Re: [MLUG] Plain text wep key?

[Jason McIntosh <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Hmm, ok, have to ask here Justin - I remember a study a little while 
back, I believe it was on tomshardware.com, where they compared the 
"enterprise" class access points to the standard consumer versions, and 
found that the consumer versions performance wise, load wise, etc. blew 
the enterprise versions away.
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Sections-article87-page1.php
Another question related to this - what do you think of the Apple 
Airport base stations?  Those seemed like really nice AP's to me.  The 
management side anyways seemed close to enterprise grade AP's with the 
functionality they provide.

On another thought/note - couldn't you use something like Radius 
authentication with most access points right now?  What's the 
advantage/disadvantage to using such a system?  How does RADIUS then 
work with the wireless network - does it use it to generate a WEP key, 
or something else funky, or is it authorization then you have to login? 
  Something I'd noticed another campus doing was actually restricting 
your machine from accessing the network till you went to a page, logged 
in with your account, and got authorized to connect.  I believe, at a 
guess, that it was adding the Mac address to DHCP, or something else, 
but I'm curious as to a) why not do something like this on the wireless 
access points on campus, and b) how exactly someone does something like 
this - simple dhcp redirects?  MAC address filtering of some sort?

Some other questions - I see a lot of advertisements for 802.11a, but I 
don't know if I've ever seen a device which actually uses it.  What the 
heck does?  Any reason to support it, considering how uncommon it is?
Thanks!
Jason

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On Apr 4, 2005, at 8:02 AM, McNutt, Justin M. wrote:

> Well, for the record, changing the WEP key on UMC campus doesn't have 
> anything to do with firmware (although changing things on *any* 
> network device - or booting it - *is* a good way to find failing 
> hardware).  The only reason we change it every now and then is to do a 
> sort of periodic "flush" of the network, forcing all those folks who 
> shouldn't have it to do the work to go out and get it again.  Probably 
> doesn't take them long, but there it is.
>
> Static WEP does, indeed, suck as an encryption method, especially 
> given how much broadcast traffic there is on most large networks like 
> ours.  We're working on getting 802.1x working in a way that would 
> allow for dynamic WEP keys, which is quite a bit harder to break.  
> It's pretty freakin' tricky to get working, though, especially on 
> Linux.
>
> As to "when are we going to get wireless?" (at Mizzou or not), you 
> gotta understand that while it's more or less trivial to install an AP 
> or two in your house, building an enterprise wireless network is no 
> mean feat.  Just for starters, your house is likely built of wood and 
> drywall.  Campus buildings tend to be steel and concrete.  Then throw 
> in the fact that dozens of people tend to bring in their own PoS 
> wireless gear - and 2.4GHz cordless, and microwave, and... - and it's 
> pretty difficult to build a supportable wireless network.
>
> Plus, it's really expensive.  You don't want to build a campus WLAN 
> out of LinkSys APs, and there's a *big* price difference between those 
> and the Good Stuff that provides 802.11a/b/g+802.1x+WAP+etc...
>
> ...and even then, the farking APs die and won't come back for no 
> reason when the AP manager reboots (also for no reason) and then the 
> technology gets bought by Cisco and your support dries up...  but I 
> digress...  ;-)
>
> --J
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: EMAIL:PROTECTED
>> [mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED]On Behalf Of Mike Miller
>> Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 10:20 PM
>> To: MLUG Members
>> Subject: Re: [MLUG] Plain text wep key?
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 31 Mar 2005, Jonathan King wrote:
>>
>>> It was a god-send when McAlester Hall got wireless this
>> year.  I'm not
>>> sure the last time I plugged a notebook into an ethernet
>> jack actually
>>> was....
>>
>>
>> There's one way that you guys are getting ahead of some of us
>> up here.  I
>> don't know why, but it has been taking forever to get
>> wireless running in
>> our building.  On the other hand, most of our buildings have
>> wireless in
>> most work areas and we have a central X500 login system.
>>
>> Mike
>> _______________________________________________
>> members mailing list
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>> http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/members
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>
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