WLAN

Wireless LAN Professionals Update

This week marks a year since I’ve been posting and blogging on the Wireless LAN Professionals website.

In the past year we’ve had the following successes:

• A total of 41 Podcast Episodes
• A total of 42,239 downloads of those episodes
• Slightly more than 1,000 downloads per episode
• The most popular episode had over 3,100 downloads
• The least popular episode had only 500 downloads
• 60% of the downloads are from the US
• With the other leading countries (in order): China, Canada, UK, Australia, German, India, New Zealand
• People have downloaded the podcast to over 100 countries
• The Wireless LAN Professionals website gets an average of 100 hits per day normally, but bumps up to an average of 200 on Wednesdays (the day the Podcasts are released)
• The WLP website has received 65,000 hits his year and over 20,000 downloads of white papers
• My twitter account http://twitter.com/keithrparsons currently has 943 followers and over 5,000 posts

I am posting these statistics for two reasons. The first is to give me some incentive to get back up on that horse and start regular weekly podcasts again. I’ve been a bit lax lately, and I needed some incentive to get back in the groove of weekly podcasting. Realizing there is a fairly decent sized audience will do that for a guy.

The second reason, and probably more important to the readers of this blog. You have a community!

There is a thriving community of people who are interested in the career choice of being a Wireless LAN Professional. Well over 1,000 people that I can track put themselves in this category. So get involved! Follow along on the twitter streams, follow the other like-minded individual’s fantastic blogs, post comments and perhaps even start your own blogs on the subject. (see the website’s resources tab for more places to get involved)

I’m a firm believer that:

“Knowledge is like manure, if you spread it around, it will help things to grow. If you try to hold it yourself, you’ll just start to stink.“

So please get involved in this community. Start following others on twitter, share your information, post your posts, and just get involved.

Keith Parsons – February 2nd, 2011

WLW042 – Don’t DoS Your Boss

Don’t DoS Your Boss

Right-Click Here To Download This Episode

The title of this week’s Wireless LAN Weekly episode comes from an article I read in the New York Times back in 1993. It seems the New York city parks department was having a bit of trouble with some overly rambunctious male youths terrorizing some of their female counterparts in the local swimming pools. They had started a trend of ‘whirlpooling’ by circling and taunting the girls in the pool.

To counteract this bad behavior, the mayor’s office came out with a marketing campaign targeted at the miscreants attempting to illicit better behavior. They made up posters, bumper stickers, and even had the mayor start wearing buttons that stated, “Don’t Diss Your Sis”.

In this episode we’ll be talking about Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems running amok, causing harm to your own wireless network. Thus, “Don’t DoS Your Boss”.

Hopefully some of these stories will ring true, and you can learn from these mistakes others have already made.

Enjoy

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If you have any feedback on the show – please drop an e-mail to feedback@WirelessLANProfessionals.com.

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WLW041 – Morality of Buying/Selling Legacy WiFi

Morality of Buying/Selling Legacy WiFi

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This should have a sub-title called:

“Here Be Dragons” – sometimes I think people selling legacy WiFi equipment are like map sellers today trying to hawk their wares by selling maps showing dragons and the world as flat!

This week is sure to cause some controversy, but hey – that’s what these kind of things are all about. Something to get other Wireless LAN Professionals talking.

The show notes are in the form of a new white paper on this subject.

Buying Legacy WiFi

We’d love to have you subscribe to our RSS feed – just click the button in the upper right corner of the web page. Until next week, thanks for listening!

If you have any feedback on the show – please drop an e-mail to feedback@WirelessLANProfessionals.com.

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Wireless LAN Penetration Testing Course

Wireless Penetration Testing

Years ago, a friend of mine, Kimberly Graves and I had been teaching both CWSP and CEH courses. At the end of those courses, our students would ask to see our ‘instructor kit’. They wanted to have the bits that we used in class to show off Wireless Hacking.

Kimberly was the author to the Certified Ethical Hacker study guide, and I helped with the technical edits on that book. I was also a Certified Hacking Forensic Investigator and Licensed Penetration Tester trainer for EC Council at the time.

