Small Appointment and Home Wireless LANs
It is abundant easier to install a wireless LAN at home than a active network. A archetypal homeowner
will not accede active cables throughout the house. It is time-consuming and requires stringing
wires through the walls, which can be catchy and frustrating.
Small Appointment and Home Wireless LANs 843
With a wireless LAN, advisers can accompany laptops home from assignment and abide alive aloof as
they do from their offices. For abounding professions, this makes it accessible for bodies to assignment from
home added effectively, whether it is to absorb a few added hours researching advice on the
Internet or to accredit telecommuting on a circadian basis.
Of course, with a wireless laptop, you absolutely can assignment from anyplace in the house. There is nothing
tying you bottomward to a board in a accurate room. You are chargeless to use the Internet or admission files on
other computers while able in a comfortable armchair in avant-garde of a TV, lounging on the patio breathing
fresh air, or sitting at a board in a quiet bedroom, aloof like you see in the commercials.
Wireless LANs at home are acceptable for PCs as well. Unlike companies, Ethernet cabling in homes
is about nonexistent. That makes wireless the best way to affix anchored PCs to the network.
You will accept abundant added adaptability in analysis a PC to any allotment of the abode after actuality near
the broadband modem.
Overall, a home wireless LAN is almost simple (refer to Figure H-7).
Figure H-7 Archetypal Home Wireless LAN Configuration
When installing a wireless LAN at home, booty into annual the afterward ideas:
■ Purchase a Wi-Fi router—With best home wireless LAN installations, you allegation a Wi-Fi
router, not aloof an admission point. The router includes Layer 3 functions on top of the access
point. For example, Linksys (a Cisco company) specializes in alms Wi-Fi routers for home
use. The router provides DHCP and NAT (Layer 3 functions), which are both all-important for
allowing assorted Wi-Fi networking devices, such as laptops, PCs, and printers, to allotment the
single broadband (DSL or cable modem) Internet connection. A distinct 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi
router is about abundant to absolutely awning best homes. For example, a distinct dual-band router
provides abounding advantage and admirable achievement throughout my absolute two-story house
with a accomplished basement.
Broadband
Modem
Internet
Service
Provider
Wi-Fi
Router
A distinct Wi-Fi router centrally
located is about abundant to
cover a baby appointment or home.
DHCP Response
DHCP Request
844 Addendum H: Wireless LAN Solutions
■ Centralize the router installation—Install the router aural ability of the broadband modem,
using Ethernet application cable. If you accept not already accustomed a broadband connection,
consider accepting it installed about axial to the areas area you will be application the
wireless network. This is about the centermost of the home.
Ideally, install the broadband affiliation in the aforementioned allowance as any accessory (such as a
printer) that you appetite to affix to one of the Ethernet ports provided by the router.
In a home with two floors, accept accession on the attic area you will be using
the arrangement a college allotment of the time.
■ Configure aegis mechanisms—By default, best Wi-Fi routers do not accept any security
enabled, which agency that all abstracts packets are beatific unencrypted, in the clear. An unscrupulous
person sitting in a car alfresco your home, for example, can wirelessly adviser these
transmissions and see e-mail contents, usernames, and passwords. In addition, unauthorized
users can admission files on computers central the home and use the Internet through your
broadband ISP connection.
If you do not appetite this to happen, again actuate encryption supplied aural your
router. Active Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is bigger than nothing, but booty advantage of
the added avant-garde WPA or 802.11i if it is accessible on the router that you have
chosen.
This area lists added capacity and facts to annular out the advantage of the capacity in this chapter.
Unlike best of the Cisco Press Assay Certification Guides, this “Foundation Summary” does not
repeat advice presented in the “Foundation Topics” area of the chapter. Please booty the
time to apprehend and abstraction the capacity in the “Foundation Topics” area of this appendix, as able-bodied as
review items acclaimed with a Key Topic icon.
The Cisco SWAN framework offers a accumulating of apparatus that comprises a secure,
interoperable, and acquiescent wireless LAN solution. When deploying action wireless
solutions, be assertive to apparatus accurate aegis practices. Also, plan on acknowledging voice
services, because abounding companies are now alpha to booty advantage of the applicative assets in
efficiencies. Accessible wireless LANs can be actual complex, abnormally for the beyond venues, mainly
because of the allegation for user affidavit and announcement functions.
Memory Builders
The CCIE Routing and Switching accounting exam, like all Cisco CCIE accounting exams, covers a fairly
broad set of topics. This area provides some basal accoutrement to advice you exercise your anamnesis about
some of the broader capacity covered in this chapter.
Definitions
Next, booty a few moments to abode bottomward the definitions for the afterward terms:
client tracking, Cisco SWAN, Cisco WDS, Fast Defended Roaming, accessible wireless LAN,
radio administration aggregation, wireless LAN controller, Wireless LAN Threat Defense
Solution, WLSE, IP PBX
Further Reading
For added capacity apropos wireless LANs, accede account the afterward Cisco Press books:
■ Wireless Networks First-Step, by Jim Geier
■ 802.11 Wireless LAN Fundamentals, by Pejman Roshan and Jonathan Leary
Answers to “Do I Know This Already?” Quiz Questions
1. b. WDS is a accepted Cisco affection that eases the deployment, usage, and abutment of wireless
LANs. WDS is not hardware.
2. d. SWAN includes all the basal architecture blocks all-important to finer apparatus and
support a wireless LAN.
3. a. The Cisco Aironet 1000, 1100, and 1200 Series admission credibility are advised for calm use.
The Cisco Aironet 1300 is the alone SWAN admission point advised for alfresco use.
4. b. The Cisco Aironet 350 is an earlier admission point archetypal that was appear above-mentioned to the
ratification of 802.11g and 802.11e.
5. d. You should focus on Layer 2.
6. b. To abutment articulation services, the SNR allegation be at atomic 25 dB. At this SNR, the abstracts amount will
be optimal, which provides able performance. The advantage overlap allegation be at least
20 percent to abstain alone calls as users roam through the facility. An SNR of 20 dB would
provide acceptable abundant arresting advantage for data-only applications, but it is not acceptable abundant for
voice services.
7. c. Best RF arrest is in the 2.4-GHz band, which is the bandage that 802.11b/g uses. As a
result, you can abstain RF arrest by application 802.11a, which operates in the 5-GHz band.
Using added Wi-Fi phones or abbreviating the admission point abode ability will not help
counter RF interference.
8. b. If you attenuate the broadcasting of SSIDs with accessible wireless LANs, Microsoft Windows
on the user accessories does not affectation the arrangement to users. Therefore, it is best to advertisement the
beacons.
9. a. With accessible wireless LANs, a announcement basic is all-important to allegation users for access.
The aegis of a accessible wireless LAN, however, is about kept to a minimum to increase
the artlessness of the network. Action wireless LANs, though, accommodate best security
features and no announcement functions. The performance, admission point hardware, and management
mechanisms of accessible and action wireless LANs are about the same.
10. d. With baby appointment and home wireless LANs, a Wi-Fi router is all-important to accredit the
sharing of a accepted official IP abode (supplied by the ISP) amid assorted computers.
Thus, DHCP and NAT are needed. Both Wi-Fi routers and admission credibility can accomplish at the
same speed, accommodate the aforementioned akin of security, and accept the aforementioned longevity.