Many enterprises are considering Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ 802.11n draft 2.0 deployment because it has significant advantages over existing wireless technologies. However, these advantages present the enterprise network manager with important deployment considerations. At the upcoming Burton Group Catalyst Conference in July, I will examine the various deployment considerations for 802.11n in the enterprise. Some of the topics I will discuss are listed below.
Most existing 802.11 devices operate in a single frequency band, (e.g., 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz). 802.11n is different because it is specifically designed to operate in both the 5 GHz and the 2.4 GHz frequency bands. So 802.11n presents an opportunity for enterprises to reconsider which frequency band(s) to use. I will discuss some of the tradeoffs and issues enterprise managers need to consider. Continue reading My Catalyst conference presentation
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Directional antenna pattern
Wireless LAN (WLAN) Radio Frequency (RF) management is poised to become the new competitive battlefront. This includes technologies such as beamforming, smart antennas, and any other techniques used to control the wireless LAN physical layer. One might think that 802.11 technology innovation is slowing down, and that future competitive battles will primarily rely on marketing fluff, but not so. Continue reading The new battlefront: RF management
Yesterday Cisco announced the Aironet 1140 series of Access Points (APs) and M-drive technology. The Aironet 1140 is Cisco’s next-generation 802.11n access point and is a significant advancement over its predecessor, the Aironet 1250. The most significant difference is the fact that the Aironet 1140 has a maximum power draw that is within Power over Ethernet (PoE) limits. The Aironet 1140 is also thinner and lighter than the Aironet 1250, and uses internal antennas (see the table below). In addition, the Aironet 1140 uses the same mechanical brackets as the Aironet 1250 in order to simplify AP replacement. Continue reading Cisco announces Aironet 1140 and M-Drive
Instant Messaging (IM) was originally designed for consumers, yet it is increasingly being used in the enterprise. Ever wonder what enterprise IM products exist that are secure and manageable? Well, let’s start with the basics. There are three types of mobile instant messaging. The most popular is the Short Message Service (SMS), aka “text messaging”. Text messaging is a widely successful mobile operator service and message volume continues to grow at a rapid pace. Continue reading Ready or not, here comes IM
On December 3, 2008 I presented a talk entitled “Maintaining security as you upgrade to 802.11n” at the FinSec 2008 conference. My slides are [...]
We have been hearing about ultra-wide band (UWB) for years, but where are all the UWB products? UWB is supposed to provide a standard, high-speed, wireless connection for your peripherals. Think “wireless USB”, or, “Bluetooth on steroids”. Imagine connecting cameras, printers, and storage devices using a wireless connection instead of a wired connection. Sounds pretty good! But where are all the UWB products? Continue reading Where-oh-where is ultra-wide band?
I added an Articles page to the website today that contains many of the articles and tutorials I have written over the last few years. Quite often, these articles take the form of a multi-part tutorial series on a particular topic. This lets me treat the subject in more detail. On the Articles page you’ll find a [...]
Erik Tews
German graduate students Erik Tews and Martin Beck discovered a limited method to crack WPA, or more specifically, to crack the TKIP component of WPA. Their paper describes the attack and their tkiptun-ng tool carries out the attack.
WPA relies upon the old RC4 encryption algorithm from the infamous WEP protocol and uses TKIP as a “band-aid” to strengthen WEP encryption. WPA was intended as a way to secure existing WEP equipment without using a computationally intensive algorithm. This approach enabled existing hardware (access points and clients) to support WPA with a simple software upgrade. Continue reading WPA Hack
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