So to react to the market, we developed a Wireless Hacking Course… but couldn’t call it that – since some companies and government agencies wouldn’t fund training with the word ‘Hacking’ in the title.

So we called it “Wireless LAN Security Assessment Toolkit” – and it was a course than not only taught wireless hacking, but also came with all the parts one might have needed. Spectrum Analyzers, 5 WLAN NICs, access points, hand-held client devices, and all the software pre-configured, and finally, even a laptop to run it all on.

This was a wildly successful class in its time. 

Both Kimberly and I have moved on and now both work for vendors, Kimberly does Course Development and Training for Aruba, and I am now doing Expert Services for Ruckus.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked if I had any materials on the flow of Wireless Penetration Testing…

So we thought it might be a good idea to take the materials we produced for the WLSAT course and release them to the public. We’re not releasing any copyrights… just allowing folks on the Wireless LAN Professionals website to download and use them for personal use.

Below is PDFs of the printed student materials included in the Wireless LAN Security Assessment Toolkit course. Yes, these are a couple of years out of date… but many of the concepts and techniques used are still valid today.

You can check out the old marketing web page with the details on the old course. We’ve included PDFs from each of the chapters, so you can download them one at a time if you’d like.

Enjoy!

Here are the files for your perusal:

00 Student Kit and Classroom Setup.v7

01 wireless packet captures and conection analysis review.v7

02 Lab 2 Discovering, Locating, and Accessing WiFi Networks.v7

03 Sniffing and Capturing Data.v7

04 Encryption and Authentication Mechanisms.v7

05 Rogue Access Points and Client Hijacking.v7

06 Wireless Denial of Service Attacks.v6

07 Using a Wireless Instrusion.v7

08 Creative Advanced Attacks.v7

09 8oh2 custom linux script.v7

Appendix – Linux WLAN NIC Command Review

Appendix C – Linux Flash Cards v1.4.1

LinuxQuickReferenceGuide-v1.6.5

Wireless Penetration Testing Flowchart

WLW039 – Apple Products as WLAN Professional Tools

Apple Products as WLAN Professional Tools

Right-Click Here To Download This Episode

OK, I know… everyone is going to think I’m just sort of Apple Fan Boy. And perhaps that is true. Not that I think Apple does everything right, far from it. But I have learned to appreciate the elegance in their design simplicity.

I like not having to do the dreaded “Backup, FDISK, Format, Load OS, Re-load Apps, reload data” thing every six months or so.

I like not having to deal with viruses and malware on my working machines.

I like the speed and simplicity of moving to a new laptop – mere minutes of my time, not the full-day it used to take in a Windows platform.

I like the ability to quickly move installed apps between machines without resorting to registry edits, and having to re-install from the original disks. (I know they are here somewhere…)

But most of all. I like this these products “just work”.

I also know many of you are hard core into the CLI world, and LIKE to do things your own way, and it rubs you wrong to HAVE TO do things (like iTunes) Apple’s way.

All that being said, this podcast is about how I use Apple products, like an iPhone, iPad, and MacBook laptops to help me in my work as a Wireless LAN Professional.

Let’s start with the biggest, and move to the smaller options

iMac 27”

Big – large screen real estate – desktop – working on processor intensive applications – rendering video – multiple VMs, even on screen side by side.

MacBookPro 15”

My main computer (at least for the next week or so – until I get time to move the ‘magic’ over to the new laptop) is a MacBookPro 15” laptop. This machine has garnered many industry awards – not only for its sleek aluminum uni-body design, but as a fast, intuitive machine to help me get my work completed.

The specs on this machine are  – in order of importance to me…

• Apple’s OS X operating system
• 1680 x 1050 High Resolution Screen
• Intel 2.66 GHz Core i7
• 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive – 7200 rpm
• 8 GB DDR3 RAM
• 802.11n Wireless NIC

I’ve found this to be a great workhorse, running for weeks at a time without rebooting, a bit slow to ‘sleep’, but fairly fast to wake up and start working again. I run VMware Fusion, and Parallels to also run Windows apps on this machine. I’ve had multiple VMs as well as a full suite of OS X apps running simultaneously – and not been disappointed.

