Network Profile Manager App

[peter.cort]

Hi guys, I'm looking for a program that will allow for 2 network profiles to be made, one for LAN and one for WiFi. I need to be able to start up tunnelblick when the wifi becomes active, and then to be either disconnected (optimal), or quit (sub-optimal but ok) when the LAN becomes active. Also our users don't want to have to do something every time they go from WiFi to LAN, they just want it to work, so some kind of network auto-detect is necessary.

Just background on the situation, we have about 70 users on mbp's and they can use a LAN connection while at their desk, but they have meetings and move around a lot and need to be on the WiFi for a good portion of the day. Our WiFi is open to anybody, but firewalled, and if the employees need to access the intranet they need to use tunnelblick. When they go back and sit down most people either don't connect to the LAN, which after a while bogs down the WiFi and we get complaints, or they connect to the LAN and don't disconnect from the VPN which can create issues with doing stuff over the internet.

Free or Paid, doesn't matter, obviously free-er is better, but we're willing to pay if it's good, and we don't need tons of frilly features, it's nice to have them, but just the vpn enable/disable on wifi feature is necessary.

 

[amney]

Questionable architecture?

Obviously as I don't know your whole network, I may be quick to judge, but to me this seems like you are trying to look for a solution to an all-ready bad situation.

Have you looked into the idea of having a public/private wifi? - if you have sufficient hardware this should only be a problem of reconfiguring your access points.

This seems like a far more elegant solution to the problem and will also relieve pressure on your VPN.

 

[peter.cort]

The problem is just the amount of users in a small area. We have about 70 sales people with laptops, then their phones which generally are on the wifi when possible, so that's a theoretical maximum of around 140 devices on the wifi. We can't really add more AP's because then it will be cluttered and cause issues. We're in the process of expanding our floor space so that should help some but were still looking for an app in the meantime that can tide us over. Also for clarification it's not pressure on the VPN that's the problem it's pressure on the Access Points.

also there aren't many non-employees on the wifi, but it's a case of we need the wifi to be available to non-employees.

 

[amney]

Hopefully you shouldn't need to add more APs. Any business grade AP should be able to broadcast two SSIDS on separate channels - this would also add the benefit of reducing the amount of concurrently connected clients per channel if you separated internal and external clients.

I know you came looking for an app but I feel the best solution would be to change the network so that switching between wifi + lan is a transparent operation to the user.

 

[peter.cort]

Having 2 seperate SSIDs doesn't solve the problem though. You're still connecting the same amount of users and devices through a set number of AP's. It's not the channels that's the issue it's the fact that the amount of users on the wifi bog the AP's down. The best solution we feel is the one we have in place which is to have the wifi available for when they're in meetings or walking around on their phones, and then have them directly connected to the ethernet when they're sitting down.

I know you came looking for an app but I feel the best solution would be to change the network so that switching between wifi + lan is a transparent operation to the user.

That's exactly what we're trying to do, make the process between using the wifi when necessary and then the lan when possible as transparent as possible. The issue is that the wifi with tunnelblick and the ethernet when active together create all sorts of problems. We just want the sales and operations peoples' systems to work and the best way to do that is an application that will toggle between the wifi and tunnelblick when not connected to the ethernet, and then when it detects ethernet shut off wifi and tunnelblick.

 

[wditters]

Little bump ... looking for the same, comparable to for instance Lenovo Access Connections ... Found anything yet?