Adding a cisco aironet to an existing LAN, possible?

[Darrenzo]

Hello,

I am thinking of adding a wireless access point to our existing ethernet network. Currently the LAN has no wireless access points, and is cabled using CAT5.I want to purchase and add a Cisco Aironet (either 1100 or 1200).

Can this easily be added/uplinked to the rest of the LAN (i.e. patched to a RJ-45 network Switch/Hub) without any additional hardware?

The documentation on the Cisco site talks about WLAN controllers etc. It is unclear to me, from reading the stuff on the website if I can do this or not.

Thanks

 

[fdurham]

Darrenzo-

Yeah you can hang any of the Aironet models you mentioned off any switch and you can provide WLAN access to your customers. Other things to consider is security in a business WLAN model.

Frank

 

[Darrenzo]

Thanks Frank,

The documentation on the cisco site is'nt very clear that you can just patch/uplink the aironet striaght into a switch or hub using a regular RJ-45 connection.

Our security will be handled via a corporate RADIUS Server.

- Darren

 

[beridor]

you need to ensure that security is correctly implemented - you would have to really use 802.1x EAP (something like Leap - but make sure that you use strong passwords), PEAP or TTLS. You would need to look and see what support is offered by your radius server. you would also need a certificate on your server to allow any of these to work.

Dave

 

[Darrenzo]

Thanks Dave,


My initial worry was that I could'nt uplink these Aironets to a switch/hub.
I have ordered 5 of these babies!

Darren

 

[Kurt111780]

What happens if a user is in one area then goes out of range but is in range of another access point? Will the user lose their connection then regain it? Is this seamless? About how much does the Aironets cost? We have a windows 2003 server and I would like to use Radius\Active directory for authentication.

Thanks,
Kurt

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