[vpn] Securing 802.11b in W2K environment?

[Patrick.Bryan at abbott.com]

IPSec between all hosts communicating on your 11b LAN..



                                                                                                                        
                    Mark.Spencer at suf.s                                                                                  
                    tate.ma.us                To:     vpn at securityfocus.com                                             
                                              cc:                                                                       
                    11/01/2001 05:52          Subject:     [vpn] Securing 802.11b in W2K environment?                   
                    PM                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                        



Now that the WEP security of 802.11b has been shown to be broken and
exploitable, I have seen lots of articles on the net about how
people are securing their wireless solutions using virtual private
network technology.

Only problem though is that all the articles I have found talk about
people using OpenBSD, Linux, and other non-MS operating systems.

I run Windows 2000 Professional on all my PC's. What is the most
intuitive and cost effective way I can truly secure my 802.11b wireless
products??

My network looks like the following:

A broadband cable Internet connection plugs directly into my Windows
2000 Professional workstation through a 10baseT NIC.  I have a second
NIC, 100baseTX, in this same machine connected to an eight port
switch.  On this gateway machine are running ZoneAlarm Pro for
firewall functionality and Sygate Home Network for Internet sharing.
Plugged into the switch is a Linksys WAP11 access point.

So, the wireless products are operating on the inside of my network,
inside the firewall.  I need to find a way to encrypt communications
at the lowest level from my wireless devices to the gateway machine.
That way my wireless LAN traffic will be protected, and once the
encryption is terminated at the gateway machine, hopefully the
wireless devices pass through my Internet connection sharing just as
if they were normally connected to my switch via Category 5 ethernet.

Any guidance is greatly appreciated!

Mark

VPN is sponsored by SecurityFocus.com







VPN is sponsored by SecurityFocus.com