SonicWALL Secure Wireless Network Integrated Solutions Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)Summary: Very useful guide for designing a wireless network using a SonicWALL firewall and SonicPoint wireless access points. Note that the book is written for the older 802.11a/b/g SonicPoint G access points, so about 10% of it will be out of date for new 802.11n SonicPoint N access points. Nevertheless, it's worth the money if you are using SonicWALL firewalls and either SonicPoint G or N access points. Also, I really enjoyed the insightful Forward by Joe Levy (CTO of SonicWALL, Inc.) on wireless in general.
About me: I am a computer systems administrator for a 75-person manufacturing company. I have been using SonicWALL firewalls for about 10 years and am currently about half way through a project to switch out my four Cisco Aironet 1200 802.11g access points for four SonicWALL N access points.
The first part of the book is an overview of wireless and then general design principles and guidelines (infrastructure, site survey, security, your business goals, etc.). I found it well presented and useful as I am reassessing and re-designing my wireless infrastucture.
The rest of the book is a step-by-step guide with decent explanations of why for each step. Note that it is written for the SonicPoint G access points, which are the 802.11a/b/g model. However, Sonicwall recently released their new SonicPoint N devices, so some of the material was out of date for me. Still, the configuration difference between the G and N models are small, so most of it applies.
To configure my SonicPoint N access points, I downloaded the latest SonicWALL documentation (SonicOS Enhanced 5.4 Administrator's Guide), which is free from [...]. The Admin Guide is technically in-depth but lacks some of the design philosophy and answers to why questions that the book covers.
FYI, the reason I am switching from Cisco Aironets to SonicPoints are these:
1. To get 802.11n speed (I am getting 300Mbit consistently with the SonicPoint N's)
3. To centrally control my access points from my SonicWALL 3500 ("wireless on a string"), rather than having to manually configure each Aironet independently. Cisco sells a control console, but why buy that when I already own a central console in my firewall. My Aironets have been rock-solid for three years, and I have been very happy with them.
4. To separate my wireless network from my LAN with a firewall. Up to now, I have had my Aironets on my LAN switch, which does not follow current wireless security best practices. Now I will have all traffic from my WLAN to my LAN being scanned by all the services on the fireewall (antivirus, attacks, intrusion prevention, rogue access point detection, etc.)
4. To set up guest wireless for my two conference rooms. The SonicPoint N's can have multiple WLANs on each physical access point, so they can service both my internal users (corp WLAN) and guests (guest WLAN) at the same time securely separated by the rules on the firewall. Very cool feature and has worked well in my testing.


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Nearly forty percent of the world's 1 billion+ Internet users are wireless. It's a truly staggering fact to think that the majority of these wireless implementations are fundamentally insecure, leaving users and private data at risk. Many wireless proprietors think that the convenience of wireless outweighs the possible risk of insecure impelentation, or that secure wireless is far too complicated to worry about deploying. SonicWALL Secure Wireless Networks Integrated Solutions Guide provides a systematic approach to creating secure wireless networks, using the Plan, Design, Implement, and Optimize model. This introduction to wireless network security is both comprehensive and easy to understand. Using straightforward language, this book describes deployment best practices, what SonicWALL security appliances do, and how they interoperate within an existing or new network. It begins with brief overviews of the theory of risk management, the history of wireless networks, and today's top five wireless threats. Real-world case studies highlight wireless solution business drivers for education, healthcare, retail and hospitality, and government agencies, as well as their respective regulatory compliance requirements. SonicWALL believes that the days of being forced to accept inherent risk in wireless networking are over. By using modern security standards and sound network design methods, your wireless network should be just as secure as your wired network.Wireless networks can be made as secure as wired networks, and deploying this type of security can be far less complicated than you think. In this book, and through their massive product offerings, SonicWALL gives you (the secure wireless network hopeful) all of the planning, implementation, and optimizing tools you need to do wireless. Securely.* Official guide from SonicWALL* Written by SonicWALL engineers and documentation specialists* Appropriate for all audiences, from the small proprietor to the enterprise IT specialist* A complete reference to plan, design, implement, and optimize a secure wireless network with SonicWALL's extensive wireless product offerings

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