Clear Choice Tests

Add AirMagnet to complete the puzzle

By Thomas Henderson
Network World, 02/21/05

AirMagnet Enterprise Version 5 (formerly known as Distributed Version 4) has been compatible with Mobile Manager Enterprise for several months. Sensor information and SNMP traps can communicate with the WaveLink system in intelligent ways bidirectionally. One main benefit of this integration is the newly enabled ability for AirMagnet Enterprise to shut down switch ports where rogue activity is suspected.

This feature requires that AirMagnet Enterprise can communicate with the switch through SNMP, and instructions on how this is done are somewhat ambiguous. It took a while, but we were able to get the system to trace rogues through our simple infrastructure and actually kill the port on our HP switch. Once the SNMP management information base links are sorted out and talking, it's possible to kill ports where suspected rogue traffic has been found - or even at the access point level, provided the access point supports SNMP.

AirMagnet Enterprise adds a great ability to the WaveLink system - reaction to alarms. The downside is that people wandering by with equipment can sometimes trigger the alarms, so time-outs might be needed before action is taken. An individual with a wandering access point also can shut off large amounts of equipment during a walk-through, as we discovered in our tests.

Henderson is principal researcher for ExtremeLabs in Indianapolis. He can be reached at thenderson@extremelabs.com.

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