Review: AirDefense Enterprise

AirDefense Enterprise is one of those wireless-security products that integrates into the enterprise as an integral part of the overall network management scheme.

Essentially, the product fits into an intrusion detection architecture and watches the network for any wireless activity. This is a plus for the product which, unlike most of the others tested, is a complete hardware/software package.

While the implementation is clean, as would be expected from an appliance, there still are areas where it could be improved. We also found some challenges in the area of support.

The device came with neatly and securely packaged hardware and easily located software and extensive documentation, which included lab exercises – a great tool for testing and training.

Installation instructions lacked insightful screenshots that would be beneficial for novice installers.

No major problems were encountered during installation thanks to a clear procedure. However, we ended up trying to interpret what we were reading without useful screenshots.

AirDefense is a professional product with a professional staff. This showed through excellent support as long as we had a direct point of contact. Minimal support was required with the product's high performance, however.

The device looks at the entire network and reports on virtually all types of threats, including zero-day attacks. It also has a location tracking feature that provides physical locations of threats. It does a great job minimizing false positives and repeated alerts.

The appliance provides a great interface for administrators to monitor the network and maneuver through the logs.

The training exercises are recommended for novices, because some processes are not as intuitive as others.

Support is nothing shy of professional as long as you have a direct number for a support engineer. They greet you in a professional manner by giving you their name, asking you questions regarding your needs, recommend corrective solutions, and encourage you to call back with additional questions you may have.

For:

Good documentation and training manuals allow users to become familiar quickly with the extremely user-friendly interface; plenty of security options to meet the standards of any business.

Without a direct point of contact, you will have a hard time getting a response through leaving a message with the operator.

A slick wireless extension to your existing network monitoring environment.