Yes, an SMB doesn't normally doesn't worry about L3 boundaries. If only have a few hundred clients in an area you could very well operate comfortable with a /23 in one L2 broadcast domain.
Your approach of bridging resolves L3 boundary concerns and allows for retaining of the Wi-Fi client's IP as they go from AP to AP, but that doesn't work in large environments. And what hasn't been mentioned is that in some environments certain classes or groups of people or devices are kept on separate L3 boundaries even through they're using the same SSID. I'd invite you to read the archives of EDUCAUSE's WIRELESS-LAN listserv to get a flavor of their challenges. Frank -----Original Message----- From: David Lang [mailto:da...@lang.hm] Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 7:07 PM To: Matt Simmons Cc: Frank Bulk; LOPSA Tech Subject: Re: [lopsa-tech] Wifi You would need to be rather large to need to cross L3 boundries. I advocate putting the APs on a separate network from your other traffic, and having the APs act as bridges. That way users can move from AP to AP and there's no need to tunnel traffic anywhere, once it gets on the wired network you are good. Yes, at some scale this won't work, but how big an area do you need to have before this breaks? David Lang On Sat, 6 Apr 2013, Matt Simmons wrote: > The problem comes when they cross L3 boundaries. Enterprise wireless > infrastructures (or campus-wide installations) do tunneling of the device's > traffic back to the original AP they authenticated to, all with seamless > handoff. > > --Matt > > > > On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 7:50 PM, David Lang <da...@lang.hm> wrote: > >> why does the movement of users matter much? Users can roam between >> different APs with the same SSID with a VPN just fine. >> >> Also, why do you say 'low traffic volumes'? if you are encrypting the >> data, it's going to cost to encrypt it even if you do it at the wifi level >> instead of the VPN level. >> >> you can configure VPNs so that they are connected all the time as well, >> but any plan to push things down or run scheduled tasks from a central >> point to portable devices needs to deal with the idea that the devices may >> not have connectivity (they may not even be turned on) >> >> always-connected and authenticated don't work well together, so how do you >> have Radius authenticated Wifi and still have systems connected without the >> user being logged in? >> >> David Lang >> >> >> On Sat, 6 Apr 2013, Frank Bulk wrote: >> >> >>> In an environment when the Wi-Fi clients don't move around much, the Wi-Fi >>> clients are all devices with VPN-capable, and traffic volumes are low, >>> VPNs >>> may work, but in most organizations, and especially higher-ed, WPA2 with >>> AES >>> based on RADIUS authentication is the BCP. Most organizations want >>> machine-authentication, so that even while the end-user is not logged in >>> policies can be applied and pushed down, scheduled tasks can run, etc. >>> >>> Frank >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: David Lang [mailto:da...@lang.hm] >>> Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 2:56 PM >>> To: Frank Bulk >>> Cc: tech@lists.lopsa.org >>> Subject: RE: [lopsa-tech] Wifi >>> >>> On Sat, 6 Apr 2013, Frank Bulk wrote: >>> >>> Hmm, I want to access my organization's resources over Wi-Fi -- why treat >>>> >>> it >>> >>>> as untrusted? The security with WPA2 using AES is more than sufficient. >>>> >>> >>> That same statement was made about WEP and WPA. It may be true, it may not >>> be >>> true (they don't have a good track record here). It may depend on the >>> attacker >>> never having been able to extract data from a laptop of someone who has >>> been >>> >>> authorized to use the network (is WPA2 really secure if an attacker has >>> been >>> >>> able to read keys off of someone's machine?) >>> >>> Your users need to be using VPN software anyway when working from other >>> networks, so adding WPA and it's management is additional work that you >>> don't >>> have to do. >>> >>> It's a lot easier to change your VPN software if needed >>> >>> VPN software gives you additional tools for authentication of your users >>> (things >>> like hardware tokens for example) >>> >>> In short, I see VPNs as something you are doing anyway, are more flexible, >>> and more trustworthy. >>> >>> David Lang >>> >>> Frank >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: tech-boun...@lists.lopsa.org [mailto:tech-bounces@lists.** >>>> lopsa.org <tech-boun...@lists.lopsa.org>] >>>> >>> On >>> >>>> Behalf Of David Lang >>>> Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2013 12:34 AM >>>> To: Brian Gold >>>> Cc: tech@lists.lopsa.org >>>> Subject: Re: [lopsa-tech] Wifi >>>> >>>> On Fri, 5 Apr 2013, Brian Gold wrote: >>>> >>>> We've been using Cisco WCS controllers and APs here at $employer, but >>>>> for >>>>> >>>> a >>>> >>>>> smaller scale I've been very happy with Ubiquity APs and controllers. I >>>>> would HIGHLY recommend setting up radius authentication if you have >>>>> a centralized ldap system (Active Directory, OpenLDAP, etc). >>>>> >>>> >>>> I would actually go the opposite direction. >>>> >>>> Your Wifi is an untrusted network that can be sniffed and attacked by >>>> >>> anyone >>> >>>> in >>>> the area. So don't let it connect directly to your internal network. >>>> >>>> Consider it a guest network, just like a hotel network, and have all your >>>> users >>>> connect to your company resources through a VPN, just like they would >>>> from >>>> home >>>> or a hotel. >>>> >>>> Then you can consider if you want to have the network locked down so that >>>> >>> it >>> >>>> can >>>> only be used for VPN traffic, or if you really do want it to be a guest >>>> network, >>>> able to reach the Intenet (for at least some things) >>>> >>>> David Lang >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> ______________________________**_________________ >> Tech mailing list >> Tech@lists.lopsa.org >> https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-**bin/mailman/listinfo/tech<https://lists.lopsa. org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech> >> This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators >> http://lopsa.org/ >> > > > > _______________________________________________ Tech mailing list Tech@lists.lopsa.org https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tech This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
