The Lessons of Wi-Fi #12: Your Wi-Fi Network Should Not Be A One Trick Pony

Time was when you left work at the office. Those days are long gone. Enterprises and institutions with workforces, offices, or colleagues spread across time zones often have time- and location-shifted working conditions.

Users might need to work from home, on the road, or at a remote site. In all cases, a user will be most productive if the network experience - and access to applications and network resources - is the same remotely as it is at his or her desk at work.

Can the wireless LAN infrastructure that's used in a campus environment pull double duty and be used by remote users, too? The stock answer from most vendors is "nary the twain shall meet" - use a campus wireless LAN at work and a remote access solution like a virtual private network (VPN) everywhere else.

Since using a VPN is very different than accessing a campus network, this means that users need to be trained how and when to use the appropriate access method. And that means Help Desk calls. The end user is stuck with two parallel, non-intersecting networks to buy, maintain, and learn. Ouch!

The Lessons of Wi-Fi #12: your Wi-Fi network should not be a one-trick pony. One common network infrastructure should support both the campus wireless LAN and off-site users. And it should provide an identical end user experience regardless of how or where the network is accessed.

Enter Aruba's Virtual Branch Networking (VBN) technology. VBN uses low-cost Remote Access Points (RAPs) to securely connect remote users, and their Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet devices, back to a controller in the data center. The same controller that runs the campus Wi-Fi network.

Any standard Aruba indoor access point can be used as a RAP. That means one SKU can serve as both a campus AP or a Wi-Fi enabled remote access device for a home, branch office, or road warrior.

The $99 list price RAP-2 unit pictured here is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket or valise. It works with any IP-based devices - laptops, iPhone, iTouch, PCs, printers, wired and wireless voice over IP phones, wireless projectors - all of which can simultaneously share a single RAP. As can multiple users.

VBN features one-button installation so that a non-technical person can provision a RAP-2 by him or herself. No IT assistance, no user training required. Once commissioned the user just turns on his or her MacBook, PC, iTouch and they're instantly connected to the network...just as they would be on campus.

Data encryption and an integrated firewall provide comprehensive network security for all RAPs, while centralized management ensures speedy diagnostics and updates right over the network.

You don't have to suffer a double budget hit to get best-in-class campus Wi-Fi and secure remote access. So check out VBN and leave it to someone else to relearn the lessons of Wi-Fi.

Distance Learning Has Never Been Closer

One of the challenges of distance learning is how to replicate the "campus experience" for remote students. Doing so encourages collaboration with other students, and improves study opportunities, by leveraging the same electronic learning applications, library reference materials, and server resources as campus students enjoy.

It also builds school loyalty because if these services remain in place post graduation, it improves the chances of continued participation once students become alumni.

Providing secure access to your school's electronic learning resources is a challenge. Open access or password-controlled access won't protect against network attacks, password-sharing, or excessive bandwidth consumption by mischievous students.

A secure virtual private network (VPN) requires your IT staff to load and manage client software on every device a student might wish to use. This is an on-going burden because incompatibilities may be introduced as students upgrade operating systems or other applications on their computers.

Virtual Branching Networking (VBN) solves distance learning connectivity and security issues. Using a small, very inexpensive device called a Remote Access Point (RAP), VBN enables remote students to connect securely to your data network. RAPs enable students to use any IP-based devices with an Ethernet port or W-Fi - MacBooks, iPhones, iTouches, iPads, PCs, VoIP phones, printers - without loading any software clients.

A built-in firewall strictly enforces access policies set by your IT staff, and can even control how much bandwidth a student uses. All access policies are centrally managed and then pushed over the network to the RAPs. The same is true of software updates: they're pushed automatically to every RAP in the field.

New RAPs are shipped unconfigured. To connect one to your network the student pushes a button on the front of the unit and then enters the IP address of your data center.

A RAP controller in your data center then exchanges security certificates with the student's RAP and voila, the student is on-line. No IT staff involvement is required for this process to occur, meaning that it's possible to economically support a very large distance learning program without adding IT staff.

Since RAPs are shipped unconfigured, they can be sold or rented to students through your bookstore or by a third party with zero-touch involvement by your IT staff. If a student leaves your distance learning program, or fails to pay tuition, a simple change in the access policy will completely disable the RAP.

Alternately, when a student graduates the RAP settings can be changed to disable distance learning and enable Internet access using your alumni site as the home page.

VBN has been field-proven in enterprise teleworker deployments around the world, and is the ideal solution for distance learning applications of any size. To find out more please visit our Web site.