Your Next WAP: Hold the Cheese?

I think the way this guys processes information and puts a context around it. The article makes sense. He deals with issues that have plagued distributed networks since the first started showing up in the 1980's.

Wireless Area Networks differ because they're easier to access, but the same security issues keep popping up.

Hey Tom --

The one part of that article that seems off-base to me is the assumption that smaller companies don't have significant security needs. It just ain't so.

The first thing that comes to my mind is HIPAA compliance for medical practices and related companies. I'm sure there are lots of small companies with big security needs.

OTOH -

When I hook up over the WAN, I've to to jump through Cisco hoops to get in, security that is independent of the transport mechanism.

With things like Free/SWAN, etc, is it really necessary to rely on the security provide by the AP itself?

I guess that's a catch-22. The admin time to set up and maintain that stuff might easily consume your savings, not to mention just plain make life a little more difficult.

I would think in large deployments, a company would be seriously doing itself a big dis-service not looking into modded (internally supported) Linksys WRT54Gs. The whole "I gotta have this or that feature" thing kind of pales when you're talking thousands of anything, and this would be no exception. We're back, in other words, into the questions of "build/vs/buy/vs/OSbuild" -- OSbuild is a new dimension, in other words, whereby the company says, "Rather than questioning building vs buying, let's look at something in the FOSS world that's close, tweak it and make it our own (internal) thing."

This third thing is similar to build, except that most of the work is done, and the features simply need tweaked a bit or the last yard of the field covered by some creative programming. I would think that if you're talking say, 1000 WAPs, at 500 bucks a piece (difference) = 500,000 bucks -- that at that scale the cash would be simply too much to ignore for a company, given the fact that WRT54Gs can be modded to do quite a bit.

A bit of code, some FOSS and you've save some serious cash.

Paul, that's very true. The one reservation I would have is depending on the WRT54g (or similar SOHO box) for any kind of heavy-duty, mission-critical use. There are questions as to whether the hardware is robust enough to stand up to such. If you're going to build your own, you can't beat the Soekris boards- you have a lot more flexibility in your hardware configurations, and they can take a beating. And you still spend much less than on the big heavy-duty commercial appliances.

Quoting: The one reservation I would have is depending on the WRT54g (or similar SOHO box) for any kind of heavy-duty, mission-critical use. There are questions as to whether the hardware is robust enough to stand up to such.

I know what you mean about WRT54G -- they make horrible footstools and doorstops. Usually crumble the moment I step on them. I've found they're not bad as coasters, but be careful not to spill wine into them, it makes an aweful smell.

Paul, you're reading "wine is not an emulator" much too literally. It does not mean "deploy your finest MD 20/20 into your WAP."

I know that the path to true geekhood is long and difficult, my son, but truly you have discovered some inspired detours.

;)