Customer Reviews

Cisco Wireless LAN Security

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The four authors of Cisco Wireless LAN Security do an excellent job of striking a balance between writing concise enough that the book is not overwhelming, but detailed enough for the reader to truly understand the subject matter. Not an easy task.

The book is titled Cisco Wireless LAN Security, which might actually make some people shy away from it, but the Cisco part is a bit of a misnomer. Some of the information and examples are Cisco-centric, but the majority of the information in the book is vendor-neutral and should be understood and applied on just about any wireless network.

The beginning chapters provide an excellent framework for those new to wireless LAN technology, but it quickly moves beyond that to much deeper and more complex subjects within wireless LAN security.

The discussion of wireless vulnerabilities and on wireless security techniques helps you gain an understanding that you can take away from the book and apply to your unique situation. The configuration samples and examples throughout the book are excellent.

I don't recommend that someone new to wireless networks pick this up, but anyone tasked with protecting or securing a wireless LAN should definitely use this book as a resource.

The title is definitely in alignment with the content. A basic-to-intermediate discussion of security, as it applies to wireless LANs, is presented in this book. When I completed the book, I certainly had a much better understanding of wireless LAN security fundamentals - both generically and with a Cisco slant. The book has contributions from 4 persons, which may explain the healthy perspective given to the subject of wireless LAN security.

I know the number of chapters of a book can't always tell much of the story, but in the case of the 13 chapters contained in this book - spread out over almost 400 pages - I immediately felt that no single chapter would contain an amount of information that may be overwhelming as far as being able to retain my focus. The 2 final chapters comprised the greatest number of pages for any single chapter, and rightfully so. It would have been a compromise of the completion of the overall material to have limited the number of pages involving configuration examples and deployment scenarios.

I really appreciated chapter 2. This chapter was titled "Basic Security Mechanics and Mechanisms", and the content was just as the title suggested. The subject matter discussed security without any connection to wireless LANs. With "Security" being a complete topic all by itself, it was beneficial to have a little introduction to some generic security fundamentals before blending this topic with wireless networking. If the subject of computer/network security is not your forte, then you'll be served well with this brief exposure.

Chapters 3 and 4 were a welcomed addition because they provided a "warm-up" to wireless networking. The authors, in my opinion, did a very good job in not assuming that the reader would be a seasoned veteran of wireless networking. With chapters 2, 3 and 4 leading the way, the groundwork was set for a solid comprehension for the remainder of the book.

So, it is in chapter 5 -- "WLAN Basic Authentication and Privacy Methods" -- where the discussion of security for wireless LANs really begins. Once again, the title of the chapter is in sync with the content. What's provided is some light exposure to security methods. The information in the previous chapters really help to digest this chapter's material. This chapter is one of the "key" chapters in the book's presentation of wireless LAN security; the foundation to the discussion of wireless LAN security begins here.

The remaining chapters up to chapter 11 contained more in-depth discussion of security in the wireless LAN. I was pleased to see a discussion on the Wireless Domain Services (WDS), Wireless LAN Solution Engine, and Cisco Structured Wireless Aware Network (SWAN). While there's plenty of information at Cisco's website regarding these mechanisms, including the information in the context of the book content enhanced my understanding.

I don't believe this is a book that is intended to prepare for any Cisco-related certification; not that that was suggested anywhere to begin with. However, the reason for my comment is because there are none of the traditional questions at the end of each chapter to test chapter comprehension. So, if you want to test your understanding or memory, you'll have to create your own questions as your read through each chapter.

There will be a number of terms that may be unfamiliar to some readers, so I'll encourage you to note those as you read each chapter. The book contains no glossary for you to reference terms -- all nice and neat, in alphabetical order.

The book is for someone with at least a Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCCNA)-level of knowledge. Certainly if the reader has a fair understanding of wireless networking, the focus can be exclusively placed on wireless LAN security. I would not recommend this book as a first-read to someone who doesn't have an understanding of wireless networking -- unless they're going to read only chapters 3 and 4. Again, chapters 3 and 4 are very good for a first exposure to wireless LAN theory.

Using a rating scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being the worst, and 5 being the best) I'd give the book a rating of 5. Even with the fast evolution of wireless networking technology, and wireless standards being in almost a constant state of flux, I can see how I'd still be able to refer to this book for many months to come.

