Wireless Networks Security

The wireless networking technology based on the 802.11b standard is a
very promising development for future networks. It offers 11mb/sec data
transfer within a 300 feet radius of an access point and allows roaming
from one cell to the next. No Cat5 cables and wiring to worry about just
insert a Wi-Fi PCMCIA card into the Notebook PC install the client software 
and you are on the wireless network. Click here  for more details.

Wireless Networks use radio frequency in the 2.4GHz range for the 
transmission of data. Since the signal travels through the air it can be
picked up by third parties using a notebook computer and a Wi-Fi card.
The 802.11b standard has  built in security called WEP (Wired Equivalent
Privacy) which when enabled encrypts the signals using a shared key and 
64 bit encryption alogarithm. This type of encryption has not been very 
effective. There are many documented  cases where hackers have been able
to break the encryption and get the passwords.

NetScreen firewall and VPN appliances offer a solution to the wireless security
problem by creating virtual private networks between the  mobile clients and the
access points. In the case of internal networks behind the firewall NetScreen OS
allows VPN tunnels to be terminated on the trust side of the interface.

Contact us for the details on implementation of this elegant approach.