Case Study: Implementing a Secure Wireless Network using WPA

Wireless network cards are becoming quite common at my company especially in notebook computers. With this proliferation of wireless network cards have come requests from the users of these computers to access the corporate network using a wireless connection. In 2001 and 2002 I implemented an 802.11b system on a limited scale for my company using Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) encryption as the sole security mechanism. Demand for wireless service has steadily increased since then, and in July of 2003 I was asked to implement a wireless network on a larger scale. I explained to the management team at my company the many shortcomings of the WEP encryption protocol, and they agreed that any upgrade of our wireless network should also include better security. It was also important to them that any upgrades integrate with our current network infrastructure.