WiFi is all around…

As a favor for a friend, I manage his work’s WiFi Network. This is a network that we have probably gone a bit overboard on, but now has 15 Access Points in four buildings, across three sites in two towns. On a good day, usage peaks at about 55 devices, and a few guest users as well. Given the size of the organization, this penetration of WiFi is impressive. During the last 18 months, I have seen the entire workforce become more mobile, and less tied to the office. And at the same time, as their productivity has improved, so has the reliability of the IT infrastructure.

The latest version of the WiFi controller software came with an interesting feature – it can report on possible ‘Rogue’ Wireless Access Points. That is, Access Points that people may have installed without getting the permission of IT, or IT may have installed but forgotten about. And don’t laugh at the second one – we are still not sure that we have removed all the old Access Points lying around. Sometimes, particularly when Wireless was really locked down, people needed to do work, so they would plug in an access point that they provided themselves. It got their work done, and all was good. Until someone else finds the Access Point and breaks into the Network using it.

Well, I thought I would report on the number of Rogue Access Points found – and the numbers are interesting. In the last week, the number is 203, and in the last month, it is 707. That is, in the last month, there have been something like 707 individual devices capable of providing Internet Access within range of the companies buildings. This includes phones, 3G dongles, home and business ADSL modems and just about everything in between. Thankfully for us, looking through this list, there is nothing suspicious, but that does not mean that it cannot happen. Oh, and this is only the 2.4 GHz equipment. I am sure 5.8 GHz is almost as full.

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Darryl Smith is CEO of Redshift Wireless, a company that sells Cloud Controllers for IR controlled Air Conditioners.