Wireless Internet Service?

[lil Jimmie]

A local ISP is offering wireless service with up and download speeds of 11mbps. How is this speed compared to cable, T1's and DSL? Also has anyone used this kind of service before? Is there any troubles with it and what are some downsides of the service?

TIA

[Kubie]

Here in Modesto, Ca., there is PC IN-Touch. It costs 300.00 setup fee and 59.95 a month. You can hook as many pcs as you want. Speed, I don't know. You have to have a pretty direct unobstructed line from your house to its transmitter though.
Carl

[lil Jimmie]

Hi Carl, The service contract is $200.00 for 3 yrs. and 49.95 a month for a 1 meg and $69.95 for a 2meg. The transmitter is on top of the largest buildings here and I'm only a mile away with very few trees on that side of my house and no other tall buildings around. As I understand it, I can connect the receiver into my hub, NIC or router (don't have a router yet and my hub has an uplink port) is this correct?

[mbossman2]

It sounds like the ISP is using 802.11b technology for their access.

There are a couple of issues with that:

1) 802.11b technology is a shared network technology. As long as you are the only one access that wireless central point you will get a theoretical maximum of 11mbps. In reality, after factoring in the network overhead in will see a speed of approx 4-6mbps.

2) Data rates on this technology are very dependent upon your distance from the central receiver. The farther away you are the lower the data rate. At 1 mile distanct, you may be able to get a nominal data rate of 11mbps (depending on the equipment being used).

3) Having 11mbps speed will only apply to accessing the central receiving point. The ultimate speed will depend upon how fast of a line the ISP utilizes to access their upstream provider. For example: you have 11mbps to the central transmitter which in turn goes via ethernet to the ISP backhaul router which utilizes an ATM T1 line, your realized download bandwidth will be limited to 1.54mbps (at most). So your bottleneck is not your access to the central point but the ISP's access to the internet. So the question to ask on this is: how does the ISP's wireless receiver access either the ISP's network or the internet as a whole.

4) Security can be a big issue here as well. As you are transmitting onto the public airwaves, those signals are subject to a higher potential of interception by an unfriendly party, so make sure that you ISP offers some level of encryption on the traffic (which can also affect your internet speed) as well as a firewall running on your PC. Even with that, there are still some security concerns.
Check these sites for details:
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~waa/wireless.html
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/support/wireless_secure.htm
These articles talk about wireless LANs, but the concept is the same in an ISP setting as you are accessing, essentially, a large LAN segment.

I am not saying that this is not a viable method of accessing the internet, in fact this can be a very viable choice in areas that do not have access to traditional broadband services. these, hovever, are issues that you may want to bring up with your wireless provider before you go spending any significant amount of money on set up/installation and then find out that your performance/wireless experience does not live up to their brochure/sales hype.

HTH

[lil Jimmie]

Thanks mbossman2, I'm sure that the 802.11b technology is what they are using. I did find out that they are using Cisco equipment. I will have time tomorrow to find out more information about the service and will have a few more questions to ask them now with the encryption as well as the ISP access to the net. If I do go with this service I WILL be using a router. Thank you for the links, I will check them out tonight.

Basically, it is either wireless or satellite service to get any broadband here in Roswell at the moment and I really don’t want to spend the $$$ on equipment for satellite hardware.

Thanks again,

[mbossman2]

Originally posted by lil Jimmie
Thanks mbossman2, I'm sure that the 802.11b technology is what they are using. I did find out that they are using Cisco equipment. I will have time tomorrow to find out more information about the service and will have a few more questions to ask them now with the encryption as well as the ISP access to the net. If I do go with this service I WILL be using a router. Thank you for the links, I will check them out tonight.

Basically, it is either wireless or satellite service to get any broadband here in Roswell at the moment and I really don’t want to spend the $$$ on equipment for satellite hardware.

Thanks again,

If you can find out which Cisco pieces they are using, specifically the device they would put in your house (specifically the model and which antenna) and what that device will be talking to (central point and antenna), I can give you an estimate of the range and data rates that you might be able to expect (unless they are throttling the bandwidth, but that would be a configuration in both devices as well as the switches that they are tying into).

Also ask them if they are using the LEAP protocol in their encryption scheme, this will give you a much better level of security (although they may not offer it now, ask if they plan to in the future).

[lil Jimmie]

Thanks mbossman2, I'll find out all I can and get back with you later.

[lil Jimmie]

Ok, here is what I have found out so far, it is a Cisco 350 series unit. When I asked about the LEAP protocol they replied that they did use encryption, however they did not want to name the protocol over the phone or e-mail for obvious reasons. They did assure me that the units would supply the end users with the 1Mbs or 2Mbs of speed depending on the service package. They also encouraged the use of hardware and software firewalls.

The ISP is the same one that I have dial-up with and the service has been top notch after 2 years.
Also, I have spoken to the owner of a local PC shop that uses the wireless service and he said that he was very pleased with the service.

[mbossman2]

My guess, based on their secretive response, is that they are relying on the native 128 bit WEP encryption built into the standard.

If they were using LEAP, then they would have no real issue telling you as just knowing that LEAP is in use, will give nothing away security wise.

The way LEAP works is it takes the WEP encryption keys and dynamically changes them on the fly so that while a hacker could hack several packets and decrypt them (which is a fairly time consuming process), the encryption keys are changed (at random or prefined time intervals) making the hacker have to start all over again with the next set of packets.

Check this article for more information:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/witc/ao350ap/prodlit/a350w_ov.htm
or
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2700806,00.html

hope this helps

[lil Jimmie]

Thank you once again mbossman2, you have been a great help and I will look into the links. I am going to go to their office this afternoon to sign up for the service and will see if they will share the info at that point. If the ISP is not using LEAP I will recommend that they look into using it as it sound a lot more secure to me.

[Great_One]

we are using the same cisco aironet 350 access point in our wireless setup.

a couple of points.

leap, which is cisco's extension of eap allows for user logins through
a radius server. LEAP uses user-specific, session-based WEP keys created dynamically at user logon, not static WEP keys stored on client devices and access points. LEAP creates wep keys for that session, it keeps the same wep keys until the session is ended. the problem with leap is that it proprietary
to cisco and requires cisco's radius server which is fairly expensive. leap also requires that the end user's wireless card support leap as well, which again to this point, are only supported by cisco wireless cards. most isp's
use a combination of wep and MAC address filting, which only allows registered
mac addresses to associate with the access point.
firewalls and vpns are always a good idea on a wireless network.

[mbossman2]

yes LEAP is proprietary to Cisco hardware, but, it is being implemented as a quasi-standard by several other manufacturers (Apple is one of them) cleint adapters (http://www.apple.com/airport/faq/). In addition, there are plans in place to add additional RADIUS/TACACs server products from other manufacturers as well.

It appears that this Cisco protocol may very well become the standard.

[lil Jimmie]

Thanks Great_one and mbossman2, I will be wireless in about two weeks! I have picked up a router (Linksys BEFSR41) and have ZA PRO. I will be reading up on VPN's. I am currently taking an intro to networks course in which we will be covering VPN's in a few weeks, I hope I will be prepared for it.

[mbossman2]

Best of luck in both your wireless internet and networking class.

Good information on VPN's can be found here:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/smbiz/netsolutions/find/wan/tsol_vpn_more.shtml

Some of it is really high end, but the information there is top rate.

IF you have any VPN questions, post them and one of us here should be able to give you the right direction.

Matt

[lil Jimmie]

Thanks Matt, :D