Saturday, July 31, 2010

Using an open source RADIUS server in your Cisco wireless environment

I haven't personally setup a FreeRADIUS server in a Cisco wireless environment (I'm no Linux wiz), but there is a ton of documentation available online to guide you through each type of wireless security method, linking the FreeRADIUS server to an LDAP directory, and Cisco has published supported RADIUS attributes on their wireless LAN controllers.


Several Cisco NetPro postings deal with FreeRADIUS configuration issues as well.


All the different wireless security options are covered in the FreeRADIUS HOWTOs


FreeRADIUS is certainly a viable option for a budget restricted work place with good open source engineers.  Sometimes the cost of Cisco's ACS can stall the deployment of a project, or hold back the roll out of a secure wireless network simply due to budget constraints.

Someday I'll be at a point where I can stop & learn how to use open source software to complement existing Cisco deployments.  I still have two Perl books that I never had time to dive into - the project deadline didn't allot enough time to learn a new way to configure a bunch of autonomous APs quicker than I could do it with telnet & notepad.

    2 comments:

    1. I've found Active Directory to be a great back end for Cisco switches/routers. Haven't tried it with an AP yet. :)

      Many organizations already have AD in place. Hoping to deploy freeradius soon for my routers/switches in my dev lab. Thanks for this post!

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    2. no problem! I was glad to see so much documentation available online for FreeRADIUS. Now I have an alternative recommendation for customers with budgets that can't cover the cost of ACS. This is of course provided that they have an engineer capable of tweaking open source software on staff!

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