Thursday

WiFi

Real World Wireless Security

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Very than concentrating on the basics of general information security or wireless networking, this introductory chapter focuses on something grossly overlooked by many “armchair experts”: The state of wireless security in the real world. Before getting down to it, though, here is a need to tell why we are so keen on the security of 802.11 standards-based wireless networks and not other carton-switched touchtone phone system communications. Figure 1-1 presents an overview of wireless networks in the modern world, with 802.11 networks taking the medium circle.

Figure 1.1. An overview of modern wireless networks.

As shown, we tend to use the term 802.11 wireless network very than 802.11 LAN. This particular technology dissolves the margin between local and wide area connectivity: 802.11b point-to-point links can reach further than 50 miles in distance, efficiently becoming wireless wide area network (WAN) connections when used as a last mile data delivery solution by wireless Internet benefit providers (ISPs) or long-range links between offices. Thus, we deliberate specifying the use of 802.11 technology to be necessary: Local area networks (LANs) and WANs always had and will have different security requirements and approaches.