Apologies in advance if this may not quite be the proper list for such a
question...
My company is investigating the use of wireless in a couple of our
conference rooms. Aside from limiting the scope of reception with various
directional antennae, does anyone have any suggestions or pointers for
other ways to limit the propagation of signals (i.e. special shielding
paint, panels or other wall coatings)?
Feel free to reply off-list.
Thanks!
Andy
Unless you are looking to isolate a small box for such purposes as testing
RF devices, I would not use a shielding technique to limit access to your
wireless network. Containing 2.4GHz signals within a room of any
reasonable size is extremely difficult. You would probably have to cover
it with a double-walled, seamless sheet or fine grid of conductive
material. Any holes, cracks, windows, or doors are likely to blow the
whole deal.
I'd recommend using both WEP and an encrypting VPN if you're worried about
people getting on your network. Also make sure to turn off SSID
broadcasts.
Planning on limiting signal using a physical mechanism of some sort's just
a little too scifi to be useful.
Cheers,
Doug
Unless you are going to convert the conference room into a Faraday Cage
to block all radio transmissions in or out, it's not going to be worth
the effort. And of course, a faraday cage will block cell phone
reception as well.
You probably better off putting the access points in a DMZ type subnet
and using VPN to access the main networks. Enable WEP and shutdown SSID
broadcasting. If the radios of the access points can be controlled,
reduce the transmission power to limit signal propagation.
Andy Grosser wrote:
My company is investigating the use of wireless in a couple of our
conference rooms. Aside from limiting the scope of reception with various
directional antennae, does anyone have any suggestions or pointers for
other ways to limit the propagation of signals (i.e. special shielding
paint, panels or other wall coatings)?
Andy,
What is wrong with the 'good old' 802.1x with EAP or WPA solution?
Andy Grosser wrote:
My company is investigating the use of wireless in a couple of our
conference rooms.
* marco@sara.nl (Marco Davids (SARA)) [Wed 26 Nov 2003, 21:30 CET]:
What is wrong with the 'good old' 802.1x with EAP or WPA solution?
There is a difference between keeping signals from leaking out, and
keeping them from leaking out in decipherable form.
In some situations the latter may be enough - hopefully it will be if
you need to be "out" and still have signal. In other situations even
that will be undesirable.
I'm aware of at least one regular office building here that has
extremely poor wireless (802.11b) reception through real walls.
No idea how that was established, however, though I do believe
it was done on purpose, and from Andy's story it seems as though
it wouldn't have been enough anyway.
Regards,
-- Niels.
There is an adage in the Wireless industry. If it will hold water it will
hold RF Energy. Unfortunately this is true and the only method by which
you can prevent the egress of 2.4 GHz signals from a defined area is by
the use of a faraday cage and since the wavelength is short you need a
very fine mesh screen or solid metal walls. This is expensive.
If you really want to use wireless I would recommend a VPN solution with
the authentication being a one time password solution. i.e. SecureID
Scott C. McGrath