Wireless Standards
| Standard |
Speed |
| 802.11a |
54Mbit - Not commonly used. Early standard |
| 802.11b |
11Mbit - In common use, but mostly superceeded by
802.11g now |
| 802.11g |
54Mbit - Common use, more than 50% of the SNAP network
supports this |
| 802.11n |
108Mbit - New standard. Not supported on SNAP yet. |
Technical information about the 802.11 wireless
ethernet standard can be found on the Wikipedia site.
SNAP
SNAP is the main campus wireless network. It is available in a
number of areas on campus. Once
connected to the wireless network, client machines must
authenticate to a VPN server to connect to the rest of the campus
network and the Internet. To authenticate to the main SNAP VPN
server, users must have a UWA Dialup account enabled for SNAP. If
you are a technical contact and wish to provide your own VPN
server on the SNAP network, this can also be arranged.
The SNAP network is centrally administered, but access and
hardware is provided by departments. If you are a technical
contact and would like to provide SNAP access in your department,
please contact the ITS Service Desk.
Other Networks
All other wireless networks on UWA property must be registered
with ITS. It is
recommended that use of the SNAP infrastructure be considered.
More information can be found in the Network Services section.
Wireless Security
WEP
WEP is the original encryption used by wireless networks. It
has the broadest range of vendor support, however it is not
terribly secure, and is open to traffic analysis attacks. Two
strengths of encryption are available, but both exhibit these
weaknesses. WEP 40/56bit encryption is very weak and should be
considered a deterrant only, while WEP 128bit is slightly more
cryptographically robust.
WEP keys may be expressed in one of four ways, which can cause
user confusion in entering them. These ways are HEX, ASCII,
Passphrase and Airport Password (Apple only).
WPA/WPA2
WPA is a successor to WEP, and allows stronger encryption, as
well as options for accounting and not just authentication,
through extensions. If no VPN is to be used with a wireless
network, this is a better option. However, it is may not be supported
easily by all operating systems and client stations. Persons
administering WPA encrypted networks should consider what
operating systems will be used by the client stations on the
network.
MAC Restriction
Some wireless base stations can be configured to allow only
specific hosts to connect, based on the ethernet hardware address
of the client station. This should not be relied upon, as MAC
addresses can be changed on some client stations, but it does add
an extra layer of security.
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