With wireless networks and public acces areas it is very easy for an unauthorized user to gain access. Unauthorized users can look for a signal and grab connection information from the signal. Unauthorized users can plug their machine into a public terminal and gain access to the network. Security has been put in place such as WEP, but this security can be subverted with tools like AirSnort. One approach to solving these problems is to not rely on the wireless security features , and instead to place an authentication gateway in front of the wireless network or public access area and force users to authenticate against it before using the network. This HOWTO describes how to set up this gateway with Linux.
This document is copyrighted (c) 2001 Nathan Zorn and is distributed under the terms of the Linux Documentation Project (LDP) license, stated below.
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No liability for the contents of this documents can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and other content at your own risk. As this is a new edition of this document, there may be errors and inaccuracies, that may of course be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, and although this is highly unlikely, the author(s) do not take any responsibility for that.
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You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before major installation and backups at regular intervals.
This is the initial release.
The newest release of this document can be found at http://www.itlab.musc.edu/~nathan/authentication_gateway/. Related HOWTOs can be found at the Linux Documentation Project homepage.
Feedback is most certainly welcome for this document. Without your submissions and input, this document wouldn't exist. Please send your additions, comments and criticisms to the following email address : <zornnh@musc.edu>.