About Wireless Intrusion Detection Services

Wireless Intrusion Detection Services (IDS) greatly increase the security capabilities of the Dell SonicWALL wireless security appliances by enabling them to recognize and even take countermeasures against the most common types of illicit wireless activity. WIDS consists of three types of services, namely, Sequence Number Analysis, Association Flood Detection, and Rogue Access Point Detection. Wireless IDS logging and notification can be enabled under Log > Categories by selecting the WLAN IDS checkbox under Log Categories and Alerts.

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Access Point IDS

When the Radio Role of the wireless security appliance is set to Access Point mode, all three types of WIDS services are available, but Rogue Access Point detection, by default, acts in a passive mode (passively listening to other Access Point Beacon frames only on the selected channel of operation). Selecting Scan Now momentarily changes the Radio Role to allow the wireless security appliance to perform an active scan, and may cause a brief loss of connectivity for associated wireless clients. While in Access Point mode, the Scan Now function should only be used if no clients are actively associated, or if the possibility of client interruption is acceptable.

Rogue Access Points

Rogue Access Points have emerged as one of the most serious and insidious threats to wireless security. In general terms, an access point is considered rogue when it has not been authorized for use on a network. The convenience, affordability and availability of non-secure access points, and the ease with which they can be added to a network creates a easy environment for introducing rogue access points. Specifically, the real threat emerges in a number of different ways, including unintentional and unwitting connections to the rogue device, transmission of sensitive data over non-secure channels, and unwanted access to LAN resources. So while this doesn't represent a deficiency in the security of a specific wireless device, it is a weakness to the overall security of wireless networks.

The security appliance can alleviate this weakness by recognizing rogue access points potentially attempting to gain access to your network. It accomplishes this in two ways: active scanning for access points on all 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.11n channels, and passive scanning (while in Access Point mode) for beaconing access points on a single channel of operation.