security effects of adding wireless access

From: John Pankowicz (John_Pankowicz@hotmail.com)
Date: 12/13/02 

From: John_Pankowicz@hotmail.com (John Pankowicz)
Date: 13 Dec 2002 05:57:21 -0800

Hi,

This may seem a little off topic, but I felt those of you working with
firewalls would probably provide me with the best answers to my
question.

My local library has three PC's that are constantly in use. One has to
sign up a day in advance for a half-hour use. I would like to suggest
that they install a wireless access point. What new security or other
problems could be introduced when adding wireless access to a LAN that
already has publicly available PC's. I have not installed firewalls
but I have many years network programming experience.

I can't understand why so few libraries have not installed wireless
access points, which can now be bought for about $80. I can't see how
this can introduce a new security risk. The rest of the network must
already be protected from the public PC's. If not, any moderately
intelligent patron could wreck havoc on their networks. Even if they
attempt to limit what can be run on the PC, this is fairly easy to get
around when you have physical access to the machine.

I don't think that the issue is that they can't control what is
running on the patron's PC. They can still control what Internet sites
are accessed through the web proxy and/or firewall. And the internal
machines that are reachable will be the same machines that are
currently reachable by the desktop PC's.

There doesn't seem to be an issue with overloading their network. They
can control how many wireless devices can access the network at the
same time through settings in the wireless access point.

Apart from just the installation of the wireless access point itself,
this doesn't seem to require much work on the part of the library
support staff. They will need to have a flyer that tells the public
how to use the wireless network, what settings to make on their PC,
etc. I have already spoken with a librarian who has a wireless network
and I was told that support is almost not needed. Patrons help each
other with setting up their PCs.

Does anyone see any problems that I am not aware of? The library
employees may just give me the brush-off and tell me it is too
complicated, not secure enough, requires too much support, etc. If
this happens, I would like to approach the library board and be able
to answer these questions.

Thanks for any help,
John

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