Equipment

Surround Your
Wi-Fi Gear With An AirFortress

Fortress Technologies introduces a suite of products that take 802.11 security up a notch.

by ISP-Planet Staff [December 11, 2001]

Fortress Technologies is hitting the airwaves with AirFortress, a suite of products designed to secure 802.11a and 802.11b broadband wireless Internet services at Layer 2 gateways.

The suite is made up of the following three products:

• Wireless Security Gateways, security appliances that sit at the entrance of the network, allowing in only traffic encrypted according to the Fortress Technologies proprietary protocol
  
  
• Secure Clients, a software client designed to deliver security for bar scanners, handhelds, laptops, and integrated wireless devices
  
  
• Access Control Server (ACS), a software application database designed to monitor and manage the authentication and access control of wireless clients

AirFortress is designed for all versions of Microsoft Windows (95, 98, 2000, XP, NT, and CE) and supports DOS and Palm operating systems too. The company says since its products operate on Layer 2 instead of Layer 3, they decrease the risk that hackers will intercept important session data such as "crypto-secrets" and IP header information.

AirFortress allows network managers to choose any of several encryption algorithms: 128 bit AES (Rijndael), 128 bit IDEA, 168 bit 3DES, or 56 bit DES

The security is Layer 2-enabled by a protocol called Wireless Link Layer Security (WLLS). Fortress says that this proprietary protocol is "modular and state driven, has a small footprint, and is computationally light, making it ideal for embedded solutions or easy integration into any standard hardware platform over various operating systems."

WLLS supplements encryption security by altering the Media Access Control (MAC) ID number into one that will only be recognized by Fortress Technologies' products.

Pricing and availability
The AirFortress Security System wireless gateways start as low as $1,995, with clients starting at $49 each in small quantities and decreasing with volume purchases.

As an introductory offer, AirFortress includes the Access Control Server for free.

—End