History of Wireless Networks

Wireless networking first became popular among the military. They needed a means of secure communication without the use of wires, such as between airplanes or on land in combat situations, where it is difficult to lay wire over long distances in a short amount of time. As the cost of wireless technologies decreased, corporations began looking into the use of wireless networking as alternatives to traditional wired infrastructures.

The wireless technologies of today are defined by the IEEE. The original wireless standard is IEEE 802.11. When you think about modern wireless technologies used in corporations and home networks today, three IEEE standards come to mind:

• 802.11a

• 802.11b

• 802.11g

The first to be implemented was 802.11b. 802.11b defines Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) wireless networking at speeds of 1, 2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps, with 11 Mbps being the most common. 802.11b networks operate at 2.4 GHz.

In contrast, 802.11a networks operate in the 5-GHz band. 802.11a is much faster than 802.11b, operating up to 54 Mbps.

The third standard, 802.11g, is quickly becoming the de-facto standard in most environments today. 802.11g provides the best of 802.11a and 802.11b. Similar to 802.11a, this standard specifies rates up to 54 Mbps. However, like 802.11b, this standard operates in the 2.4-GHz band. Because of this, 802.11g is backward compatible with 802.11b, making it easy for existing 802.11b networks to upgrade.

Note

As a penetration tester, you should be aware of these different types of wireless networks. For example, if you are testing against an 802.11b network, you should ensure that your equipment and software are tailored to test against 802.11b networks. Because 802.11g is backward compatible, you could use 802.11b or 802.11g equipment in your testing. Be aware that not all software tests against all three of these common standards.