Wireless Guest Access

[steveo2000]

Ok,

Quick question, I work in a High School and ive been asked to research into setting up Guest Access on are wireless for users that don't work in are school and things like Iphones etc without having to give out the WEP Key to teachers and such like. All I want them to have is Internet Access nothing more like file sharing etc.

I've noticed the new Apple Access points can do this,

AirPort Extreme Base Station - Apple Store (U.K.)

(See guest access)

we have Cisco Aironet 1230AG points all over the school and i was wondering if anyones had any experience in configuring them?? We are a brand new school (well 2 years old) so are tech department has pretty new equipment and i hope are points can do this.

Thanks

Steve

[ssiruuk2]

do you have a cisco controller for your aps or are they autonomous? I know the controller has a facility to create guest access. I have aironet aps at work (no controller) and what i did for this was create a new ssid in a different vlan and then used a acl on our core switch to only permit dhcp, dns and tcp 8080 to our smoothwall.

[spc-rocket]

do you have a cisco controller for your aps or are they autonomous? I know the controller has a facility to create guest access. I have aironet aps at work (no controller) and what i did for this was create a new ssid in a different vlan and then used a acl on our core switch to only permit dhcp, dns and tcp 8080 to our smoothwall.

This is how we have done with our sixthform users who bring in their own laptops. A seperate vlan and an ACL on the firewall or core will do the trick.

Ash.

[ssiruuk2]

thats what we wanted to do and then someone started making noises that we cant have chargers that havent been electrically tested used in the school so had to scrap the idea.

How did you get around that ash?

[pete]

thats what we wanted to do and then someone started making noises that we cant have chargers that havent been electrically tested used in the school so had to scrap the idea.

How did you get around that ash?

I may be mis-remembering, but don't they only have to be tested if they're older than "X" years?

[mb2k01]

Most places will have a policy of not allowing anything untested (by their PAT tester / outsource company) at all. Others will say it's ok for items up to 12months old (....and then theres others that will just turn a blind eye alltogether!)

[ssiruuk2]

deleted

[plexer]

our lea sends a contractor in once a year. Anything bought in the meantime is done by me or the site manager.

[StuartWhite]

Hi steveo2000,

Ruckus Wireless specialized in Smart Wi-Fi.

With Ruckus, educational institutions gain:

* Consistent, reliable connectivity no other Wi-Fi system can touch
* Two to four times the coverage using fewer APs
* Low packet loss and high performance
* A safer environment with less interference, through "eco-friendly" adaptive signal technology
* System self-healing capabilities
* The lowest cost of ownership
* Support for standard 802.1x, WPA (PSK) and WPA-2 (AES) security, plus automatic wireless setting and encryption key security

Guest Access is also a feature out of the box with Ruckus.
Please see the link below to discover more about easy guest access.

Thanks
Stu

http://tools.net-ctrl.com/ruckus/GuestPass-FS-1108.pdf

[spc-rocket]

thats what we wanted to do and then someone started making noises that we cant have chargers that havent been electrically tested used in the school so had to scrap the idea.

How did you get around that ash?

Hiya,

We just stated that only the software side of things will be supported and limited supported at that as well. The students are responsible for their own equipement and there are not many places where they can charge the laptops anyway so we just state that they need to have it charged from home (this does seem to be silly but it works for us).

The parents seems to understand this and we have been approached by a number of parents requesting some help and guidance on which laptop they should buy for their child. The idea here is that they get a decent spec laptop or PC for that matter and use it in school on this restricted wireless network and also use it for university if they go into higher education.

We're testing the Iphone with 802.1x authentication at the moment and early signs look promising so that might be a service we may offer. At the moment only windows xp and windows vista are supported. Macs are also under investigation as well but we stated that it must support 802.1x supplicant as without this security could be comprimised. We also install our CA's Root Cert into the device as well to cut out Man-in-the-middle attach with 802.1x.

HTH,

Ash.