I love the ‘spaces’ feature, that let me quickly move between pre-loaded screens, each app has it’s own dedicated space. (VMs each get their own as well) – And Yes, I do know you can get this type of feature in other OS’s.

My ‘professional’ tools, like AirMagnet, Omnipeek, and Wireshark run very well in a VM environment. In fact, I’ve got much better results, faster processing, and no crashing of apps when running in a Windows 7 VM compared with a ‘real’ dedicated Windows 7 machine.

I have found I don’t use the DVD too much – but sometimes it’s nice to have access to optical drives.

I wish it had more than the two USB ports – wish they were USB 3.0. But overall very very pleased with this computer. It is a big large in my backpack, I did use a MacBookPro 13” for a year or so, and it was quite comparable, but the extra screen real estate more than makes up for the larger size.

MacBookAir 13”

This is going to be my next machine. As soon as I do the little ‘magic’ bit and have it become my ‘main’ machine. You know that magic that happens – one moment your machine moves from the old platform to the new platform.  I have this new MacBookAir 13” ready for the transformation, but I haven’t moved all my files over and had the ‘christening’ yet. Still need some open time to make the move.

This unit is very light weight, much smaller and thinner than the 15” MacBookPro, and doesn’t have the RAM or the big Hard Drive, and really isn’t even close in the CPU department. But… and this is a pretty big deal for me. It has the exact same screen resolution. So everything on-screen that I’m used to will be in the same position.

In my preliminary testing, this computer just ‘feels’ faster. I know the CPU is inferior to the MacBookPro’s – but that fast SSD just makes everything feel faster.

I won’t be able to run multiple VMs – just OS X and one Window 7 VM – but that’s enough for the large majority of the things I need.

There are two major factors in making the move to the smaller, lighter Air – Speed and Size. With the weight and size differences, I can take a 13” MacBookAir and a second 11” MacBookAir in the same space in my backpack.

I normally teach off of a big Dell laptop – that will no longer be needed. I can use the MBA 11” in Bootcamp mode to be my instructor machine, and have my spare ‘main’ machine with me at the same time. Both together weigh less and fit in a smaller space than my single Dell D6400!

MacBookAir 11”

This guy was purchased for a single job – and paid for itself in a couple days of surveying. My main survey machine (a Motion J3400 Tablet) was being used by a client, and I had an additional job drop in my lap. So I went to a local Fry’s – picked up the MBA 11” and within a couple of hours had a sweet survey tool.

The thing is the smallest and lightest survey platform I’ve ever worked on. And fast… nothing else I’ve used is as quick. From dead off – cold booting takes under 12 seconds. Waking up from sleep under 2 seconds. And moving between the Windows 7 Bootcamp, and Mac OS X is about 22 seconds.

I don’t VM this one… I use bootcamp so 100% of the resources can be dedicated to the current OS. Its size allows me to carry it in a unique way, more like a book with the spine vertical. Much easier to carry. (Though any computer starts to get heavy after awhile)

I don’t know if I’d use this as my main machine – not quite enough RAM or Hard Drive space available, but it makes a wonderful backup/spare.

Accessories

An entire suite of professional tools are now available in USB form factor. 802.11n dual-band NICs for surveying and sniffing. As well as Spectrum Analysis in USB as well

Without the option of USB devices, the Macintosh as a platform wouldn’t make any sense.

Link to podcast with Ron Nutter talking about using a Macintosh as a Network Professional’s platform. Moving to Mac.

Software

I run inSSIDer, WiFi Inspector, Wireshark, AirMagnet mobile Suite, and other professional tools in this VM with fantastic results.

iPad

On to the smaller tablet size. I really like my iPad as a portable consumption device. It has 3G so it’s always connected to the Internet. E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, GPS, Movies, Games, and most importantly – a fantastic Tech Pub reader.

