connecting to SSIDs

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fran1942

82 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#142785 24-Mar-2014 16:27

Hi, I have a question regarding corporate environments where there are multiple wireless SSIDs available for multiple VLANs.
How do they configure the individual departmental devices to connect to specific SSIDs by default to keep those computers in their correct VLANs. Is it done via windows group policies via a radius server ?
If so, how does it actually work. Does the PC just work it's way through it's list of available SSIDs until it manages to authenticate with one ?

Thanks for any info.

GregV

928 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1011914 24-Mar-2014 16:31

(thread possibly belongs in IT Pro)
Authenticating to a RADIUS server will let you specify the VLAN to be assigned, which can be done based on Directory Group Membership etc.

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nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1011948 24-Mar-2014 17:00

GregV: (thread possibly belongs in IT Pro)
Authenticating to a RADIUS server will let you specify the VLAN to be assigned, which can be done based on Directory Group Membership etc.

802.1X can do that automagically, without needing multiple SSIDs (although it really depends on the implementation as to how well it works (or if at all)), in a Radius/.1X deployment it's done by setting the Tunnel-Private-Group-ID key (at least when I was testing it with the FreeRadius implementation).

As for networks that have multiple SSIDs (and I'm assuming no EAP/radius etc) which is what OP was asking, I seem to recall the answer is yes, there is a group policy setting that can be set per OU for known wireless networks. It's a while since I've touched Group Policy so I can't be 100% sure, but I seem to recall seeing such an option.