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Which Wireless Security Is Best?
By Robert | April 21, 2007
When using Wi-Fi wireless networking, security can be a problem. By default, these sytems will often have no security applied, allowing any station to logon and access the network resources. Obviously this is less then ideal! We explore some of the wireless security mechanisms below and explain their protective value.
Changing the SSID
The service set identifier is a name used to identify each wireless network. While changing this from default is absolutely essential, this act doesn’t improve the security of the wireless network. Any wireless adapter nearby will be contacted by an unsecured base station and transmit the SSID automatically alowing them to connect.
MAC Address Filtering
Mac stands for Media Access Control. Limiting access to your wireless network via MAC address control reasonably good method for very small networks. You can find the MAC address in your network adapter’s configurations settings. However this is far from the strongest form of wireless protection. MAC addresses of wireless adapter’s can be changed in software, and the MAC address it’s self is transmitted in the clear.
WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy was one of the first encryption methods with wireless networking, but it was shown to have fundamental flaws.. If your serious about wireless networking security, do not use this standard.
WPA2-PSK
Wi-Fi Protected Access, Pre-Shared Key is reliable system for securing a small wireless network of less then ten users. each user is supplied the same SSID and passphrase to utilize the strong traffic encryption of this system. The drawback of this is approach is that every user of the network must use a new password every time the user is removed from the network.
802.1X and RADIUS Authentication
While small Wi-Fi networks are manageable with a single access password for all users, for larger networks it is essential to roll out a sever that authenticate multiple user and allow and allow you you to ad and remover users as needed. This requires 802.1X standards for Network Access Control and establishment of a RADIUS server (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service), which allows maintenance of users and individual passwords.
Topics: Security |
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