I wish Apple would allow this as a Wi-Fi enabled tool. But alas, they have stopped all really useful Wi-Fi tools from being developed because of some ‘private API’ issue. I sure hope they resolve it soon.

This would make the ULTIMATE Wireless LAN Professionals tool. Very light, touch screen, hi-res screen. Many people can quickly see how valuable this would be for conducting on-site troubleshooting, surveying, etc.

I’ve developed a 25-page document detailing all the features and screens needed for this ultimate tool – but until Apple releases the ability to support Wi-Fi in iPad apps – it’s just a useless folder of details sitting on my desk.

iPhone

Like it’s larger cousin the iPad – the iPhone also is ham-strung by Apple by not allowing the Private APIs any longer. There were some great tools available. But these have been pulled from the iTunes store. If you were lucky enough to have purchased them earlier (or if you don’t mind JailBreaking your phone) – you’ll have to live without these nice tools.

I wrote an entire blogpost dedicated to the wide variety of networking and wireless tools for this platform. Check it out at WLAN Professionals Portable Toolkit

Another article from Zaib over at WLANBook about iPhone apps. Scanner Apps Banned By Apple.

Thanks for listening.

We’d love to have you subscribe to our RSS feed – just click the button in the upper right corner of the web page. Until next week, thanks for listening!

If you have any feedback on the show – please drop an e-mail to feedback@WirelessLANProfessionals.com.

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WLW040 – Twitter for the WLAN Professional

Twitter for the WLAN Professional

Right-Click Here To Download This Episode

Twitter… What’s all the fuss about anyway?

You’ve heard things about this ‘social media’ thing, and wondered why everyone is talking about it. You might even have a Facebook page. But that’s just for sharing personal information about what you are up to with your friends and family. You also might be forward thinking a bit about your career and have already started a LinkedIn page, and shared your personal information and started to build your professional network.

Good for you, you’ve started down the path of adding some social media into your life. See, it’s really not all that bad.

Now on to the really powerful one called Twitter. I know, you’ve heard people talk about twitter, heard these funny new words like “tweet” and “tweeps”, and worse of all you’ve heard all people talk about is what they ate for lunch.

I too was in your same place a while ago. Looking back, my first sign up with Twitter was over two and a half years ago, right after it started. But I was turned off by the service because of a couple of issues. First, I really didn’t like going to the Twitter web page to interact, and someone suggested I setup my cell phone to receive all my ‘tweets’ via SMS texts. That lasted about 20 minute or so of a frustrating endless vibrate going on. Second, I didn’t know anyone personally or professionally that used this new service.

Fast forward to spring of last year. Based on a very simple suggestion, I learned to access Twitter, not via website, or cell phone, but to use a Twitter Client. Wow! Everything changed overnight when I could access a ‘twitter stream’ and control the flow and content of the Twitter feed. It was a whole new experience. It made the process much easier and more manageable.

Then out of the blue, a new Twitter ‘friend’ (someone I’ve never met in person, who lives in a different country, but shares some of the same passions for Wireless LANs) – did be a huge favor and sent me a local European SIM card while I was on vacation with my family in Paris. He basically over-nighted a loaded SIM for me, additionally gave me great suggestions on where to visit, and places to see. All because we had exchanged a few 140 character messages talking about our shared passion.

I found this Twitter thing could be valuable! I realized there are real people, who share many of my same goals and interests, willing to help and share their experiences with me, just for asking. And, that there were also people who could use my help as well. A community of people, not tied together by some artificial reason because of where they live or work, but based on shared interests.

There is an entire world of Wireless LAN Professionals who are using Twitter on a regular basis. Of course for the Social bit, sharing what they are up to, where they are traveling, etc. But more importantly, they also share ideas and tips, as well as interesting URLs and articles about a shared passion. Twitter can also be a place to ask questions and get very timely answers.

It kind of reminds me of the good ‘ol days with BBS’s and Online Tech Support Forums where we’d go in the past to get that same timely, authoritative answers to pressing tech questions.

