u8.1 Wireless LAN

Advantages
1. Unrestricted by wired network connections
2. Practical benefit of being free to roam, not tied to any specific location to access a pc IE doctors, manufacturing
3. Increased flexibility, offered in places where wired cant
4. Allows reorganisation of shops/offices without having to think of cabling
5. Business benefit of offering it to customers, coffee shops, airports etc
Vulnerabilities
1. Anyone can transmit
  1. no legal control of Wireless networking frequencies
  2. Anyone can transmit on any signal jamming the freqency
    1. This leads to denial of service
  3. Threat of masquerading
    1. Attacker can pretend to be a legitimate signal and get you to connect
  4. Wireless sometimes shared with other technologies
    1. Possibility that users of those technologies causing an DOS
2. Anyone can receive wifi signals
  1. Cant limit the distance of a radio signal travels or confine it to a floor or specific building
    1. Therefore difficult to limit the population who could receive a wifi signal
Components
1. Station - Desktop, laptop, phone, pda etc
  1. Has wireless NIC
2. Access point
  1. bridge between wireless and wired NW
Standards
1. 802.11
  1. 1,2 MBPS
2. 802.11b
  1. 5.5 & 11 MBPS
3. 802.11a
  1. up to 54 MBPS
4. 802.11g
  1. up to 54 MBPS
5. 802.11n
  1. up to 150 MBPS

Resource summary

	Created by Craig Parker about 10 years ago