I echo Peter's comments. The vendor's system should be able to handle
AES, especially as modern WiFi standards (802.11n forward) mandate its use.
As for spaces in SSID's, I've only heard rumors of issues in certain
devices, but I've we don't have spaces in our SSID's so I've never seen
it myself. I would ask for an explanation for why the SSID would be
causing an issue and where (in the WLAN equipment or on the client
device) the issue would originate from. Guessing from the engineer's
comments about their processing capabilities on the controller, it
wouldn't surprise me that the problem is in their code somewhere.
Heath Barnhart, CCNA
ITS Network Administrator
Washburn University
Topeka, KS
On 01/24/2013 12:01 PM, Peter Murphy wrote:
Jake,
Your contact is correct in stating that using TKIP instead of AES
will use less overhead on the AP/controller & client, because TKIP is
less complex than AES (and less secure). You can extrapolate this to
"using _no_ encryption will cut overhead dramatically".
While our friends at NSA will tell us that no encryption scheme is
100% secure forever, most of us try to stay ahead of the hackers by
using the most secure encryption and keys supported by the technology,
and helping the technology companies understand our demand that they
develop robust support for that security in their products. So I guess
that my response to your contact concerning the encryption might have
been a query as to (a) if his company's product had problems
supporting AES, and under what conditions, and (b) ask when his
company's products would be able to handle AES comfortably.
Peter
On 1/24/2013 12:43 PM, Barros, Jacob wrote:
I feel silly asking this question but value your opinions. We
recently had some authentication errors that caused me to open a
support case. The engineer I was working with eluded to the fact
that having a space in my SSID name could be contributing to the
problem though not the root. He also inferred that using TKIP
instead of AES would cut processing requirements on the controller
and therefore grant better performance. I have not been able to
confirm his opinions from those I have asked (including other
engineers from the same company) nor in print.
We are using a single SSID for most of our campus, 'Grace WiFi'
WPA2-PSK AES. Theoretically, should I get better performance (or
less overhead) from 'Grace-WiFi' WPA2-PSK TKIP?
Leaving the vendor/company out of this conversation, will you please
comment on whether or not these changes will make a difference? I
would love to either substantiate or debunk this theory.
Jake Barros | Network Administrator | Office of Information
Technology
Grace College and Seminary | Winona Lake, IN | 574.372.5100 x6178
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