Give it a try, set yourself up an account on Twitter.com, its not only free, but very easy. Then try out one of the many Twitter clients available. I now use a funny-sounding client called Osfoora on my iPhone and iPad, and Tweetie on my MacBookPro. But there are many other clients available on all platforms, from Blackberry to Linux and everything in between.

To get you started on finding some folks who might share your interest in Wireless LANs, check out this list of folks that I follow at http://wlanpros.com/follow. You might also want to search for the “hashtag” (a Twitter method of tagging information) of #WirelessWednesday when people share other Twitter users addresses they personally recommend.

There are also many searchable, well-written tutorials on “How to use Twitter”.

I’d be pleased to have you follow me, and my status updates on Wireless LANs via my twitter feed – @KeithRParsons – http://Twitter.com/KeithRParsons

Others who commented on using Twitter as a Wireless LAN Professional in today’s Podcast.

Devin Akin
George Stefanick
Jennifer Huber
Marcus Burton
Mohammed Anshad
Steve Williams
Gregor Vučajnk

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If you have any feedback on the show – please drop an e-mail to feedback@WirelessLANProfessionals.com.

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WLW038 – WLAN Hardware & Software Options

WLAN Hardware & Software Options

I thought perhaps with this being the holiday season, and people thinking of their gift lists… I ought to have an episode dedicated to the various WLAN hardware and software tools you might want to have in your own personal kit.

I tried making an audio podcast out of this list… but failed to adequately describe all the items with just my voice… So this week’s audio podcast will be turned into a Video Podcast. But, it will take a bit more time to edit the video clips into something presentable.

In the mean time, I’ve included a list of the equipment and software I carry. Obviously I don’t carry all of this for every type of gig. For pre-deployment work there is one set, for post-deployment verification surveys a different set. For different training classes, different sets depending on needs. And when doing interviews and on-site work for the Podcast an even different setup.

Please go through these lists and let me know if there are any tools you’ve found useful in your Wireless LAN Professional work that I should include. Please e-mail your updates/changes/answers to keith at wlanpros.com.

Thanks – and I’ll send out a Twitter message when the Video Version of this episode is ready to download.

The *-asterisk denotes my personal favorites and what I use most of the time.

Hardware

Computer

• Windows XP/Vista/*Window 7  –  Laptop/Netbook/*Tablet
• *Macintosh OS X/VM/*Parallels/*Bootcamp  –  *MacBookPro, *MacBookAir
• Smartphone  –  *iPhone, Android, BlackBerry

Accessories

• *Fluke AirCheck
• *GPS
• *Spectrum Analyzers
• WiFi NICs – both PCMCIA & USB
• Jammers
• *USB to Serial Converters
• USB Hubs
• Cases – I favor Pelican Cases

Miscellaneous Supporting Software & Security Software

• *MapPoint, *GoogleEarth, *Visio, *Office Tools
• Senao/Prism – Queensland Attack – WiFi Jamming
• *NirSoft  – WirelessKeyView – WEP & WPA PSK Hacking
• *Immunity – SILICAU – Penetration Testing
• *Franson – GPS Gate

Software

WiFi Analysis Software

• *AirMagnet    WiFi Analyzer Pro
• *AirMagnet    VoFi Analyzer
• WildPackets    Omnipeek
• *CACE Tech    Wireshark
• CACE Tech      WiFi Pilot
• Tamosoft        Commview for WiFi
• AirDefense     Personal

WiFi Site Survey

• *AirMagnet    SurveyPro
• Ekahau           Site Survey
• Tamosoft        Tamograph
• Visiwave         Survey
• Veriwave        Wave Deploy

WiFi Pre-Deployment Design Tools

• *AirMagnet    Planner
• Motorola        LANPlanner
• Ekahau           Survey

WiFi Scanners

• Kismet             Kismet
• NetStumbler  NetStumbler
• Xirrus              WiFi Inspector
• *MetaGeek     inSSIDer
• PassMark        WirelessMon
• *NirSoft          WirelessNetView
• *Koingo           AirRadar (Mac OS X)
• iStumbler        iStumbler (Mac OS X)
• WLAN Book    WiFi Scanner (Mac OS X)

