WPA/WPA2-Personal and Enterprise

WEP

A method of encrypting data for wireless communication intended to provide the same level of privacy as a wired network. WEP is not as secure as WPA encryption. To gain access to a WEP network, you must know the key. The key is a string of characters that you create. When using WEP, you must determine the level of encryption. The type of encryption determines the key length. 128-bit encryption requires a longer key than 64-bit encryption. Keys are defined by entering in a string in HEX (hexadecimal - using characters 0-9, A-F) or ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange - alphanumeric characters) format. ASCII format is provided so you can enter a string that is easier to remember. The ASCII string is converted to HEX for use over the network. Four keys can be defined so that you can change keys easily. A default key is selected for use on the network.

Key Length	Hex	ASCII
64-bit	10 characters	5 characters
128-bit	26 characters	13 characters

Both of these options select some variant of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) -- security standards published by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The WPA Mode further refines the variant that the router should employ.

WPA/WPA2 Mode:

WPA is the older standard; select this option if the clients that will be used with the router only support the older standard. WPA2 is the newer implementation of the stronger IEEE 802.11i security standard. With the "WPA2" option, the router tries WPA2 first, but falls back to WPA if the client only supports WPA. With the "WPA2 Only" option, the router associates only with clients that also support WPA2 security.

Cipher Type:

The encryption algorithm used to secure the data communication. TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) provides per-packet key generation and is based on WEP. AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a very secure block based encryption. With the "TKIP and AES" option, the router negotiates the cipher type with the client, and uses AES when available.

Group Key Update Interval:

The amount of time before the group key used for broadcast and multicast data is changed.

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