Terms used in WiFi Manager

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AAA Server : The AAA indicates authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) services. It interacts with network access and gateway servers and with databases and directories containing user information.

AP-AccessPoint : A wireless LAN hardware device which acts as a hub for different users of wireless devices, so that they can connect to one or many wireless devices or to the wired LAN.

AP Scan : A few Access Points detect and expose the Access Points in their vicinity which is referred to as AP scanning.WiFi Manager uses these information to detect Rogue Access Points.

ACL-Access Control List : In WiFi Manager, the Access Control List contains the list of MAC addresses of mobile units which can be added to be blocked from or passed through to a selected AP.

Adhoc : Adhoc networks are called the peer to peer network and they are not connected to any APs. As they are not properly secured and might expose users data to the hackers, they are treated more as threats. WiFi Manager can be configured to raise an alarm when adhoc networks are discovered.

Associated Mobile Users : This term refers to all those mobile users connected to a particular Access Point in a network.

Alerts :Alerts are meaningful messages which are raised when any type of faults in the network are detected.

Acknowledge Alarms : WiFi Manager provides an option to mark the alarms on which you have worked on. This helps the other operators working on alarms to know the current status.

Active Alarms : Alarms which are existing and not cleared off are shown by WiFi Manager as Active Alarms.

Attention : One of the severity raised by WiFi Manager when a device misses one status poll, an event is logged and a corresponding alarm is generated with this severity.

Alarm Notification : The process through which the application notifies the administrator about the various alarms in form of intrusion, vulnerabilities, performance,operational faults etc.

Attenuation : When there is reduction of RF signal strength due to the presence of obstacles such as a wall or person,it is termed as attenuation.

Bandwidth : Bandwidth is the quantity of transmission capacity that is available on a network at any point in time, measured as bps or KBPS(Kilo Bytes per second)

Bulk configuration : The process of setting the configuration of a group of devices is called bulk configuration. WiFi Manager offers bulk configuration feature which can be used to set the configuration of a large number of APs or bulk upgrade of firmware.

Category : WiFi Manager classifies the discovered devices into following categories: Access points, Switches, Routers,mobile units,wireless switches and Gateways. The category discovery in WiFi Manager can be used to select the device category to be discovered. You can refer our Getting Started document to see more details.

CSV : Comma separated values can be maintained in a specified format and used for importing from applications instead of manually feeding the data.

Community Strings : The authentication string used to communicate with the SNMP agent running on a device.

Critical :One of the severity levels used by WiFi Manager. By default, when a device misses five status polls, an event is logged and a corresponding alarm is generated with this severity.

Credentials : The Access privileges required to reach the device interface via HTTP or SNMP or CLI are called credentials. They contain values of username, password, read/write community values.

Channel : Channel refers to the security channels 802.11a or b/g through which the device can communicate. You can specify the security setting for an access point via WiFi Manager and apply these settings over selected APs.

Configuration : The process of setting up some properties or settings in an application or a device is called configuration. WiFi Manager helps you to configure your network devices from a simple user interface.

Client : Any computer connected to a network that requests services from another member of the network is called a client device and the users of these devices are called clients. Client devices usually communicate with hub devices like access points and gateways.

Denial of Service (DoS) : The denial of service is a condition where by access to a service is deliberately denied to the user.WiFi Manager can be configured to raise suitable alarms when DoS are detected in the network.

DNS : DNS stands for Domain Name Server which translates the IP Address to Domain Name which is unique and human readable

DHCP : Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol simplifies network administration because the software keeps track of IP addresses rather than requiring an administrator to manage the task. This means that a new computer can be added to a network without the hassle of manually assigning it a unique IP address.

Discovery : The process of detecting and identifying the devices in your network via WiFi Manager is called Discovery. WiFi Manager automatically discovers the devices in the same subnet and shows these devices classified into various categories.You can enable the category of devices which you want to discover using the Category Discovery option in WiFi Manager.

Fault : WiFi Manager detects faults in the network through periodical status polling and generates alarms for the faults. WiFi Manager can also be configured to notify the administrator about the fault detected in the network.

Frame check sequence : WiFi Manager generates error reports of FCS, which shows any mismatch of the frame check sequence that is sent and received. The FCS is a mathematical way to ensure that all the frame's bits are correct without having the system examine each bit and compare it to the original. Packets with Alignment Errors also generate FCS Errors.

Firmware and upgrade : Firmware is a combination of software and hardware.When the firmware is to be upgraded from one version to the higher version, it is called upgrade. This can be done even for a group of devices via WiFi Manager, using its bulk configuration capabilities.

Friendly Access Point : Friendly APs usually belong to the network of the neighboring companies. The signals of these APs may be available even though they are not connected to one's network. These APs are normally harmless except they cause some interference.

Gateways : It is a node which serves as a point of entry into a network

Global Credentials : Credentials or access privileges which are applicable for all the devices in your network. WiFi Manager uses these credentials to communicate with the devices in the network by configuring the snmp/cli credentials in the device.

HTTP : Hyper Text Transfer Protocol which defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions the browsers and web servers should take in response to various commands.WiFi Manager uses HTTP protocol to discover many AP models.

HTTP Credentials Credentials which are required to enter the interface of the device through HTTP.

