It seems that Wi-Fi networks have been misunderstood by much of the IT community since their inception. Even the reasons for this misunderstanding are kind of hard to understand. It could be that the rising populari- ty of Wi-Fi caused demand to surge ahead of the supply of professionals ready to manage networks. Maybe it’s that networking folks and radio frequency folks both had to learn the other side’s technology on a fairly inti- mate level. Maybe it’s just that engineers cooped up in an RF chamber all day have a hard time explaining the reason, the result has been that myths about . | Global Knowledge Expert Reference Series ofWhite Papers Eleven Myths about Wi-Fi Networks 1-800-COURSES Eleven Myths about Wi-Fi Networks Benjamin Miller and Gene T. Hill Global Knowledge Instructors CWNEs Introduction It seems that Wi-Fi networks have been misunderstood by much of the IT community since their inception. Even the reasons for this misunderstanding are kind of hard to understand. It could be that the rising popularity of Wi-Fi caused demand to surge ahead of the supply of professionals ready to manage networks. Maybe it s that networking folks and radio frequency folks both had to learn the other side s technology on a fairly intimate level. Maybe it s just that engineers cooped up in an RF chamber all day have a hard time explaining themselves. Whatever the reason the result has been that myths about better known as Wi-Fi networks have grown almost as fast as the technology itself. Being wireless networking instructors allows us a unique perspective in sampling the Wi-Fi myths that are believed by a wide variety of IT professionals. In this paper examine 11 such myths and explore ways to use correct information about wireless LANs to make your networks scalable secure and satisfying to your users. Myth 1 If you leave your Wi-Fi adapter turned on someone could easily hijack your notebook and take control of your computer. The most widely publicized presentation at the 2006 Black Hat hackers convention revolved around a vulnerability in certain wireless device drivers1. Though the chipsets that use these drivers were left unnamed the end result was that intruders associated to the same Wi-Fi network as your notebook computer could potentially gain access to your machine through a command line interface. This is a severe vulnerability and it strongly emphasizes the point that Wi-Fi stations should be kept from associating to unknown networks. Unfortunately the people responsible for creating the application
