IEEE 802.11 or Wi-Fi denotes a set of Wireless LAN standards developed by working group 11 of the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee (IEEE 802). The term is also used to refer to the original 802.11, which is now sometimes called "802.11legacy".

By Jim Geier After completing a RF site survey, you'll have a good idea of the number and location of access points necessary to provide adequate coverage and performance for users. Before installing the access points, however, be sure to determine what channel frequencies you plan to use. This will ensure that users will be able to roam throughout...   Read Article.

By Gerry Blackwell Building WLANs that really work may not be as easy as it's cracked up to be, as we started to discover last week in the first part of this two-part primer on design and implementation. In Part I , Jesse Frankel, chief strategy officer and vice president of advanced technology at Akron OH WLAN integrator NeTeam Corp. (www.neteam.com),...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier When deploying a wireless LAN, you need to know how many users the access points will support. This helps in determining whether the WLAN will bear a specific application. For example, the WLAN may need to handle twenty users accessing the Internet from an airport concourse. Or, hundreds of users may need access to the WLAN from a convention...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier Most installed wireless LANs today utilize quot;infrastructurequot; mode that requires the use of one or more access points. With this configuration, the access point provides an interface to a distribution system (e.g., Ethernet), which enables wireless users to utilize corporate servers and Internet applications. As an optional feature,...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier Mutual authentication is a critical component of any network, especially a wireless LAN. The user should authenticate with the network, and the edge device, such as an access point or wireless router, should also authenticate with the user. This establishes trust among everyone and avoids the perils of man-in-the-middle attacks. The original...   Read Article.

by Derrick Story 06/08/2001 The SpringPort Wireless Ethernet Module by Xircom is one of the most exciting Springboards since the EyeModule 2. But at USD$299, it's also one of the most expensive. How much technology does your money buy? Actually, quite a bit. In essence, the Xircom module allows you to connect any Handspring Visor to a standard 802.11...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier Because they use radio waves, wireless LANs are open to hackers trying to access sensitive information or spoil the operation of the network. In fact, most wireless LANs don't implement any form of reliable security, enabling access to just about anyone. I've proven that by driving around several large cities recently and using 802.11...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier The access point (AP), which interfaces wireless client devices to a wired network, is the primary component of a wireless LAN. A company installs multiple access points to provide coverage throughout a facility, enabling users to roam. The radio card in the client device conforms to the 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standard when performing medium access...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier Previousl y, we've defined RF interference and discussed general methods to minimize the problem. Potential sources of interference include cordless phones, microwave ovens, and Bluetooth -enabled devices. The presence of these types of devices can degrade the performance of an 802.11 wireless LAN. Bluetooth provides relatively low...   Read Article.

by Wei-Meng Lee 02/06/2003 By now, we're all familiar with 802.11b wireless networking. But there's also been lots of discussion recently about two other wireless standards, both of which are in the 802.11 family: 802.11a and 802.11g. 802.11g is still in the process of being finalized and is currently in draft specification. However, a few vendors...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier There are many access point vendors now with products on the market, leaving you with a tough decision on which one to use. Some of these access points barely satisfy the 802.11 standard, making them most suitable for homes and small offices. Others have rich features that extend well beyond the standard, which are ideal for higher-end,...   Read Article.

By Lisa Phifer Like their wired counterparts, Wireless LAN analyzers provide packet capture, protocol decode, traffic analysis, alerting, trending, and reporting for 802.11 networks. Many also provide wireless-specific functions like spectrum analysis, net stumbling, site survey, and rogue detection. In Part 1 of this article, we identified several...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier When deploying wireless LANs, most people begin the project by jumping into technical matters, such as deciding upon which version of 802.11 to use, which vendor to select, and how to overcome the limitations of 802.11 security. These are important elements of implementing a wireless LAN; however prior to getting too far with the project,...   Read Article.

By Jim Geier In the old days, frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) and direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) were the only two radio-based 802.11 wireless LANs available. At one point, I remember FHSS being among the top choices when deploying a wireless LAN because FHSS access points were less expensive and more available than DSSS access points....   Read Article.

By Jim Geier In order to make the best use of wireless LAN bandwidth, you need to be aware of various 802.11 configuration parameters. As an optional user feature, the 802.11 standard includes the ability for radio-based network interface cards (NICs) and access points to fragment packets for improving performance in the presence of RF interference...   Read Article.

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols It used to be Gospel truth that if you wanted to deploy a serious 802.11-based network you had to do a site survey . Now, as the street price for low-end access points drops below $100, some would-be network administrators are contemplating forgetting about time-consuming and expensive site surveys in favor of simply throwing...   Read Article.

By Lisa Phifer WLAN Analyzers are essential tools for anyone who administers a network with 802.11 Wi-Fi devices, authorized or otherwise. Part 1 of this series identified several open source and commercial tools. Part 2 explained how to combine those tools with PDAs, laptops, desktops, adapters, antennas, and GPS receivers to create an analysis toolkit....   Read Article.

By Lisa Phifer This article is the fourth in a series that explores the purpose and use of 802.11 Wireless LAN Analyzers. Prior installments provided a resource list of open source and commercial WLAN analyzers ( Part 1 ), explained how to combine software with hardware to create a WLAN analysis toolkit ( Part 2 ), and used several different tools to...   Read Article.

By Allen Bernard Unlike competition among software and hardware vendors, when it comes to 802.11 (Wi-Fi) standards, things are in pretty good shape. Only one body, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), sets worldwide baseline standards for Wi-Fi equipment and software vendors to follow and there are only a handful of standards...   Read Article.

By Jeff Vance Wireless LAN security has come a long way in the past few years. 802.11's initial, flawed encryption standard, WEP, has been replaced by WPA and 802.11i, and a slew of new wireless security products have recently entered the market. The problem is that most of these products, such as WLAN switches and rogue access point (AP) monitors,...   Read Article.