Cisco Question

[sevver]

Ok here is the deal, I have a doctors office who wants to get a wireless access point. He has a Cisco Pix Firewall now, can I just get a cheap dlink or something for this or will I need to go Cisco? I feel confident that I can get it to work, I have been trained in Cisco and and studying for the CCNA, but I don't know if you can intermingle different products, it is TCP/IP though so I would bet money that it doesn't matter a hoot.

[tokenuser]

Intermingling OK, you just need to decide if the other product if going infront of the firewall (public access) or private (behind firewall). Many companies that need both will install two WAPs.

What sort of network topology are you thinking of??

[sevver]

All that he will need access to is the Internet, so I could put the WAP before the firewall, the problem with that is that the Comcast Modem is dumb now, we made it a bridge. So I would need another router. So my plan was to put it behind the firewall and if possible enable MAC address filtering on it. Whatever I do, I don't want it to be too enduser complicated. As far as topology is concerned, mainly wired with access for one wireless laptop of the doctors'. And of course the rest of the network has to remain secure.

I suppose that ultimately, the WAP needs to go before the firewall though for security reasons. I would go modem, switch with the WAP, then into the PIX. I think I should be able to make a connection on his desktop that he would have to use to login. What do you think?

[tokenuser]

The problem is going to be the docs laptop - that machine will be accessing client records, so access will need to be HIPPA compliant (actually, ALL machines in the office should be, but laptops have special concerns).

Advantage of using Cisco gear is that you can use the Cisco mgmt apps with the WAP. For a lowcost solution, a Linksys box might work, since they are also by Cisco.

[sevver]

Linksys really doesn't have the IOS management abilities though. And as for the laptop, I don't feel that he really access' patients records with it, it will be used mainly for personal stuff, they are not a paperless office yet, although that is coming. So I don't think that we need to worry about HIPPA compliance in this issue as he will not be able to access the internal network from outside the router.

Are we the only people here who know anything about networking? Yikes! What is this world coming to? Comic books will not get you anywhere children.

[sevver]

I think a new router is in order. The Cisco 851W could be the ticket.