Chris Sanders

Installing a wireless network in a Marina doesn’t always strike people as something that is a common practice but it can be very beneficial to the customers of the Marina as well as its ownership. Some of the benefits include:

• Internet Access – Everybody these days has a laptop or another Internet capable mobile device, so it is likely that marina patrons could benefit from Internet access while on the water. Not only does this apply to those tied up at the dock, but using the right equipment the wireless signal could be broadcast several miles away over the water to provide hotspot access to clients even when they are not docked.
• Corporate Network Access – In some business environments executives may need to keep in constant contact through e-mail, corporate VPN, etc. Having a wireless LAN in a marina makes it possible for these executives to vacation out on the lake without the feeling of being disconnected from their work. This also opens up the door for the possibility of corporate meetings held on large boats or yachts where network and Internet connectivity is beneficial.
• Promotion Offerings – Controlling your own means of network access in a marina opens up several promotional options. Using this technology a marina can differentiate itself from others by offering high-speed computer gaming networks, marina specific online weather services, online web portals linking to other locale-specific attractions, the ability for marina patrons to access their account and billing information, or even a channel in which the marina could promote other services.

Although the benefits are great from a marina management standpoint, there are a few technical considerations to keep in mind from the standpoint of those installing the wireless network. Those are:

• Multipath Propagation – If you have done any work with wireless networks then you should be familiar with the concept of multipath propagation. This is the phenomenon that occurs when the same RF signal reaches a client or access point through two or more paths. This is typically caused by the reflection or refraction of RF waves off of large terrestrial objects such as buildings, mountains, and you guessed it…bodies of water. The primary solution to this is to be very particular about the placement of your antennas and to use two antennas for the purpose of diversity. It is also very common to use semi-directional antennas rather than omni-directional ones in order to prevent multipath.
• Attenuation Cause by Weather – As with any outdoor environment, weather is always a concern. This is only amplified in marina environments due to higher winds and the constant spray of water from those winds and other weather-driven events. This usually means that the RF cloud you create will need to be either very dense or provide several points of connections to combat this.
• Cost – The last concern is the cost of deploying a marina wireless network. Due to the size of the area being covered, its diverse geographical makeup, and the considerations mentioned above, even a small marina deployment can cost upwards of a couple thousand dollars. To remedy this most marinas often charge a small fee to use the wireless network. I have personally seen this done as either a small monthly fee (access is controlled by MAC filtering) or by requiring the time based rental of a network card preconfigured to work on the network.

If you are the owner of a marina and are  looking for something to differentiate you from the competition then installing a wireless network is a great modern solution for doing this. As a matter of fact, I think it is safe to say that before too awful long most marinas will be expected to offer some form of wireless connectivity. Although they do pose some technical challenges, with a little research, a little skill, and a little time you can overcome them all.

I have just had a full length article published on WindowsDevCenter.com entitled “Secure Wireless Networking with ISA and RADIUS”. It is a pretty nifty little guide on how you can setup enterprise level wireless security well beyond the standard WEP/WPA used in home networks. You can view the article on the front page of WindowsDevCenter.com or directly by clicking here.

Would you allow somebody to bring a laptop into your corporate headquarters and plug it directly into an Ethernet port? Then why would you allow someone easy access to your network via its wireless infrastructure? That is exactly what you are doing when you do not invest in the security of your wireless network.

It is so common to talk to a Network Admin and listen to them tout the security of their WEP or WPA enabled wireless network. WEP, WPA, and similar technologies are very easily surpassed by even the most novice of hackers. It is for this reason that I refer to securing a wireless network as “investing” in its security. That is because relying on just the individual wireless access points security is not enough.

If your wireless infrastructure is of any reasonable size then it is a safe bet to say that you should look into spending some extra money in securing it. How do you do this? There are a variety of different ways you can go about implenting server based wireless security. The most common (and secure) is RADIUS based security with the enchancements of certificate based authentication. This ensures thats only the wireless clients listed in a RADIUS database on a physical server and holding a certificate pushed out by group policy will be able to authenticate to the network. If someone wishes to compromise the security of your wireless network then they must also compromise the RADIUS and certificate servers. There are several other ways to secure your wireless network beyond WEP/WPA, and I highly reccomend looking into them.

Remember, you can never destroy all of the paths a hacker can take to compromising a device or service. You can however put plenty of hurdles in the way of those paths ot make the process a lot harder.