Public hot spots necessitate VPNs

Last time, I brought up the fact that if you are trying to negotiate volume discounts with both a favorite notebook provider and a preferred wireless LAN vendor, you could face a difficult choice if the WLAN vendor doesn't make network interface cards to fit the form factor of your notebook supplier.

Adding fuel to the fire is the proliferation of public hot spots. I've discussed hot spots - also called public LAN access locations - in previous newsletters. The beauty of a hot spot to an enterprise user (and a corporate IT department) is that the company's investment in WLANs gets extended beyond the walls of a single organization to other places where employees can also be productive.

For example, now that we all have to be at the airport two hours ahead of our scheduled domestic flight times, frequent travelers are finding themselves with excessive " hanging around " time during which they could be productive, particularly if they were able to access corporate resources and the Internet.

Now, back to the original dilemma: If you have somehow resolved getting your notebook supplier and WLAN supplier in sync within your organization's technology preferences, what happens to your favorite WLAN features when your users wander into LaGuardia, O'Hare or LAX? I'm thinking, specifically, about security issues. Any vendor's access point could be installed in an airport. The WLAN vendors explain that, for all practical purposes, you should consider yourself in " unsecured mode " when you are in a public hot spot.

They advise that securing your client device with an IP VPN connection that uses strong encryption - such as Triple-DES IPSec - is a must if your users are going to roam public hot spots. It also helps that the Microsoft Windows XP operating system supports 802.1x, a robust method of remote user authentication and security for all Ethernet-like protocols. Running 802.1x in the operating system rather than the NIC, note experts, can be more secure, because a thief can't take NIC, put it in another device, and get access to a network.

VSAT services are finding new customers

Security alternatives
Network World Wireless Newsletter, 08/15/01

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Campbell, Calif., who has spent most of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future article topics. Reach her at joanie@jwexler.com.

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