Welcome to the AirWise Community Blog! This is a resource designed to be a place where our team can share useful information and ideas with other members of the WLAN community - from customers, professionals and enthusiasts. As we move forward, we will endeavor to provide information about our technology, industry approaches, best practices, latest trends, new advances, how-tos, event information and much more. We will remain focused purely on wireless network technology as it relates to security, performance, troubleshooting, management, design and regulatory compliance.
We hope to actively engage with you, so please feel free to comment and offer opinions.
Quick Tips for Remotely Troubleshooting a WLAN
Author/Blog Contributor - Dilip Advani, Product Manager at AirMagnet
Date: August 31, 2010
Wireless is fast becoming the default access method for end-users on a corporate network. The reason: easy of use, user satisfaction and productivity gains. But, these advantages quickly evaporate when the wireless network has problems with connectivity and performance. Perhaps this is due to a lack of access points or equipment interference - the list of problems affecting the WLAN can be long and sometimes complicated.
For most medium- to large-organizations, having a wireless tech at every corporate site is not cost effective. Problems can come and go quickly, technical staff are trying to do more with less, and often traditional troubleshooting means having the right person at the right place at the right time. Hence, remote troubleshooting has become a vital element in managing many aspects of a network, especially wireless.
Here are some quick tips and bits of information to consider when remotely troubleshooting a WLAN:
- If you're managing a WLAN, get expert tools that offer real-time analysis and troubleshooting. Integrate those tools with your other WLAN management applications of choice.
- Tie your WLAN design to your management. Compare trouble spots to survey information so you can mitigate problems for good.
- Auto-capture events so you can evaluate them later, troubleshoot and fix the problem.
- Having performance issues? Check fundamentals, like channel problems and device problems before progressing to error rates and connection speeds.
- Check channel health for noise (wireless cameras, headsets, blue tooth, microwave ovens, etc.), Wi-Fi competition and hidden station problems with spectrum analysis.
- What if I see hidden nodes? Enable RTS/CTS and let the AP be a traffic cop, improving throughput.
- If you have problem access points, find the devices with large amounts of low speed traffic, verify data vs. management traffic, then find the top talkers with high error rates and retry rates.
- Investigate in non-real-time to help break the cycle of reactive troubleshooting.
For more detailed information and analysis watch our webinar on "Troubleshooting WLANs at Remote Sites" (http://www.airmagnet.com/news/webinars/archived/).
Please vote for AirMagnet Enterprise
Author/Blog Contributor - Chris Roeckl, vice president of marketing at AirMagnet
Date: August 27, 2010
AirMagnet Enterprise was named a Finalist in the Computing Security Awards. Now it's time to vote for the winners.
Hole196: To Worry or Not to Worry?
Author/Blog Contributor - Chris Roeckl, vice president of marketing at AirMagnet
Date: August 17, 2010
Hole196, a vulnerability in the WPA2 security protocol, has been a topic of debate in the wireless security industry since its discovery was announced a few weeks back. Everyone's got an opinion on this one - is it legitimately dangerous or much ado about nothing?
The Unique Challenges of Keeping WLANs Secure in Manufacturing
Facilities
Author/Blog Contributor - Jesse Frankel, Wireless Intrusion Research Team
Date: August 02, 2010
Wireless LANs have been used in manufacturing environments for some time now, as industry-specific mobile application devices can greatly increase productivity and efficiencies for these businesses. However, these facilities face a unique challenge because they often use a wide variety and number of mobile devices. They also frequently use a large number of older, sometimes outdated, devices on a day-to-day basis throughout their network and work environment. Unfortunately, many of these devices have either very limited or no network security capabilities at all, creating constant headaches for the wireless network manager.
Defining the primary architectural approaches for today's WIPS solutions
Author/Blog Contributor - Chia-Chee Kuan, CTO at AirMagnet
Date: July 22, 2010
Today I'd like to review the different architectural approaches for deploying WIPS solutions. As we move ahead, the debate over which approach is best for what situation will likely intensify and is thus a great topic for discussion. WIPS solutions come in three basic architecture types; they are all fundamentally very different, with a variety of pros and cons.
New AirMagnet Product: AirMedic USB
Author/Blog Contributor - Chris Roeckl, vice president of marketing at AirMagnet
Date: July 20, 2010
We all know that Wi-Fi troubleshooting can be a complex and time-consuming task. One of our jobs at AirMagnet is to design tools that make Wi-Fi troubleshooting easier! Most in the wireless world understand that visibility of the Wi-Fi spectrum and clear issue diagnosis is a fundamental element for operating a reliable WLAN, no matter how large or small your business is. Traditionally, tools have either targeted the expert with all the bells and whistles (and cost), or been single function freeware tools for the hobbyist, unable to solve read-world issues.
TMC Announces 2009 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Awards
Author/Blog Contributor - Chris Roeckl, vice president of marketing at AirMagnet
Date: July 09, 2010
In the shameless self-promotion department, AirMagnet has won the Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award, for integration around AirMagnet Survey PRO and AirMagnet VoFi PRO. The award acknowledges the most innovative products that facilitate voice, data and video communications, or combinations of them, according to TMCnet. "With hundreds of applications this year, judging the products and services was difficult. However, the selected winners have demonstrated a commitment to quality and excellence for the development of the communications industry," said Erik Linask, TMC's Group Editorial Director.
