For the last few years, network administrators have, generally speaking, had it easy. All you had to do was maintain your network, albeit with less funding and fewer resources than ever. In 2011, though, you’re going to be asked to do more with less. This will not be easy. Here, for better of for worst, are the challenges you’ll be facing.
1. Start IPv6 Deployment
You must start moving to IPv6. I’m not kidding. The remaining unallocated IPv4 Internet addresses are disappearing faster than ever. According to the IPv4 Address Report, the projected Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) unallocated address pool exhaustion is now February 20th 2011 and the projected regional Internet registry (RIRs) unallocated address pool exhaustion date is November 11th, 2011.
Do I need to say it again? Get moving on your IPv6 conversion plans. I’ll be writing more about how to go about that in future blog postings. In the meantime, start talking to your ISPs about switching over? If they’re not much help start talking to ISPs like Verizon and Hurricane Electric that know their IPv6 from a fibre-optic network in the ground.
2. Switch over to 802.11n
After much too long a standardization road, 802.11n has finally emerged as the high-speed network standard. With a maximum practical data-throughput rate above 100Mbps (Megabits per second), 802.11n is posed to take the place of wired networking for ordinary desktop PCs.
To really make the switchover to Wi-Fi, you’ll need to optimize your 802.11n deployment by such techniques as dropping 802.11g Wi-Fi networking. In addition, instead of designing for covering the broadest possible area with Wi-Fi, you need to start designing for capability instead. So, for example, if you have an office with several dozen workers, you may need only one AP (access point) to cover the space, but to provide reasonable performance, you’ll need to add multiple APs.
3. Secure Wireless Networks
If you do elect to switch to wireless LANs for everyday office use, you also must start using real wireless security. Today, that means Wi-Fi Protected Access with Counter Mode with Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol (WPA2/CCMP) nothing else will hold up. Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) has been busted for almost a decade and other forms of WPA can be cracked easily enough with Rainbow Tables.
Maybe you’d thought that you could get away with not using real Wi-Fi security in the past, but thanks to Firesheep anyone can spy on open Wi-Fi networks. If you’re really using wireless networks than you really need to get serious about your security.
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