REVIEW: Securing LAN Connections

With HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and other security requirements, we are constantly running into two questions from our customers: "How do we easily install, secure, manage and grow our wireless networks without losing our current hardware investments?" and "Will we need to invest hoards of cash in training?"

One of our vendor partners, Bluesocket, is already answering these questions with its line of BlueSecure controllers, which act as a firewall, intrusion-detection device and reporting tool securing the connection between wireless LAN access points and the wired LAN.

After not having done much work with Bluesocket over the past few years, we recently revisited the vendor's BlueSecure WLAN product line when building a solution for a client. We chose to take a closer look at the new BlueSecure 5200, which supports 150 access points and up to 4,000 users.

This 2U appliance has a dual-core processor and four manageable Gigabit Ethernet ports (two protected and two managed) with optional fiber ports. It also offers a variety of other capabilities, including authentication, encryption, transparent logins, failover, mobility, Quality of Service (QoS), management, IP addressing, public vs. private access and IDS/IPS.

With the growing number of wireless device manufacturers and their various makes and models, we require a vendor-agnostic open-systems solution to manage, monitor and secure the wireless networks we design, manage and install. Further, our needs for data encryption, QoS for VoIP, Active Directory Authentication and policy management have become mandatory. The Bluesocket touts these areas as its sweet spots, a claim we set out to verify.

During our testing process, we integrated the BlueSecure Controller (BSC) 5200 into a Microsoft Windows 2003 Active Directory running on twin Dell PowerEdge 2300 servers with Double-Take software loaded to support disaster recovery and high availability. The 5200 was connected to a Netgear FS 570 T2 48-port switch behind a Netgear Prosafe VPN Firewall 200 with dual WAN ports. We attached two Power over Ethernet BlueSecure 1540 access points and one Linksys access point to the BSC 5200. In addition, we used Fujitsu T4215 Tablet PCs with built-in 802.11a/b/g and older Dell Latitude D600s with built-in wireless.

Our goal was to effortlessly connect the BSC 5200 to the network and seamlessly attach the PCs with very little training necessary at the end-user level. In essence, we wanted to find out how intuitive the GUI is.

Initially, we spent approximately one hour reading the enclosed manuals and reviewing the online support forums, and another two hours getting familiar with the appliance—not bad for setting things up for the first time. The documentation could be a bit more explicit, but we were able to get through it quickly and get the job done.

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