u8.1 Wireless LAN

u8.1 Wireless LAN

1. Advantages

   • Unrestricted by wired network connections
   • Practical benefit of being free to roam, not tied to any specific location to access a pc IE doctors, manufacturing
   • Increased flexibility, offered in places where wired cant
   • Allows reorganisation of shops/offices without having to think of cabling
   • Business benefit of offering it to customers, coffee shops, airports etc

2. Vulnerabilities

   • Anyone can transmit
     • no legal control of Wireless networking frequencies
     • Anyone can transmit on any signal jamming the freqency
       • This leads to denial of service
     • Threat of masquerading
       • Attacker can pretend to be a legitimate signal and get you to connect
     • Wireless sometimes shared with other technologies
       • Possibility that users of those technologies causing an DOS
   • Anyone can receive wifi signals
     • Cant limit the distance of a radio signal travels or confine it to a floor or specific building
       • Therefore difficult to limit the population who could receive a wifi signal

3. Components

   • Station - Desktop, laptop, phone, pda etc
     • Has wireless NIC
   • Access point
     • bridge between wireless and wired NW

4. Standards

   • 802.11
     • 1,2 MBPS
   • 802.11b
     • 5.5 & 11 MBPS
   • 802.11a
     • up to 54 MBPS
   • 802.11g
     • up to 54 MBPS
   • 802.11n
     • up to 150 MBPS