[KLUG Members] Wireless Access Point recommendation?

[Adam Williams]

>Once again, thanks for all the feedback KLUGites.
>Wireless, Wireless, Ah, What is Wireless, really?
>802.11b, 802.11b+, 802.11g and 802.11a, 802.1x, 802.1Q, 802.11i, ...

Several of these standard are not ratified.

>I work for a small company of about 45, so no Radius server, no Cisco Secure
>Access Control Server, no Cisco Access Registrar, no Active directory, no
>Domain controller, no LDAP server, so no Cisco LEAP security capabilities.
>I believe that a RADIUS server would be beyond our reach (read my
>capabilities and time to learn how) for the immediate need of one to five
>laptop users, but I can certainly try to do 128 bit WEP keys on a user to
>user basis.
>I have always read good things about Cisco Aironet, and I can get Cisco
>really cheap right now, but it is 802.11b. I don't know if the WAP and/or
>cards are upgradeable to the faster speeds of 802.11b+, 802.11a, 802.11g, or
>the greater security of 802.11i.

Stick with 802.11b, b+ is dead, a is rare.

>Bruce’s reference to the Jan/Feb Paranoid Penguin how to series on a
>FreeS/WAN VPN is great, but in the article Nick Bauer makes a point to say
>that FreeS/WAN is exclusively Linux. So, I had discounted FreeS/WAN for a
>VPN because the laptop users will be on windbloz until our developer
>finishes porting all our mission critical apps to Linux. We won’t be all
>Linux for at least two years.

There are many inter-operable VPN solutions.

>If anyone has any OpenSource suggestions for winbloz clients to attach to a
>Linux VPN wireless gateway, I would love to hear about it. The problem is
>clearly on the M$ client side.

The PPTP server works with both Linux and Winbloze clients.

>It seems that wireless is fast moving towards WPA, TKIP, AES and 802.11i. I
>hate to lock into cheap, insecure old equipment only to have more secure
>non-compatible equipment comes out in April and cheap secure equipment come
>out in June.

Buy cheap standard equipment, then sell it on E-bay when the next
technology is cheap and standard.  Don't try to buy the future. 
Wireless standards are still in flux.