Other multimillion dollar corporations have been hacked into. "But so far our wireless network has not been penetrated, and with Bluesocket's technology, if we do have an attempt, we can identify the MAC address of the AP, which gives us a pretty strong idea of where the hacker is."
Strong access point (AP) security management is one of the main advantages that the clinic has garnered from its Bluesocket installation. Not only does it provide protection and alert network administrators of the location of unauthorized penetration attempts, it also makes security and other management changes much easier. Instead of having to implement changes separately on each AP through the clinic's facilities, it lets network staff make the change once, at the central management point, and propagate the change through the entire network.
And it integrates well with other technologies. Before installing Bluesocket, the clinic already had a number of Cisco APs operating. Bluesocket integrated those into the network, allowing the institution to maintain its existing investment in its wireless edge. Retterer also implemented the latest Cisco perimeter security across the network and Cisco Security Advisor (CSA) on the clinic's desktop and portable computers. "Bluesocket plays nicely with the Cisco security," he says. "We have had virus attacks to our wireless perimeter, but so far no penetrations.
"It also allows us to authenticate users through Microsoft's Active Directory, which allows us to set rules for different classes of users." This is particularly important to meet the regulatory requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which specifies for instance that while clinicians can view the patient's medical record, billing and financial staff may only see parts directly related to billing.
Bluesocket also plays well with another leading-edge wireless technology. Smith Clinic has added MobileAccess technology to the network, which it plans to use to provide microcellular, first responder and medical telemetry wireless networks through its facilities. Retterer says these technologies have integrated flawlessly.
Retterer says he turned to Bluesocket when Smith Clinic decided to implement an electronic medical record (EMR) in its ambulatory facilities. As part of this project, the clinic wanted to extend its 802.11g network to support pervasive access to this highly regulated identifiable medical information by the clinical staff, including access by Fujitsu tablets carried by doctors. But that raised security concerns in the group practice with facilities in Marion and Delaware, Ohio. Since 1990 the base 35-doctor practice has added hospital-based specialty service organizations in radiology, pathology and anesthesiology; a diagnostic testing facility; and most recently purchased an existing cancer treatment center.
"We decided to install a system that would provide information to our doctors regardless of where they are in the six-county area we serve, both in our facilities and the hospital," says Mark Freyhof, director of finance. This was a tall order, and both the network and the EMR are still works in progress. The clinic piloted the EMR starting in October in its smaller facility in Delaware, Ohio, which has 10 doctors, and is in the process of rolling it out in the main facility in Marion. The Wi-Fi network is in place in both facilities and in the hospital, all running through a central Bluesocket firewall. Once the EMR is fully implemented the clinic plans to add other support applications to the network.
With this growing family of facilities, Retterer wanted a Wi-Fi solution that installed quickly and simply, and Bluesocket gave him that. "I was not happy with the speed of implementation [of our contractor], so except for pulling the cables in the A ring and mounting the hardware, I installed and configured the Bluesocket, the APs and the M800 MobileAccess concentrators myself," he says.
He found that the Bluesocket management system handled much of the work automatically. He did not have to do a pre-installation survey, often the most expensive and time-consuming part of a Wi-Fi installation, because Bluesocket automatically optimized the signal of each AP to provide maximum coverage without signal conflicts. And because of this, he was able to use many fewer APs than would be true using the older, thick-AP technology. Not only did this save cost and make initial network installation quicker, it also simplifies physical upgrades, since fewer APs are involved.
"I didn't have to configure each AP separately," he said. "Instead I created a single configuration and copied it through the network to all the APs. That made the installation much easier."And when he needs to change configurations, he can make the change once, and Bluesocket will distribute it through the network.
"One of the best things about Bluesocket is it has future-proofed our Wi-Fi network," Retterer says. "Right now we are running on 54M bit/sec. 802.11. If that moves to 1,908M bits, and we have to put new cards in our Cisco APs, it will be much easier to do because we don't have as many on the network."