Wireless Home Networking - Index of

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Part III: Installing a Wireless Network
Neither of these two circumstances is usually a problem for the typical
home — WPA-PSK (WPA Home) is more than sufficient for most users. But
if you want to go for the ultimate in security, you may consider using an AP
(and wireless clients) that supports WPA Enterprise.
WPA Enterprise uses a special server, known as a RADIUS server, and a protocol
called 802.1x (see the nearby sidebar, “802.1x: The corporate solution”),
which provide authentication and authorization of users using special cryptographic
keys. When a RADIUS server is involved in the picture, you get a
more secure authorization process than the simple shared secret used in
WPA Home. You also get a new encryption key created by the RADIUS server
on an ongoing basis — which means that even if a bad guy figured out your
key, it would change before any damage could be done.
Now you can create and operate your own RADIUS server on a spare computer
in your home (see the commercial software available at www.lucidlink.com, or
the free software at www.freeradius.org), but that topic is beyond the scope of
this book. (We do tell you more about this subject in our other wireless book,
Wireless Hacks and Mods For Dummies, also published by Wiley.)
You can use a hosted RADIUS service on the Internet. Such services charge a
small monthly fee (about $5 per month) and let you use a RADIUS server
that’s hosted and maintained in someone’s data center. All you need to do is
pay your monthly bill and follow a few simple steps on your access point and
PCs to set up RADIUS authentication and WPA Enterprise.
You need to have an AP that supports WPA Enterprise — check the documentation
that came with yours because not all APs support it.
Several services provide WPA Enterprise RADIUS support. An example is the
SecureMyWiFi service offered by Witopia (www.witopia.net). SecureMyWiFi
provides security for one AP and as many as five users for free, and charges
for additional users.
802.1x is not something we expect to see in any wireless home LAN any time
soon. It’s a business-class kind of thing that requires lots of fancy servers and
professional installation and configuration. We just thought we would mention
it because you no doubt will hear about it when you search the Web for
wireless LAN security information.