Managed Wireless Firewall
Challenge
The Wireless Workplace
Wireless networks are here, and they are here to stay. Whether its at the airport, a hotel, in the home or in the office, wireless has exploded over the past few years. Many enterprises are using wlans effectively to improve productivity, offer new services and extend networking options.All of these innovations though have not been without incident, and security, interoperability and management still present challenges. With so many standards, so many requirements and so many products to choose from, how can you be sure that your making the right choice? A successful WLAN implementation requires a significant investment of both time and money, and needs to deliver on today's business requirements as well as what the boss will want tomorrow.
Solution
Security, Users and your WLAN
The Managed Wireless Firewall Services tailors a solution specific to your WLAN requirements. The biggest mistake people make when designing a WLAN, is forgetting about the users, and really its them that should be the focus. End user security, ease of use and transparency are fundamental to a successful deployment.
Not all users have the same requirements and one security mechanism won't satisfy all the use cases. So whilst 802.1x may provide a working solution for my corporate users, how do I deal with my guests and contractors who don't have a suitable client to access it. Not to mention the PDA the boss bought back from holidays. I need a solution that is able to interoperate with all kinds of end user devices, offer a variety of authentication, encryption and authorisation options and be centrally managed.
Wireless Guests
More and more companies have a requirement to give network access to external users. Whether its contractors, guests or even visitors from international offices, everyone wants access, and who knows what kind of viruses or spyware they are carrying with them?
The earthwave solution provides a variety of options for securely dealing with guests, enabling you to easily create temporary accounts which expire at the specified time. And all of this can be done by a receptionist, secretary or designated staff members using simple and standalone web based applications.
By utilising an automatic SSL redirection, guests can authenticate with a familiar web based login. Users are familiar with web based login systems, and it offers you an opportunity to present specific content to your users, be it new promotions, company information, technical support information and legal terms and conditions.
The Wireless Controller also provides IDS capabilities, effectively quarantining any users with suspicious behaviour. Most viruses spread by attaching themselves to other hosts on the same layer 2 network, flooding it with thousands of ICMP or similar probes. These are automatically blocked by the Wireless Controller and blocks infected users from communicating with other users. This Zero-Day enforcement technology protects you, your guests and your network.
QoS in Wireless
WLANs are yet to reach the bandwidth capacity available in traditional cabled networks. Add in the fact that wireless is a shared medium and it becomes apparent that having effective quality of service is a key requirement to ensuring the integrity of your wireless network. More and more real time applications such as VoIP and video streaming are finding their way onto wireless networks and without QoS these simply do not work.
At earthwave, we are able to dynamically throttle the available bandwidth, ensuring that your users have enough bandwidth to access the CRM and email and that your wireless phones have enough to handle voice calls. In addition, all packets can be marked for prioritisation ensuring that it will find the quickest path to where they need to go.
How does it work?
The Managed Wireless Firewall Service offers customers the complete WLAN solution. Working with you to understand application, security and user requirements, we will design, install, implement and manage the entire WLAN. This brings you industry leading products and experience, but more importantly a solution that can evolve and adapt to changing business requirements.
Utilising a centralised wireless security controller and low cost thin APs, earthwave is able to create a wireless networking architecture which allows you to overlay any type of user or application, whilst providing secure transfer of traffic from the wireless to the cabled network. The controller offers multiple DHCP, NAT and VLAN options, easily integrating with the existing network.
Authentication of users can also be integrated with existing methods, supporting smartcards, transparent windows authentication, Kerberos, VPN, and adding alternatives such as 802.1x, digital certificates, web based SSL, login, Radius, LDAP or NTML. All of these authentication methods can work simultaneously, allowing you to securely authenticate different users and devices as appropriate.
Once users are authenticated, they are placed into a Role which controls everything about what they can do. Role based access control provides the most secure and flexible way to enforce policies on users, be it security, QoS, location or time based. Standard features include packet inspection firewalling, QoS bandwidth throttling and prioritisation and even the ability to force users through a proxy server.
From our Security Operations Centre (SOC), earthwave maintains a secure connection with your Wireless Controller, monitoring the status, security and performance of your users and network. Configuration changes can be made at any time to accommodate the dynamic nature of wireless applications whilst maintaining security and transparency.
One Size does not Fit All!
Earthwave offers three Service Level options with distinct, quantifiable Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to best meet customer needs and address support level preferences. These unique tiers provide different levels of response time, report content and frequencies, and data storage. Our Standard package offers excellent service tailored for less complex infrastructures that require basic support. The earthwave Enhanced package is a mid-level offering that provides extra features and faster response times for customers with more complex needs. And, the earthwave Premium package gives customers with complex and stringent requirements a host of customisations, extra features and extra functionality.
