Mathnet Wireless Access Points

Wireless access points are distributed around McAllister Building, and more will be added soon to completely cover McAllister. Here is a description of coverage by floor:

• Basement:Most of the floor is covered. Another access point may be added in the future if there is demand in the periphery.
• 1st Floor:The entire first floor is covered.
• 2nd Floor:The entire second floor is covered.
• 3rd Floor:The entire third floor is covered.
• 4th Floor:The entire fourth floor is now covered.

Wireless Quick Start

1. Obtain the Cisco VPN client for your OS from ITS. Note that there is one version of the client for OS X 10.5 and a different version for OS X 10.4 and below.
2. Run the VPN client and create a new connection entry with the following information:

Host:	192.168.8.1
Name:	mathvpn
Password:	math1234

Name the connection something easy to remember like "mathwireless".

1. Save the connection entry by clicking on the save button.
2. Make sure that your computer is setup to obtain an IP address via DHCP and to participate in the "mathnet" wireless network.
3. In the main window of the VPN client, double click your new connection entry.
4. Enter your Mathnet username and password when prompted.

You only have to setup the connection entry once. Next time you login you can just start the VPN client and then double click your connection entry.

For more detailed information on how to use or modify the configuration for the Cisco VPN Client, consult the manual for your operating system:

• Linux
• OS X
• Windows

Why use a VPN client?

The above procedure may seem very complex, particularly if you have a wireless access point at home.

A VPN adds data security and accountability to a wireless network. Without these two properties, a wireless network cannot be run by a PSU entity.

The Cisco VPN client requires that you enter your Mathnet username and password before you can transmit packets over the Mathnet network. In this sense, the VPN provides accountability. We're not just letting anyone on our network, we're only letting people on that have agreed to abide by PSU and Mathnet policies.

A VPN provides an encrypted channel that provides data security. The VPNs established by using the Cisco VPN client on Mathnet are implemented using the IPSEC protocol with 3DES as the encryption algorithm. This is a common method of implementing a reasonably secure channel.

You may have heard of the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) algorithm. It is part of the 802.11 standard. It provides no data security as tools are widely available to defeat it:

• Security of the WEP Algorithm
• Weaknesses in the Key Scheduling Algorithm of RC4 - an analysis of a weakness in RC4
• Airsnort - a tool for recovering WEP keys by monitoring and analyzing WEP protected traffic.

The wireless access points connected to Mathnet do not use WEP at all.

It should be noted that RC4 is widely used (in SSH, for example) and is secure when used with the recommended practice of key generation. WEP is insecure because of the way that it uses keys in conjunction with the RC4 algorithm.

Privacy and Legal Statements Validate HTML Validate CSS