Editor's choice
Each of these products has unique benefits to different users. If you are looking for a good all-round integrated, WLAN, WAN, and LAN switch/hub, a secure solution for a SOHO, then the Netgear FVM318 would be the unit of choice here with its Wireless VPN utilising the separate client software to create and maintain a very secure link between the AP and client.
If you are a larger organisation then it would be a close run choice between the dedicated WLAN gateway approach of either the Cranite software solution or the hardware solution provided by the Bluesocket WG-1000.
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Worry-free wireless
Introduction 1. 3Com Wireless Lan AP 8000 2. Bluesocket WG-1000 3. Cranite Software Suite 4. D-Link AirPlus DI-614+ 5. Netgear FVM 318 Specifications Editor's choice About RMIT |
Glossary
AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)—AES is a cryptographic algorithm approved by the US National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) as a replacement for the Data Encryption Standard (DES) which had been approved for the encryption of financial information since the late 1970s.
RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service)—The most commonly used to provide centralised authentication, authorisation, and accounting for dial-up networks such as ISPs and tele-workers; now, however, the benefits are being ported to virtual private network applications and wireless network access. RADIUS also has allowances for individual user accounting thereby allowing administrators to isolate who is using what resources and how much they are using. It can even be applied to billing systems to charge users for the resources that they consume.
PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunnelling Protocol)—Iinitially developed that allowed enter-prises to extend their own network through private “tunnels” over the public Internet. This is where Virtual Private Networking (VPN) comes in.
IPSec (Internet Protocol Security)—IPSec is a relatively new standard for network security as it is implemented at the network processing layer instead of the application layer. This means that a big advantage of IPSec is that security can be handled without requiring changes to individual client computers.
NAT (Network Address Translation)—This allows a single system or network attached appliance (like a WLAN AP), to act as an agent between the WAN/Internet (with a single static IP address) and a LAN (with a virtually unlimited number of private IP addresses). This means that only one single, unique static publically accessible IP address is required to represent an entire group of computers.
LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)—LDAP is a protocol that makes it possible for almost any application running on virtually any platform to obtain directory information, such as e-mail addresses etc; because of its nature it does not rely on specific server hardware basically any platform can host it.
SSID (Service Set Identifier)—SSID is a unique identifier that is attached to the header of data sent over a wireless LAN that theoretically acts as a password when a device tries to connect to the WLAN. The SSID identifies one WLAN from another, so all devices using the WLAN must use the same SSID (ie APs and Wireless NICs). A device will be denied access to the WLAN unless it can provide the correct SSID. Because an SSID can be picked up in plain text from the transmitted data it does not supply any security to the wireless network.
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy or Wired Equivalent Protocol)—WEP is designed to provide the same level of security as that of a wired LAN. LANs are inherently more secure having some or all of the physical network inside a building that can be protected from unauthorised access with the use of firewalls, alarms, and locks. WEP aims to provide security by encrypting the transmitted data so that it is protected as it is transmitted. However, it has been found that WEP is not as secure as once believed because it is not an end-to-end protocol like PPTP and can be picked up during transmission and tampered with.
802.1i—This is a new wireless standard which is still under development. It is mainly focused on solving the issues with WEP.