Spectrum Analyzers

• Metageek       Chanalyzer (WiSpy family)
• *Metageek     Chanalyzer Pro (WiSpy family)
• Eakiu               Eakiu (WiSpy for OS X)
• *AirMagnet    Spectrum XT – USB – Bandspeed
• *Cognio          Spectrum Expert – PCMCIA (Cisco, AirMagnet, others)
• Ubiquiti          AirView
• AirMagnet      AirMedic – Intel 5×00 series WLAN NIC
• Nuts About Nets        AirSleuthPro
• Nuts About Nets        WiFi Eagle

2.4GHz and 5GHz RF Interfering Devices

• *Nuts About Nets      AirHorn Jammer
• *Nuts About Nets      AirHorn Dual-Band Jammer
• Portable Phones        2.4GHz Narrow-band and Frequency Hopping
• Portable Phones       5GHz Narrow-band and Frequency Hopping
• *Wireless Cameras – Jamming
• *Narrow-Band Jammer
• *Wide-Band Jammer
• *Bluetooth Devices – Discovery & Piconet
• *Headset, mouse, keyboard
• *2.4GHz Wireless Mice
• WiFi Video Camera – just as a client
• Old 802.11 Frequency Hopping AP & Client
• Microwave Oven – good and bad
• Nintendo DS (WiFi Client)
• Xbox 360 Game Controller

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If you have any feedback on the show – please drop an e-mail to feedback@WirelessLANProfessionals.com.

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WLW038A – What’s in My WLAN Toolkit Case Video

Here’s a video I put together that shows the equipment I take on consulting gigs. It might give you some ideas of things you might want to add to your holiday shopping lists.

Keith

What’s in My WLAN Toolkit Case

WLW037 – Quick and Dirty 802.11n Design

Quick and Dirty 802.11n Design

Right-Click Here To Download This Episode

I’ve been teaching about 802.11n for many years now. All about the new acronyms, technology at the hardware layer, PHY layer and MAC layer. There is so much to learn about this new protocol. But invariably the discussion leads to the question on how to design for .11n.

I was going to also talk about the ‘morality’ of designing and selling a Legacy Access Point solution in today’s market, when .11n APs are available and you KNOW they are better than any Legacy AP ever could be. But I’ll leave that discussion for a different episode.

There is the very long, technical and perhaps a bit boring answer. Or, as I’ve found after sharing this with hundreds of individuals, there is the “Quick and Dirty” method. This is NOT the best way to design for .11n. But it is a way that is very quick, simple, and provides the 80 in the 80/20 rule.

If you have lots of money, plenty of time, and want to over architect your Wireless LAN – there are much more sophisticated models. This isn’t the answer to all possible scenarios. Remember, it’s the “Quick and Dirty” method – so “don’t be hating” on this…

Well, here goes.

This method of designing for .11n makes a couple of initial assumptions. First, you currently have an 802.11abg system in place that is working fine for you. If you are thinking of designing for a brand new installation, you could design for 802.11abg, then follow the “Quick and Dirty” method and you’ll also be alright. (Again, there are many more sophisticated design methodologies for .11n – this isn’t one of them)

So if you do meet the stated assumption above, you already have an 802.11abg system in place – then you can choose from either of the two simple options listed below. The first is the easiest, and cheapest, but doesn’t take into consideration for current .11a clients. If you HAVE TO use current .11a clients, you might want to look to the second option.

