Securing Wireless LANS in Microsoft Networks using Wireless Protected AccessTM and Digital Certificates

This objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the implementation of a secure 802.11 wireless networking environment based on a combination of enterprise grade 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN1 components from Proxim, Cisco/Linksys, Lucent, Netgear, and Microsoft with Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition, Microsoft 2000 Advanced Server, and Microsoft Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. The focus of this paper will be to examine the ease of deployment and use claims of each supplier with respect to their Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected AccessTM (WPA) capabilities. WPA will be tested with three different authentication methods.