IP and IP address : Internet Protocol is a set of rules used to send and receive messages at the Internet address level.An IP address has two parts: an identifier of a particular network on the Internet and an identifier of the particular device (which can be a server or a workstation) within that network.

MAC address : MAC Address are the hardware address which is used to uniquely identify the Ethernet Card (NIC) and Wireless LAN Cards. This is of the form x:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx , where x is an HexaDecimal character.See also OUI

.Media - b/g/a : These are the 3 specifications for communication via security channel as defined by IEEE for wireless networking.WiFi Manager can be used to configure the detailed RF settings of the 802.11b/g or 802.11a wireless interface of the access point.

Mibs : A MIB is a standard set of definitions for exchanging information about hardware and software components. Each MIB contains a group of objects, which specify a structure and format for defining manageable elements.

Mobile Units/Mobile Client /MU/ Users : The laptops connecting to a WLAN are termed as mobile units.The users of these mobile units are the mobile users and the applications run on these mobile units are called mobile clients.Each mobile user device has a radio interface card that associates with the nearest access point and is able to communicate wirelessly to any other wireless device or other resources connected to the wired infrastructure, such as the Internet.

Monitoring : It is a continuous process that uses methodical collection and analysis of data to manage the network.WiFi Manager keeps check of all the devices in the network and their health by monitoring.

Nearest Sensors : Sensors which are installed in the nearest point to the AP in a network are shown in WiFi Manager as the nearest Sensor.When multiple sensors are in the AP's vicinity, then the sensor which receives high signal strength will be identified as Nearest Sensor

NIC : A type of PC adapter card that either works without wires (Wi-Fi) or attaches to a network cable to provide two-way communication between the computer and network devices such as a hub or switch.

Notification : The administrator can configure the WiFi Manager to notify him about all the alarms or specific alarms in the network. This is called notification,such as E-Mail, Play Sound, etc.

OID : Object Identifier denotes an authoritatively named object,which acts as the address for a MIB variable.

OUI : Organizationally Unique Identifier(OUI) is an first 3 octet of MAC Address which is used to identify the vendor who had manufactured the NIC. See Also: MAC Address

Rogue Access Point : Any unauthorized Access point plugged into the Corporate LAN by the employees which is usually unsecured is called a rogue AP.

Security Channels 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g : These are Wireless standards developed by IEEE workgroup for 802.11 channels. The 802.11a standard uses the 5 GHz band, the 802.11 b and 802.11g use the 2.4 ghz bands. While the channels b and g are more susceptible to interferences from other devices operating in the same band like micro ovens and phones, the 802.11 a remains unaffected to a large extent by these factors. WiFi Manager helps you configure these settings for various WLAN devices through a single user interface.

Service down Alarms : When there is no response from a managed device to a poll, an event is logged and a Service Down alarm will be generated by WiFi Manager.

Status Polling : The managed devices are polled periodically to check there status, as status up or down. This process is called Status Polling.

Session Duration : The time period for which the Mobile Users are associated to the wireless network.

SSID : Service Set Identifier -(SSID - Also called ESSID) is nothing but a name/id assigned to a corporate wireless network . They act as token names when a mobile device/Laptops tries to connect to an Access Point/BSS.

SSH : Security Shell is used for strong authentication and secure communication over the insecure channels. Using SSH, WiFi Manager can execute CLI commands in a secured manner.

SSL : Secure Socket Layer enables creation and exchange of a secret key so as to maintain the integrity of the transactions.

Signal Quality : This is determined as good or poor based on the factors like speed, strength, noise level etc in the RF.

SNMP Community/credentials : The community string defines the relationship between an SNMP server system(Access Points and other SNMP enabled devices) and the client system(here WiFi Manager Server). This string acts like a password to control the clients' access to the server

Switch Port Blocking : Switch Port Blocking is a technique using which the Rogue Access Points are disconnected from the Corporate LAN.

RF Sensor : Hardware unit which sniffs and  analyzes the wlan (802.11) packets and sends the information to WiFi Manager for various network intrusion and vulnerabilities.

Rogue Detection : The process of identifying the unauthorized Access Points in your network is called Rogue detection

Rediscovery : The process of re- initiating the discovery of Network devices especially Access Points  is termed as rediscovery.

Trusted Access Point : Any Access Point which are installed by your legitimate System Administrators. In WiFi Manager, Access Points are deemed as trusted if their MAC address is listed in the authorized list.

Telnet : It is commonly use to remotely control webservers.

Telnet Credentials : Credentials are nothing but the username and password using which WiFi Manager authorizes itself with the device such as Access Points.

Unsolicited Traps : Unsolicited traps are the SNMP Traps send by the device to WiFi Manger which are not understandable and hence discarded by WiFi Manager.

VLAN : The computers connected to a LAN which behave as if they are all connected to the same wire but actually may be in different segments physically is called a Virtual LAN.

Vulnerabilities : These are otherwise the security loopholes that exist in the network

Watchlist alarms : These are the alarms generated over devices which need special attention by the Technicians.

WMI : WMI stands for Windows Management Instrumentation, which provides an operating interface into the device, through Windows XP, Windows 2000 or Windows server 2003.If WiFi Manager server is installed in the Windows laptops, it can access WMI API's to detect Rogue Access Points.

WLAN Attacks : The attacks which threaten the security of the network in various forms are referred to as WLAN attacks. These can be in form of Duration attacks, authentication attacks, flood attacks etc.