Re: Broadcom wireless, "Access Point: Invalid"

[Florian Reitmeir <florian@reitmeir.org>]

Hi,

On Sam, 03 Mär 2007, Freddy Freeloader wrote:

>      Q. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Open Authentication?
> 
>    *A. *Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Open Authentication:
> 
>    *Advantages:* Open Authentication is a basic authentication
>    mechanism, which you can use with Wireless devices that do not
>    support the complex authentication algorithms. Authentication in the
>    802.11 specification is connectivity-oriented. By design the
>    requirements for authentication allow devices to gain quick access
>    to the network. In such a case, you can use Open Authentication.
> 
>    *Disadvantages:* Open Authentication provides no way to check if a
>    client is a valid client and not a hacker client. If you do not use
>    WEP encryption with Open Authentication, any user who knows the SSID
>    of the WLAN can access the network. Cisco does not recommend that
>    you deploy wireless LANs without WEP encryption."

They are here refering to RADIUS, so you can connect Usernames and Network
Access. Normaly a WEP or WPA-PSK Key grant access to the complete network.

With RADIUS or something similar you can grant access by user&password or
user&cert which in more complex networks _is_ the better way (simply think
of, if there is more than one network segment, or a machine gets stolen...
and you want to revoke just one user)


-- 
Florian Reitmeir