Cipherium Introduces Centralized Access Points Management




-/June 14, 2006 - Wi-Fi Technology News/-To network administrators, it may not be a difficult task to manually manage up to 10 or 15 inter-connected network devices, but with larger deployments such as university campuses, chained hotels or WISPs with hundreds or thousands of access points (APs), a centralized management tool becomes a requirement for even the most basic tasks.

How to make it easier to roll out a large number of APs to build up a wireless environment, and meanwhile, give administrators a total control of their network condition from one central management point, with only one gateway maybe?

For small network environments e.g. coffee shops or branch/remote offices which may only require a few APs to cover up the whole working area, their owners often tend to outsource MIS experts to lower personnel costs instead of hiring full-time IT staff. How to create a trouble-free way for remote MIS support technicians to monitor and configure network equipments, and at the same time, eliminate costly manual labor in maintaining network operation?

Cipherium's series of Network Access Controllers (NACs) gets all these issues dealt with by taking advantage of proactive monitor and centralized control capability to provide a simple turnkey AP management for either large scale or small size networks. The management interface of NACs can be accessed from anywhere, saving on-site network maintenance charges. While NACs bring a number of easy-to-use features that enable network administrators to centrally, remotely manage network equipments, they are also scalable in deployment and adaptable to continual technology enhancements.


Key Features and Benefits of NAC Include：


CENTRALIZED POLICY ADMINISTRATION

The centralized remote AP management capability of Cipherium's series of Network Access Controllers replaces the error prone and tedious job of going device to device. NACs are designed to help the administrator remotely configure, update and monitor all managed APs from a secured HTML administration interface. More than that, they offer advanced role-based AP management policies such as scheduled access time and bandwidth control to optimize network resources utilization. For example, a university will be able to allocate higher bandwidth in the library and lower in its reception area. Furthermore, NACs enable Mac level control over client stations, IEEE 802.1x, WPA2, etc., to block out the access from any client device e.g. a laptop or a PDA that hooks up with the network via any managed AP. This gives the administrator another choice, besides the traditional user authentication, to permit or deny access to network by the AP management interface.

SCHEDULED PERIODIC MONITORING AND REPORTING

How to rescue a network administrator from time- and effort-consuming network trouble detection and repair task - from being absorbed with physically tracking problems, reporting errors, and monitoring AP activities across the whole network? NACs provide "System Alarms" and "Real-Time Status" of both on-line users and APs, which enables the administrator to remotely oversee the entire network and easily block out unauthorized access. The real-time status displayed on the Device List of NACs will come in very handy with organizations that are operating large scale networks, especially to a WISP. In addition, the status of each associated client including RF channel, speed and received signal strength will also be shown on the List, keeping the administrator informed of the overall network utilization.

REMOTE CONFIGURATION AND FIRMWARE UPGRADES

One key feature of NACs to help cut down network maintenance efforts is the network administrator can generate configuration files via Template Settings that can be edited and pre-defined for all managed APs. It reduces the cost for on-site visits to reboot, configure or upgrade firmware of equipments. When a new AP is added to the network at a remote office, the administrator is able to push those pre-defined settings down to the device with some clicks and immediately include that device in the managed list. The AP management interface of NACs gives the administrator useful information to identify and fix configuration problems remotely, as if the entire network were sitting in front of him!


About Cipherium Systems
Cipherium Systems Co., Ltd., a leading network management solution provider in Taiwan, designs and develops high performance network security and service management equipments for WLAN networks, providing our vendors and partners with a wide range of advanced, easy-to-use products. With years of experience in large-scale network applications and network security management, Cipherium has delivered complete solutions to schools, hospitals, government agencies, enterprises and hotspots, assisting customers to benefit from convenience and cost-effectiveness of WLAN networks. To learn more, please visit Cipherium at http://www.cipherium.com.tw.