Wifi

Our Project demonstration is based solely on wireless internet technology. Basically, what we set out to do was to prove that a wireless internet connection could actually be made, and that it could made to be, at least somewhat, secure. Our goals are listed below:

1.-Setup a wireless connection to the internet.

2.-Ensure that the connection can be made and that the signal will remain constant.

3-Using WEP(wired equivalent privacy), ensure that the wireless connection can be made secure.

4.-Test signal strengths at different levels of bandwidth and distances.

Overall, this project was fairly simple. All we really had to do, was to test the signal strengths and resolve security and connectivity issues.

Wi-Fi Facts-

Wi-Fi is an 802.11 IEEE standard. The name 802.11 comes from the IEEE committee that standardized it. Wi-Fi stands for wireless fidelity. The whole idea behind wireless technology would be to create a network in which a group of people can access the network remotely. This enhances usability and in some sense, creativity. Wireless internet isn’t really that hard to setup. You need an access point, a server, and a laptop. After that, it’s all a matter of configurations and you’re in. The only real complaint that we heard about Wi-Fi is that there are security issues. Hackers have been known to drive around accessing people’s wireless networks. So security is an issue. One way to deal with security is to use WEP (wired equivalent privacy). This technology allows us to use wireless and still have some of the same protection as with a wired network.

How Secure is it really?

When a client communicates with an access point, this is when the network is most vulnerable to breaches in security. It is at this time that a hacker can access your network. Security issues are what continue to hold Wi-Fi technology back. A wired network offers a direct access to network jacks. This provides some defense right from the start. But a wireless network is not contained by walls or glass. A DeVry senior project even noted that a client was printing to printers in neighboring offices. This is where WEP comes in. While WEP addresses issues regarding casual hackers, it’s fairly useless against someone who is actually committed to hacking a wireless network.

To overcome this issue, a new IEEE standard has arisen. It’s called IEEE 802.1x and it works in a similar way to WEP. Basically, when a user ties to access the network, they must provide a set of credentials. Some of these credentials can be checked out by the access point itself, while other are sent a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial in server) server to be checked out more thoroughly.

Methodology and Setup

Our setup began with gathering all required materials to construct a Wi-Fi network. Our inventory list included, a standard PC, a laptop, wireless router, wireless NIC, straight-through cable, USB cable. The access point was connected by connecting the straight-through cable to the back of the router and plugging the other end into the blue RJ-46 jack on the workbench, this allowed us to gain access to the Devry network. The next step was connecting a USB cable to the back of the wireless router, followed by connecting the other end to the standard PC’s front USB ports. Once the wireless NIC was installed in the laptop we were ready to begin configuration.

Configuration began at the standard PC with the Linksys WAP11 USB Configuration Utility shortcut on the desktop. By double-clicking on the shortcut a new window popped up (figure 1) showing that our access point had been found.

Figure 1

By clicking on the IP Setting tab we were able to see our router’s IP address. (figure 2)

Figure 2

For testing signal strength we adjusted our transfer rate, this was adjusted