If you're using consumer APs then you're not going to have smooth handoffs to APs, so user sessions will be interrupted as the client dis-associates to the old AP, associates to the new, acquires an IP address, and then re-establishes the VPN. That's not smooth.
In regards to volumes, there are many larger deployments that are moving several hundred megabits per second -- how much do you really want to pay for a redundantly-configured VPN with that kind of traffic load? Google "Wi-Fi machine authentication" to see some articles that talk about how devices joined to the domain can be on the wireless network without having the end-user logged in. Frank -----Original Message----- From: David Lang [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 6:51 PM To: Frank Bulk Cc: [email protected] Subject: RE: [lopsa-tech] Wifi why does the movement of users matter much? Users can roam between different APs with the same SSID with a VPN just fine. Also, why do you say 'low traffic volumes'? if you are encrypting the data, it's going to cost to encrypt it even if you do it at the wifi level instead of the VPN level. you can configure VPNs so that they are connected all the time as well, but any plan to push things down or run scheduled tasks from a central point to portable devices needs to deal with the idea that the devices may not have connectivity (they may not even be turned on) always-connected and authenticated don't work well together, so how do you have Radius authenticated Wifi and still have systems connected without the user being logged in? David Lang On Sat, 6 Apr 2013, Frank Bulk wrote: > > In an environment when the Wi-Fi clients don't move around much, the Wi-Fi > clients are all devices with VPN-capable, and traffic volumes are low, VPNs > may work, but in most organizations, and especially higher-ed, WPA2 with AES > based on RADIUS authentication is the BCP. Most organizations want > machine-authentication, so that even while the end-user is not logged in > policies can be applied and pushed down, scheduled tasks can run, etc. > > Frank > > -----Original Message----- > From: David Lang [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 2:56 PM > To: Frank Bulk > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: RE: [lopsa-tech] Wifi > > On Sat, 6 Apr 2013, Frank Bulk wrote: > >> Hmm, I want to access my organization's resources over Wi-Fi -- why treat > it >> as untrusted? The security with WPA2 using AES is more than sufficient. > > That same statement was made about WEP and WPA. It may be true, it may not > be > true (they don't have a good track record here). It may depend on the > attacker > never having been able to extract data from a laptop of someone who has been > > authorized to use the network (is WPA2 really secure if an attacker has been > > able to read keys off of someone's machine?) > > Your users need to be using VPN software anyway when working from other > networks, so adding WPA and it's management is additional work that you > don't > have to do. > > It's a lot easier to change your VPN software if needed > > VPN software gives you additional tools for authentication of your users > (things > like hardware tokens for example) > > In short, I see VPNs as something you are doing anyway, are more flexible, > and more trustworthy. > > David Lang > >> Frank >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] > On >> Behalf Of David Lang >> Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 12:34 AM >> To: Brian Gold >> Cc: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [lopsa-tech] Wifi >> >> On Fri, 5 Apr 2013, Brian Gold wrote: >> >>> We've been using Cisco WCS controllers and APs here at $employer, but for >> a >>> smaller scale I've been very happy with Ubiquity APs and controllers. I >>> would HIGHLY recommend setting up radius authentication if you have >>> a centralized ldap system (Active Directory, OpenLDAP, etc). >> >> I would actually go the opposite direction. >> >> Your Wifi is an untrusted network that can be sniffed and attacked by > anyone >> in >> the area. So don't let it connect directly to your internal network. >> >> Consider it a guest network, just like a hotel network, and have all your >> users >> connect to your company resources through a VPN, just like they would from >> home >> or a hotel. >> >> Then you can consider if you want to have the network locked down so that > it >> can >> only be used for VPN traffic, or if you really do want it to be a guest >> network, >> able to reach the Intenet (for at least some things) >> >> David Lang >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