Recognizing and Combating Wireless Client Threats
Author/Blog Contributor - Chris Roeckl, vice president of marketing at AirMagnet
Date: July 06, 2010
Wi-Fi is not only critical to business, but is now a dominant and increasingly pervasive means of communicating in the office, in the home and on the road. Client devices, countless in number, go everywhere, connecting in all types of environments. Because of their dynamic nature, they are vulnerable, even when deployed with the strongest available security standards. Enterprises understand that they must secure the boundary between the inside and outside world. But, what they must recognize is that Wi-Fi increasingly acts as a connection point - or bridge - between that trusted inside network, users and data, and that outside world. And this bridge is literally in the air around us.
It's all about community — the AirWISE Community!
Author/Blog Contributor - Chris Roeckl, vice president of marketing at AirMagnet
Date: June 29, 2010
Over the years, AirWISE has become synonymous with expert WLAN advice relating to security and performance. And today, the AirMagnet team is happy to announce that we've launched a new AirWISE Community, an online resource center designed to foster education, collaboration and contribution around WLAN security and reliability topics, including current threats and new vulnerabilities/exploits, and intrusion prevention and security best practices.
Compliance for Compliance Sake?
Posted by Chia-Chee Kuan, CTO at AirMagnet
Date: May 17, 2010
When it comes to network security and privacy, there's no shortage of regulatory compliance, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, GLBA, FISMA, and more. Although compliance guidelines are laid out differently for each industry, they're essentially the same when it comes to requiring stringent discipline around wireless LAN security. These compliance rules and regulations help raise awareness for wireless security and require significant action on the part of organizations in order to be compliant.
Great Googly Moogly
Posted by Chris Roeckl, VP Marketing at AirMagnet
Date: May 12, 2010
Google reportedly has plans to sniff out the world's WLANs in order to put them on a map and make them easier to find for consumers.
The report from Germany, and reported on newfactor.com (http://www.newsfactor.com/news/You-Can-t-Hide-WLANs-from-Google/story.xhtml?story_id=0230029FFNG7&full_skip=1), has consumer advocate groups up in arms and encourages the need to secure WLANs using WPA2. The article falters (and gives poor advice) when it goes on to say that hidden SSIDs will do the trick for amateur security - but we all know how truly lame that is, right?
AirMagnet's Director of Product Management Talks WIDS/WIPS with Wireless LAN Professional
Date: May 06, 2010
AirMagnet's Wade Williamson talks about Wireless Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems with Wireless LAN Professional host, Keith Parsons. Wade shares answers to questions garnered from a recent Network World Q&A on WIDS, and about the general importance of WLAN security. (For the second half of the show, hear Jeff Keenan, a reseller dedicated to the Wireless space, answers some of the most popular FAQs he has seen from his clients.)
Register for the latest AirMagnet Webinar — "A Practical Guide to Meeting the PCI Wireless Guidelines"
Date: May 03, 2010
Join AirMagnet PCI expert Skip Bayro, and a representative from one of our Nation's leading hospitality companies, Bobby Cox Inc., as they explore the most recent PCI guidelines and practical methods for maintaining compliance, this Thursday, May 6, 2010, 11:00 a.m. PST, 2:00 p.m. EST.
Wi-Fi Troubles for the iPad?
Posted by Wade Williamson, Director of Product Management at AirMagnet
Date: April 13, 2010
Last week, Apple rolled out its latest game-changing device, the iPad, to the sort of excitement and media frenzy that our culture usually reserves for hero pilots, astronauts and philandering golfers. However, as with any new product, there have been reports of a few rough edges, and one of the main sources of user complaints has centered on the iPad's Wi-Fi connectivity.
WLAN's Future
Posted by Chia-Chee Kuan, CTO at AirMagnet
Date: April 01, 2010
We recently participated in a Thought Leadership Summit on Webtorials with other WLAN vendors. Wade Williamson, our director of product management, did a great job summarizing (as did our competitors) upcoming advancements in WIPS as related to threats, and I wanted to take a moment to quickly recap some of his comments and expand on some thoughts in other areas of security and performance, as it pertains to the future of WLAN.
The (Other) Important Research Note from Gartner
Posted by Chris Roeckl, VP Marketing at AirMagnet
Date: March 12, 2010
Gartner Magic Quadrants regularly grab all the attention when they're issued. In our little corner of the world the latest one got issued last month and led to a predictable stream of press releases from the WLAN infrastructure vendors, each crowing about their placement in the quadrant: "I'm a leader," "I'm a visionary"... yup we've all been spammed with these releases over the last few weeks.
Window 7 Virtual AP - Not at all a "new" threat!
Posted by Chia-Chee Kuan, CTO at AirMagnet
Date: March 04, 2010
The growing popularity of Wi-Fi is driving wireless applications and connectivity for consumers. But, is it doing it at the cost of enterprise WLAN security? For as long as access points (APs) have been available via the local electronic stores, enterprise security has been battling the rogue AP threat (or unauthorized APs connected to enterprise wired networks). Recently, the world of rogue APs got a little trickier with the introduction of the virtual AP feature by Microsoft in the new Windows 7 operating system. This virtual AP feature allows a Windows 7 PC to act as an AP for other wireless clients looking to share Internet access. This feature also allows the user to leverage the virtual AP to create a Personal Area Network (PAN) where he/she can connect personal devices, such as a wireless printer and/or multi-media equipment. If a virtual AP is connected to the enterprise network via wire or wireless, it is a rogue AP capable of compromising the network security of an enterprise.
Dilip Advani is the Product Manager for the AirMagnet Mobile products. Prior to AirMagnet, he has worked as a technology reviewer for Network Computing magazine and as a Networking Engineer for Citibank India. He also holds the prestigious Certified Wireless Networking Expert certification (CWNE#43).
Quick Tips for Remotely Troubleshooting a WLAN
Please vote for AirMagnet Enterprise
Hole196: To Worry or Not to Worry?