN's will still need to use simpler methods (such as turning on WEP and using MAC address authentication) to keep their networks secure.
That's about it for wireless news, except for developments in wireless routers, which I cover in
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