In-depth analysis of the security of wireless devices

Wireless network products represented by wireless routers, APs and wireless network cards have gradually broken the dominance of Hubs and ordinary routers in the home and small and medium-sized enterprise markets, and have become the first choice for building SOHO and small and medium-sized networks. The huge market demand, price sensitivity, and fierce competition from similar products all require wireless product manufacturers to do everything they can to reduce costs, and some small and medium-sized enterprises are "hungry and indiscriminate" in order to reduce costs. The emergence of some counterfeit and shoddy products has brought consumers troubles and problems as follows:

Crash

I am afraid that the most common problem reported by wireless product consumers nowadays is that the wireless product suddenly stops working or freezes. This problem is especially common when a novice uses a wireless router for the first time. The general reason is that there is a configuration problem, which can usually be solved by repeatedly selecting the appropriate options. However, some users reported that wireless products always freeze every now and then, and the after-sales service staff of wireless products have no good way to solve it. They just repeatedly tell users to upgrade the software version to the latest version, or simply say that there is a problem with the hardware design.

Short effective distance

This problem is not surprising. Generally, the actual effective distance of wireless products is considered good if it can reach 1/3 to 1/2 of the maximum distance claimed. There are many factors that cause this problem, such as the effectiveness of wireless antennas, the location of wireless products, obstacles between wireless products, and the heat dissipation effect of wireless products. These will become excuses for wireless product manufacturers to shirk their product quality. In this case, to achieve the purpose of increasing the transmission distance, you can choose a reasonable location to place the wireless antenna, add a gain antenna to the wireless product, etc. If you are interested, you can also make a simple gain antenna by yourself. Maybe the gain effect will satisfy you.

Frequent disconnections

Many friends often find that the wireless signal is intermittent when using wireless products. In addition to environmental influences and electromagnetic interference, it is mainly caused by the stability and quality of the wireless products themselves. For example, when using a wireless router, although the network connection is still "alive", it is no longer possible to access the Internet. After restarting the router, it can return to normal. This situation is a typical case of instability of wireless products.

If you call the manufacturer's after-sales service number to inquire, you are likely to get two answers. One is that there is a compatibility issue with the wireless network card, and the other is to upgrade the software version. If there is no explanation, they will say that this is a special case. In short, there are almost no manufacturers who admit that there are problems with their products.

When choosing wireless products, I hope everyone will be more careful when purchasing, and not bring themselves greater troubles for the sake of a little profit.

The problems caused by wireless devices are as follows:

Poor compatibility

We often encounter such a situation that the wireless product manual clearly tells consumers that its product is compatible with products of certain technologies, but in actual use it is not the case. Poor wireless security compatibility is mainly manifested in the incompatibility of wireless routers or wireless APs produced by one manufacturer with wireless network cards produced by another manufacturer when connected and working.

The reason for incompatibility is that different manufacturers use different chips and other hardware and different technologies, or there is poor compatibility between early products and new products that use new technologies. For example, some wireless products were designed before the emergence of Centrino technology, and it was not considered that Centrino would be so widely used during the design, resulting in poor compatibility with Centrino. Compatibility issues will directly lead to the inability to connect between wireless products, or poor connection speed.

Poor anti-interference

With the increasing number of electronic products in daily use, there are more and more products using the same frequency band as wireless products. This has greatly affected the data transmission rate between wireless routers and wireless network cards, which has put higher requirements on the anti-interference ability of wireless products.

Interference mainly comes from two aspects. The first is interference from nearby wireless devices in the same frequency band. With the development of the wireless market and the increasing density of wireless product use, this problem is very likely to occur in companies, office buildings, commercial areas, and residential areas.

In addition, some other interference sources will also have a significant impact on the antenna transmission and reception effect of wireless routers, such as cordless phones (2.4 or 5.xGHz), Bluetooth devices (2.4GHz), pulse radars (5.4GHz), microwave ovens (50% of the busyness in the 2.4GHz bandwidth will produce pulse interference), low-energy RF light sources (2.4GHz), etc. In order to reduce manufacturing costs, some wireless products have poor anti-interference design and shielding metal materials, resulting in poor or no anti-interference performance.

Poor heat dissipation

Whether it is a wireless router or a wireless network card, its chips and various components work in a certain working environment. For example, the temperature has a certain range. If the temperature is too high, it will directly lead to a decrease in working efficiency and even damage to the wireless product. Wireless products will inevitably generate a certain amount of heat when working, so whether the heat can be dissipated in time is an important indicator of wireless product quality inspection, which is closely related to the design structure, working power, heat dissipation characteristics, heat dissipation materials, etc. of wireless products.

Some wireless products, in pursuit of aesthetics and low cost, use a large number of materials and structures with poor heat dissipation effects. This will cause the wireless products to overheat after working for a long time, thus affecting the connection speed and even damaging the hardware.

The working of a wireless network card is not just about being able to be installed normally on a PC. The compatibility and coordination with the wireless router or AP must be fully considered. Otherwise, it will affect the wireless transmission distance and work efficiency. So when purchasing, don't just test whether it can be installed and used normally in a laptop. The key is to see whether it can work well with wireless devices.

Regarding the selection of wireless devices, the above content has introduced the three skills that should be mastered for wireless security. I hope you can gain something from it.