Option 1 – Replace Access Points

Each location where you have abg AP replace with abgn AP

2.4Ghz Frequency

• 2.4GHZ is for Legacy Only
• 2.4GHz is 20MHz  – 1, 6, 11 ONLY -(normal channel planning)
• Turn off support for .11b (if you can) – Require 6Mbs
• Turn off support for 1, 2, 5.5 and perhaps also 11 data rates
• SSID = Corp (or whatever your current SSID is)
• Legacy Only – Everyone who is non-HT
• No .11n Support needed in 2.4GHz

5GHz Frequency

• 5-GHz is for HT Only (also known as Greenfield)
• 5-GHz is 40MHz  – use UNII-1, UNII-2, UNII-2e, or UNII-3 as country allows
• Turn off support for all Non-HT legacy devices (.11a)
• SSID = Corp-Fast
• HT Clients only (.11n)
• No 20MHz support
• Adapt channel plan if DFS situation within range

Complaint Driven Solution

Everyone who can ‘see’ the “Corp-Fast” network will self-move over to the faster network. Each person that moves over to .11n not only receives a huge boost in their own throughput, but also takes a small load off the currently over-crowded 2.4GHz band.

The only issue with this scenario, is if you have people currently using their .11a devices, they will no longer be able to access the 5GHz frequency and will have to return to the 2.4GHz mess. So if you have folks in this category, and they complain, just get them a brand new .11n card, either internal or external  and they’ll be able to reap all the benefits of a .11n Greenfield.

What is you have either lots of .11a clients, or your firm has already committed to a .11a 5GHz VoIP WiFi Phones… Well then, if you fit in that category, you ought to try out Option 2, below.

___________________

Option 2 -Additional Access Points

Each location where you have .11abg Access Point, leave it in place, and then add a new .11n Access Point

2.4Ghz Frequency - Same as in Option 1 above

Turn off the 2.4GHz frequency from the old legacy AP. This legacy AP is now only supporting .11b and .11g clients.

• 2.4GHZ is for Legacy Only
• 2.4GHz is 20MHz  – 1, 6, 11 ONLY -(normal channel planning)
• Turn off support for .11b (if you can) – Require 6Mbs
• Turn off support for 1, 2, 5.5 and perhaps also 11 data rates
• SSID = Corp (or whatever your current SSID is)
• Legacy Only – Everyone who is non-HT
• No .11n Support needed in 2.4GHz

5GHz Frequency

Part One – Currently Installed Access Points

• 5-GHz UNII-3 will be used exclusively for the .11a clients
• 5-GHz is 20MHz  – use UNII-3 as country allows (could be 5 available channels)
• Support ONLY (.11a) – no .11n things turned on
• SSID = Corp-Voice
• .11a 5GHz voice clients only
• Only 20MHz support

Part Two – New .11n Access Points (Same as in Option 1 above)

• 5-GHz is for HT Only (also known as Greenfield)
• 5-GHz is 40MHz  – use UNII-1, UNII-2, UNII-2e, or UNII-3 as country allows
• Of course leaving off the UNII band used for the .11a phones!
• Turn off support for all Non-HT legacy devices (.11a)
• SSID = Corp-Fast
• HT Clients only (.11n)
• No 20MHz support
• Adapt channel plan if DFS situation within range

Option 2 wouldn’t have any more Access Points than Option 1 above, but you would have additional costs, an additional network drop for the AP, as well as an extra PoE switch port. But you’d have basically two systems running side by side.

Keith

Thanks for listening.

We’d love to have you subscribe to our RSS feed – just click the button in the upper right corner of the web page. Until next week, thanks for listening!

If you have any feedback on the show – please drop an e-mail to feedback@WirelessLANProfessionals.com.

Subscribe To The Wireless LAN Weekly Podcast:

No podcast today… Whitepapers Instead

Sorry, no podcast today. We’ve been having an issue with our hosting provider GoDaddy – blocked IP addresses, etc. that is preventing the work we normally do on show production.

Hopefully this will be resolved before next week’s scheduled show.

In the meantime, here are a couple of white papers written by Keith Parsons all in one place for easy access.

Again, our apologies. Looking forward to regularly scheduled Wireless LAN Weekly Podcasts in the future.

Keith

Learning Wireless LAN Technologies

Quick & Dirty 802.11n Design

WLAN = Counterintuitive

Want, Don’t Want, Don’t Care – Meeting Design Specs

Using The Right Tool for the Job

Seven Rules for Accurate Site Surveys

The Fallacy of Channel Overlap

False God of dB

How to Cheat on a Survey

Designing for Voice

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