The title explicitly says Cisco, and indeed there is a lot of material enclosed that is specific to how Cisco implements its wireless routers. But you could plausibly also use this book as a good guideline to general purpose wireless security.

The authors have gone to some length to explain the general principles of 802.11*. In and of itself, this will be useful to some readers, for 802.11 is now a huge set of complex standards. With the official documentation being quite turgid prose, though necessary of course. For clarity, this book is a good and far more understandable alternative.

The text also goes into associated topics, like the encryption protocols associated with 802.11. Plus, and this is important, it describes third party, often open source, tools that can be used to sniff for insecure networks. Tools like Kismet or Wellenreiter, where the latter is meant for wardriving. One of the first things you should do is download and use one of these tools [or even several of them] against your wireless net, if it is already running. Better that you discover any weaknesses in it, than others do so.

OK, the title does indeed tell a great deal about this particular book: However, the "Cisco" tag may be misleading. Cisco WLAN Equipment and even some terminology is used throughout this text. With a Vendor's badge on the cover and name in the title it prepared me for an extremely biased volume of configurations and presentations on Cisco specific technology. This text greatly exceeded a book with that good but narrower approach. A great plus of this particular text is the detail it provides on technology and design criteria which is applicable to WLAN security regardless of technology vendor. It has taken the place of my best vendor agnostic text as the first reference I grab.

Kirshna, Sri, Andrew, and Darrin have delivered the subtitle "Expert guidance for securing your 802.11 networks" in 13 chapters. Vast majority of their 395 pages of text and diagrams are not only applicable but extremely valuable to anyone charged with designing, implementing, and administrating WLANs in today's security conscious environment.

Guidance on secure WLAN design is far more than delivery of some cookie cutter equipment configs. The authors obviously recognized this and exceeded this reader's expectation. Their guidance was achieved by delivering sufficient detail on all the technologies and interdependencies that are required to deliver WLAN Security. They did not pave a single configuration which would have had too narrow an audience. They provided the foundation which enables, even seasoned WLAN engineers, to deliver for a wide variety of business requirements.

My copy has loads of dog-eared pages. Those pages mark specific paragraphs which have been very valuable in customer and support organization presentations.

If you're interested in designing secure WLAN which fits your customer's needs and performs well.
Then, you should pick up a copy of this text.

I'm looking for an update from these guys which includes some of the additional features and functions available in the latest "Cisco" WLAN technologies from both Aironet and Airespace teams.

Great book for a WLAN designer, implementor, operator, or manager of any of those resources.

used this book with the CWSP book and passed the CWSP with flying colors. This book is very detailed and must be read slow to retain and more important implement the solutions.

Wireless and security go hand-in-hand. Enabling wireless without implementing security is a disservice to your client; it makes them totally vulnerable to intrusion.

This book gives you the technical capabilities and knowledge to understand what it takes to implement current (2004-2005) security techniques in your Cisco Aironet wireless environment. It includes detailed information, including sample IOS configurations, about Cisco wireless security and intrusion prevention. The book flows well from chapter to chapter and builds upon previous topics. The authors discuss Cisco SWAN (Structured Wireless Aware Networks) in depth and then offer several enterprise wireless deployment scenarios.

All-in-all, a very well-written technical manual that I highly recommend for WLAN engineers implementing Cisco Aironet solutions.

This book was written before the Airespace acquisition and does not cover that architecture.

Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have become quite commonplace. From McDonalds, to coffee shops, to airports people are opening up their notebooks and connecting to the world. With this growth these WLANs become targets for hackers with malicious intent. This book is intended for network engineers who design, configure, implement, and maintain secure WLANs.

With a WLAN it is importent to remember that Wireless means Radio. Radio means that you are transmitting data over the airways. And if you are transmitting, other people can be receiving. Usually of course the messages you are sending are received by the base station and sent on with no one caring. But there is no way to prevent physical access to signals being broadcast. The network administrator should recognize that there is no way to prevent someone from listening to your signals, and that such listening will be undetectable.

The basic 802.11 standard defines certain basic authentication and privacy methods, in fact there is a whole chapter in this book on just that subject. The security system being implemented will need to build on these basic rules by implementing various defensive systems. All of these are exhaustively discussed in this book in a clear and understandable manner.