Planificación de la actividad preventiva por puestos

As previously stated, the 350 is designed to support a wide array of wireless devices, such as PCs, PDAs, handheld PCs, printers, point of sale devices, manage- ment and monitoring equipment, and just about anything else. Some of the items that make the 350 so popular are that it has the highest transmit power (100 mil- liwatt) in its class, is highly sensitive for receiving transmissions from other units, can be powered inline, and allows for centralized security.

The Cisco Aironet 350 is IEEE 802.11b–compliant so that it will interoperate with other vendor devices within your range of coverage. Because it is part of Cisco’s offering, they have worked hard on integrating the wireless devices into their network devices. One nice feature of the 350 platforms is that it comes

bundled with software that installs on a laptop, and you can use it to map out the strength of the wireless signal in your environment.

The 350 can support a variety of features depending on the version of bridge or access point (AP) firmware that you have installed, such as the following:

■ _{Accounting This feature allows for collection of data from wireless} devices that are located on your network.You can also establish a collec- tion center for this data and enable accounting on the bridge or AP by using RADIUS servers located on the network.This feature is available in firmware version 11.10T and above.

■ _{Protection for Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP) keys This fea-} ture allows for the capability to add WEP keys for greater security.Three advanced security features can enable you to enhance the security of your wireless network that are built into these devices.They are WEP key hashing, Broadcast WEP key rotation, and Message Integrity Check (MIC).These features are available in firmware version 11.10T and above.This is also covered more in-depth in Chapter 8.

■ _{LEAP (Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol) to}

authenticate nonroot bridges This feature will allow the nonroot bridges to authenticate to the network so that they can receive and use dynamic WEP keys.This feature is available in firmware version 11.10T and above.This is also covered more in depth in Chapter 8.

■ _{Software Image Management (SWIM) tool If you are also using} CiscoWorks 2000, you can also have advanced software management— you can use this tool to enhance the level of management on your wireless network.The SWIM tool is located within the Resource

Management Essentials (RME) section of CiscoWorks 2000.The SWIM allows you to manage AP and bridge firmware from a centralized loca- tion.This feature is available in firmware version 11.08 and above. ■ _{Publicly Secure Packet Forwarding (PSPF) to block inter-client}

communication PSPF enables you to prevent devices that are located on the wireless network from unintentionally sharing data with other devices that are located on the same network. PSPF will allow you to give Internet access to the devices and disallow them from the network, if you wish.When PSPF is configured, it will not allow client devices to transmit directly to other clients that are located on the WLAN in a peer- to-peer manner.You will most often see this feature enabled in campus

environments, such as college campuses, airport terminals, and coffee houses.This feature is available in firmware version 11.08 and above. There are also some features that are not dependant on the firmware revision that you are using; the client software will also allow you to have the following:

■ _{Observation of the activity on the radio transmitter This is} accomplished through the carrier test tool, which measures the amount of radio activity (not radioactivity, as in nuclear fallout) on each frequency that is used by the bridge or AP. Using this tool will allow you to con- figure the bridge or AP to use the most efficient frequency available. ■ _{Antenna alignment tool This tool will assist you in the alignment of}

your antenna so that you can receive the best signal quality between your bridge or AP and other wireless devices.

■ _{Port Assignment You can assign ports for specific use, so that you can} maintain consistency throughout your network environment.

■ _{Bridge location detection This tool will assist you in finding the} location of a specific bridge that is located within the wireless network. ■ _{Bridge association limits This allows you to limit the number of}

devices that the bridge will accept.

■ _{Integrated network management Cisco wireless devices can utilize} Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) to improve the efficiency of your net- work monitoring. CDP will also allow you to browse other Cisco (and miscellaneous) network equipment located on the network.

■ _Security You can configure your wireless bridge or AP to restrict access to a group of users.You could encrypt the data with WEP.You can also use EAP/LEAP with MAC-based authentication and use a

RADIUS server to control access to the network (you could then add a backup RADIUS server for redundancy).

■ _{Filtering You can create filters that will allow or prevent specific pro-} tocols to be used through the bridge or AP.You can also control the for- warding of traffic from the bridge or AP with unicast and multicast filtering.

■ _{Hot standby You can assign a bridge to be the backup rugged AP, so} that you can provide redundancy and reliability in case of AP failure. ■ _{World mode This setting allows for the connection of wireless devices}

is wireless coverage in that area).What this means is that a visitor from Europe could travel to America, and the wireless device could associate itself with a wireless bridge or AP and configure itself to work with the correct channel settings.

■ _{Automatic load balancing} The bridge will automatically direct client devices to an AP that will allow them the best connection.This is accomplished through a number of factors, such as the transmission rate, the signal strength, and the number of currently connected users.

■ _{Rugged APs} This allows you to configure the bridge as a rugged AP for coverage purposes.