Hello,
Our company has decided to make the splash and set up a small but segmented wireless network. This WLAN will be a courtesy for visitors equipped with 802.11x based wireless devices and laptops. we envision access similar to that found in courthouses and to some degree coffee shops ETC...only difference being we do not intend to charge users to connect. Conversely we also do not want have an open network for just anyone to connect to. It also will be available for some of our internal users who will not mind connecting to the corporate environment while in these areas ( mostly conference/meeting rooms) via our VPN through a separate cable internet line we've installed if they wish to take advantage of this Wireless setup. The WLAN will exist on three different floors, and be connected to the separated cable internet WLAN via Cisco switch VLANs. Being relatively new to wireless networking we have been given a budget of about $2500 smackeroos to purchase what we anticipate will be about 5 access points and what ever secure method we choose to make sure only approved clients are granted access to the WLAN. Which brings me to the series of questions I have, does any one have any suggestions about what equipment we should begin looking at that would support WPA, VPN and IPSEC pass through and allow for us to keep the visiting user involvement to a minimum? is there a centralized program that we should investigate that would allow for our helpdesk to detect and assign WLAN access to users with out having to visit every unit individually ( is this wishful thinking?) I have heard there are web based utilities that all you need do is have a user wishing to use your WLAN browse to a form type page, enter a pre provided password and provide certain information and the system can automatically grant them access. Hopefully I do not sound like too much of a NEWBIE, but I've seen some pretty useful stuff come from this site and thought it worth a try before wasting a lot of time tinkering with unproven technologies. Thanks
Frank
Our company has decided to make the splash and set up a small but segmented wireless network. This WLAN will be a courtesy for visitors equipped with 802.11x based wireless devices and laptops. we envision access similar to that found in courthouses and to some degree coffee shops ETC...only difference being we do not intend to charge users to connect. Conversely we also do not want have an open network for just anyone to connect to. It also will be available for some of our internal users who will not mind connecting to the corporate environment while in these areas ( mostly conference/meeting rooms) via our VPN through a separate cable internet line we've installed if they wish to take advantage of this Wireless setup. The WLAN will exist on three different floors, and be connected to the separated cable internet WLAN via Cisco switch VLANs. Being relatively new to wireless networking we have been given a budget of about $2500 smackeroos to purchase what we anticipate will be about 5 access points and what ever secure method we choose to make sure only approved clients are granted access to the WLAN. Which brings me to the series of questions I have, does any one have any suggestions about what equipment we should begin looking at that would support WPA, VPN and IPSEC pass through and allow for us to keep the visiting user involvement to a minimum? is there a centralized program that we should investigate that would allow for our helpdesk to detect and assign WLAN access to users with out having to visit every unit individually ( is this wishful thinking?) I have heard there are web based utilities that all you need do is have a user wishing to use your WLAN browse to a form type page, enter a pre provided password and provide certain information and the system can automatically grant them access. Hopefully I do not sound like too much of a NEWBIE, but I've seen some pretty useful stuff come from this site and thought it worth a try before wasting a lot of time tinkering with unproven technologies. Thanks
Frank