THE U.S. MILITARY Academy at West Point announced it will deploy the WirelessWall suite across the Academy's campus. In related news, the Wi-Fi security company Cranite Systems launched the second version of its WirelessWall suite on Monday.

   ADVERTISEMENT
  

Free IT resource

Virtualization Insights from Top Experts - Learn how virtualization gets real!

Sponsored by Dell

Free IT resource

TechNet: More ways to know it, share it, and keep it running.

Sponsored by Microsoft

RELATED LINKS
»  IE 7 bug reopens debate over patch responsibilities
»  Woman ordered to pay for file-sharing will appeal
»  McAfee to buy SafeBoot for $350M
»  Security RSS feed 

IDG ENTERPRISE NETWORK
• Research Reports  (CIO)
• Ask the Expert  (CIO)

TOP NEWS 


IT SOLUTION SEARCH
The Version 2 upgrade adds failover support for Cranite's Access Controller, a component of the suite. Access Controller sits in the DMZ between all the access points and handles user authentication, terminates the encryption tunnel between clients, and implements a "per connection firewall" that is unique for each role that comes into the network, according to Scott Lucas, vice president of marketing at Cranite in San Jose, Calif.

The technology also does all of its encryption in layer 2 as opposed to VPNs which sit on layer 3, said Greg McNulty, Cranite CEO. "There are a lot of attacks that can occur in VPNs that we can prevent. We passed their [West Point's] attack lab tests," said McNulty.

Layer 2 encrypts a larger portion of the data frame and prevents attackers from seeing the IP address and information on the applications, added McNulty.

Other software upgrades in Version 2 include seamless roaming between sub-nets and compliance with FIPS [Federal Information Processing Standard] 140-2 for security.

Gemma Paulo, a senior analyst at In-Stat/MDR in Scottsdale, Ariz., said that the fact that Cranite's software solution does not require unique hardware will keep deployment costs down.

At West Point Colonel Donald J. Welch, associate dean for information and educational technology, agreed, saying that while servers are needed to run the software, West Point was able to run it on Intel rack-mounted server boxes using Linux.

"Other companies wanted us to buy their hardware," Welch said.

Welch also said that West Point selected Cranite because of its compliance with FIPS standards. "We are part of the DOD [Department of Defense] and have to meet DOD security policy," Welch said.

In its first deployment, Wi-Fi will be used in one building with 95 classrooms and eventually be deployed over six academic buildings, the library, and the student lounge, using a total of 369 access points at a cost of $810,000.

What may be unique about the West Point deployment of Wi-Fi is the way in which it changes the educational process. "We are not trying to use technology to bore them [students] more efficiently but to enhance the experience through active learning," said Welch.

Each student is issued a laptop computer in their freshman year. In a freshman English composition class, for example, students might be asked to write a paragraph which can immediately be seen and discussed by all of the students in the classroom, according to Welch.

Point of activity networking as it is called not only has application in academic environments but will also change business processes. "It has the potential to revolutionize workgroup computing. Workgroups are always somewhat delayed, you have to e-mail, or even on a LAN it is not true real time. Point of activity networking changes all of that," said David Hayden, president of MobileWeek, in Palo Alto, Calif.

WirelessWall is shipping this week.