May 25, 2005

Corriente Networks WiFi Security: Better Than LucidLink?

Last week I covered Interlink Networks' LucidLink WiFi security solution. It is a very good solution.

However, there's always competition waiting to beat you at a feature.

Today I got news from Corriente Networks about their solution for the SMB market, Elektron. Like LucidLink, Elektron offers SMBs a much higher security solution than WEP or other "default" wireless security solutions.

Lucikd Link and Elektron offer similar solutions - but for one MAJOR difference.

Corriente tells me that the two products solve the same problem (authenticating Wi-Fi users and encrypting data), albeit in different ways.

The primary difference is that Elektron does not use a proprietary client -- you can use the client software that's already built into Windows XP and Mac OS X (and Linux, Windows CE, et. al.), so you are not limited by the platform your users are on.

With LucidLink, you need to install their client software on every laptop that will connect to your Wi-Fi network, and it is Windows only. Also, Elektron authentication is based on usernames and passwords rather than digital certificates, which allows you to tie into your existing authentication infrastructure. For instance, if you already have a server that your users connect to for file or email services, you can install Elektron on that machine and users will have the same username and password for logging into the Wi-Fi network as they do for the other services -- no need to maintain a separate list of users just for Wi-Fi. This greatly simplifies user management if you have more than just a handful of users.

0 comments