Email Delivery

Receive new posts as email.

Email address

Syndicate this site

RSS | Atom

Contact

About This Site
Contact Us
Privacy Policy

Search


November 2010
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30        

Stories by Category

Basics :: Basics
Casting :: Casting Listen In Podcasts Videocasts
Culture :: Culture Hacking
Deals :: Deals
FAQ :: FAQ
Future :: Future
Hardware :: Hardware Adapters Appliances Chips Consumer Electronics Gaming Home Entertainment Music Photography Video Gadgets Mesh Monitoring and Testing PDAs Phones Smartphones
Industry :: Industry Conferences Financial Free Health Legal Research Vendor analysis
International :: International
Media :: Media Locally cached Streaming
Metro-Scale Networks :: Metro-Scale Networks Community Networking Municipal
Network Types :: Network Types Broadband Wireless Cellular 2.5G and 3G 4G Power Line Satellite
News :: News Mainstream Media
Politics :: Politics Regulation Sock Puppets
Schedules :: Schedules
Security :: Security 802.1X
Site Specific :: Site Specific Administrative Detail April Fool's Blogging Book review Cluelessness Guest Commentary History Humor Self-Promotion Unique Wee-Fi Who's Hot Today?
Software :: Software Open Source
Spectrum :: Spectrum 60 GHz
Standards :: Standards 802.11a 802.11ac 802.11ad 802.11e 802.11g 802.11n 802.20 Bluetooth MIMO UWB WiGig WiMAX ZigBee
Transportation and Lodging :: Transportation and Lodging Air Travel Aquatic Commuting Hotels Rails
Unclassified :: Unclassified
Vertical Markets :: Vertical Markets Academia Enterprise WLAN Switches Home Hot Spot Aggregators Hot Spot Advertising Road Warrior Roaming Libraries Location Medical Public Safety Residential Rural SOHO Small-Medium Sized Business Universities Utilities wISP
Voice :: Voice

Archives

November 2010 | October 2010 | September 2010 | August 2010 | July 2010 | June 2010 | May 2010 | April 2010 | March 2010 | February 2010 | January 2010 | December 2009 | November 2009 | October 2009 | September 2009 | August 2009 | July 2009 | June 2009 | May 2009 | April 2009 | March 2009 | February 2009 | January 2009 | December 2008 | November 2008 | October 2008 | September 2008 | August 2008 | July 2008 | June 2008 | May 2008 | April 2008 | March 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | November 2007 | October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | May 2007 | April 2007 | March 2007 | February 2007 | January 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | October 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | April 2006 | March 2006 | February 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 | October 2004 | September 2004 | August 2004 | July 2004 | June 2004 | May 2004 | April 2004 | March 2004 | February 2004 | January 2004 | December 2003 | November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | August 2003 | July 2003 | June 2003 | May 2003 | April 2003 | March 2003 | February 2003 | January 2003 | December 2002 | November 2002 | October 2002 | September 2002 | August 2002 | July 2002 | June 2002 | May 2002 | April 2002 | March 2002 | February 2002 | January 2002 | December 2001 | November 2001 | October 2001 | September 2001 | August 2001 | July 2001 | June 2001 | May 2001 | April 2001 |

Recent Entries

In-Flight Wi-Fi and In-Flight Bombs
Can WPA Protect against Firesheep on Same Network?
Southwest Sets In-Flight Wi-Fi at $5
Eye-Fi Adds a View for Web Access
Firesheep Makes Sidejacking Easy
Wi-Fi Direct Certification Starts
Decaf on the Starbucks Digital Network
Google Did Snag Passwords
WiMax and LTE Not Technically 4G by ITU Standards
AT&T Wi-Fi Connections Keep High Growth with Free Service

Site Philosophy

This site operates as an independent editorial operation. Advertising, sponsorships, and other non-editorial materials represent the opinions and messages of their respective origins, and not of the site operator. Part of the FM Tech advertising network.

Copyright

Entire site and all contents except otherwise noted © Copyright 2001-2010 by Glenn Fleishman. Some images ©2006 Jupiterimages Corporation. All rights reserved. Please contact us for reprint rights. Linking is, of course, free and encouraged.

Powered by
Movable Type

« Twin Cities Newspaper Argues Against City Wi-Fi | Main | Hotspot Operators Face New Patent Fee Demand »

October 4, 2004

T-Mobile Rolls Out 802.1X Nationwide

T-Mobile HotSpot offers secure login via 802.1X authentiation starting Tuesday with their own manager software, other 802.1X client software: T-Mobile has set the bar higher on hot-spot security by layering the 802.1X authentication process to allow individual logins through encrypted methods that provide a unique WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) key to each user. This prevents users on a network from seeing each other's credentials or traffic.

Joe Sims, the vice president of hot spots for T-Mobile, said in an interview Monday that security of hot spots has "kept Wi-Fi from being even greater than it is." Sims pointed out that "a lot of folks in the industry have been using other methodologies, such as VPNs [virtual private networks], which are very good."

However, not all of T-Mobile's users have access to VPN service, and the IT directors of companies with VPNs still want more security layered on top of their own efforts. "It's going to be another layer of enhanced security that corporations can depend upon," Sims said.

In 802.1X, access to the network beyond the access point is limited until a client authenticates itself through some method, typically a user name and password. The access point hands off the task of authentication to a back-end server, which tells the access point when the authentication has succeeded. In a secured 802.1X transaction, the client (called a supplicant) opens an encrypted tunnel to the back-end server to further protected credentials in transit against attempts to capture and then later crack or replay them.

For users with VPNs, the 802.1X transaction prevents details such as the IP address of the VPN server from being revealed, and could also prevent any putative VPN exploits from being usable in a hot spot. T-Mobile's 802.1X service is especially useful for consumers and travelers without VPNs as it provides them an effective defense against casual sniffers. Given T-Mobile's hot spot infrastructure, it would require physical intrusion and more to gain access to the network's traffic -- not just passive interception.

Explaining 802.1X is one of the problems with offering it, T-Mobile executives agreed. "It's a bunch of numbers; it seems like a bunch of gobblety-gook," Sims said. Just like Wi-Fi turned 802.11 standards into a household term, Sims thinks that 802.1X needs a "cool name" because "its time has come."

T-Mobile will offer an updated Connection Manager application for Windows that includes the 802.1X support. The software is a free download, and CDs containing the software will be available at hot spots like Starbucks and at T-Mobile's corporate cellular retail stores. However, Sims confirmed that standard 802.1X clients such as those included in Mac OS X 10.3 and Microsoft Windows XP will also work with the system.

For Connection Manager users, the update won't change the method by which they log in: 802.1X support has been added beneath the surface. "We tried to make it very seamless," said Paul Lopez, the senior product manager of advanced technology at T-Mobile.

During a transition phase of undetermined duration, T-Mobile will use VLANs (virtual LANs) to offer both the older, gateway-page based login, and the newer 802.1X service. The rollout is initially U.S. based in the 4,800-plus locations here. Sims said that European operations have about 3,500 locations, and that T-Mobile expects to top 10,000 hotspots in the U.S. and internationally combined by year's end with about 6,000 in the US and over 4,000 in Europe.

Sims has high hopes for the technically named 802.1X's more easily understood outcome: "This may be the tipping point for enterprises to more broadly adopt Wi-Fi."