It-242 Wlan Check Point
WLAN CheckPoint
Matthew Henderson
IT-242
July 6, 2012
Jessica Partin-Sawyers
WLAN CheckPoint There are several ways a person can go about securing a wireless local area network, or WLAN. One of the best ways in my opinion is to not broadcast the network publicly. This does not prevent people from accessing the network, but instead prevents the network from being visible to others. A person searching for a network to connect to can easily see your network exists. Without broadcasting the network people that are not aware of your network have no way of even knowing it is there. Another way to help to secure a WLAN is by using MAC address filtering. MAC filtering requires a list of the valid MAC addresses the user wants to be able to access the network. Any computer with a MAC address that is not on the provided list will not be able to gain access to the network. These steps alone are not enough to keep a network secure but when used with other security measures such as strong passwords and encryption can make a network a lot less accessible from malicious outsiders. These individuals can be a bothersome hindrance stealing network bandwidth or far more dangerous individuals that intend to cause harm with malicious programs or viruses or to steal private information. A wireless network may never be completely secure, but it is always best practice to use as many security steps as possible to insure the safety of the data on the network.
References
Stallings, W. (2009). Business Data Communications (6th
Matthew Henderson
IT-242
July 6, 2012
Jessica Partin-Sawyers
WLAN CheckPoint There are several ways a person can go about securing a wireless local area network, or WLAN. One of the best ways in my opinion is to not broadcast the network publicly. This does not prevent people from accessing the network, but instead prevents the network from being visible to others. A person searching for a network to connect to can easily see your network exists. Without broadcasting the network people that are not aware of your network have no way of even knowing it is there. Another way to help to secure a WLAN is by using MAC address filtering. MAC filtering requires a list of the valid MAC addresses the user wants to be able to access the network. Any computer with a MAC address that is not on the provided list will not be able to gain access to the network. These steps alone are not enough to keep a network secure but when used with other security measures such as strong passwords and encryption can make a network a lot less accessible from malicious outsiders. These individuals can be a bothersome hindrance stealing network bandwidth or far more dangerous individuals that intend to cause harm with malicious programs or viruses or to steal private information. A wireless network may never be completely secure, but it is always best practice to use as many security steps as possible to insure the safety of the data on the network.
References
Stallings, W. (2009). Business Data Communications (6th
References: Stallings, W. (2009). Business Data Communications (6th ed.)