Question

Wireless issues, duplex mismatch, and collisions are just a few things that can cause data integrity to be lost.

What are some way to prevent and/or recovery from errors?

Answer 1

Wireless issues:

1. Configuration Problems (Misconfigurations or Incomplete Configurations) ...
2. Denial of Service. ...
3. Passive Capturing. ...
4. Rogue (or Unauthorized/Ad-Hoc) Access Points. ...
5. Evil Twin Attacks. ...
6. Hacking of Lost or Stolen Wireless Devices. ...
7. Freeloading.

Modify the Default SSID Access points come with a standard network name such as “tsunami”, “default”, “linksys”, etc. that broadcasts to clients to advertise the availability of the access point. You should change this setup immediately upon installation. When renaming the access-point Service Set Identifier (SSID), choose something that is not directly related to your company; do not choose your company name, company phone number, or other readily available information about your company that is easy to guess or find on the Internet. By default, access points broadcast the SSID to any wireless client within range. For some applications, such as hotspots or guest access, this capability allows users to find the network without assistance. However, for corporate networks, you should disable the broadcast to limit those who may be casually looking for an open wireless network.

Use Strong Encryption

One of the biggest hurdles to WLAN deployment has been Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption, which is a weak, standalone encryption method. Also, the complexity of add-on security solutions has prevented many IT managers from embracing the benefits of the latest advances in WLAN security.

Deploy Mutual Authentication

Between the Client and the Network Another important capability lacking in the original 802.11 standard was mutual authentication between the network and the client. Again, the release of WPA and IEEE 802.11i introduced this capability. Both of these protocols use IEEE 802.1X for mutual authentication between the client and the network.

Alternative Security Strategies for Business-Specific Clients

If you cannot use 802.11i, WPA2, or WPA because the client does not support these encryption and authentication types because of age or lack of driver compatibility, a VPN is the next best solution for securing the over-the-air client connection.

Use Identify Networking to Segment Users to Appropriate Resources Many different types of users need to access the WLAN network. Order administrators require access to the order entry and shipping systems; accounting and finance staff require access to accounts receivable and payable as well as other financial systems; and marketing and sales teams may require access to sales performance data

duplex mismatch:

Duplex mismatches can cause a significant impact to your network performance. Collisions, particularly late ones, can take a long time (relatively speaking) for the TCP stack to recover from. Collisions with UDP means the data may never get there or require an application layer recovery mechanism.

Fixing Duplex Mismatches

While finding and debugging duplex mismatches can be a challenge (if you’re not using PathSolutions TotalView), the fix for duplex mismatches can be quite simple. For network connections to servers and other critical hardware that is not often changed or unplugged, it may be more reliable to manually configure network speed and duplex settings. This manual configuration will ensure that the links are running at the desired speed and duplex setting. For user-level connections to offices (that may be frequently unplugged and re-arranged), it is usually easier to leave autonegotiation enabled on network ports and end-user devices.

Collisions:

A collision occurs on your network when something happens to the data sent from the physical network medium that prevents it from reaching its destination. Mainly, it encounters another signal from another host on the network that yields a resulting useless signal on the network when the signals combine.

Packet collisions occur when two devices on a shared network segment send packets simultaneously. The colliding packets must be discarded and sent again, which reduces network efficency,and in some caes due to delay the data integrity may be affected :

for example there is a chain of events(read/write) in the data:

a -> b -> c->d

now consider b didnt reached its destination on time, but all the other operations were executed on the data, this is how data integrity may be affected.

prevention policy:

Media Access Control (MAC) techniques can help prevent collisions from occurring. Two commonly used MAC methods include Collision Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection, or CSMA/CD, used with wired Ethernet networks and Collision Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance, or CSMA/CA, used with 802.11 wireless networks.

Collisions can mostly be avoided by using switches instead of hubs. Switches enable for the segmentation of Ethernet networks into smaller collision domain. Whereas the use of a hub creates a large single collision domain, each port on a switch represents a separate collision domain. The switch can provide full-duplex communication to the node/nodes connected to that port. In a switched network, systems do not need to use collision detection and can just transmit without hesitation.