Wireless LAN Security

Because wireless networks are not as secure as wired networks, it’s vital that security settings are clearly understood and applied.

The list below shows the possible wireless security levels on your SMCWPCI-N2 starting with the most secure. EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) is used for authentication and utilizes dynamic WEP key exchange. EAP requires interaction with a RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) server either on the WAN or the LAN to provide authentication service for wireless stations.

1.Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)

2.IEEE802.1X EAP with RADIUS Server authentication

3.WEP Encryption

4 . Unique ESSID

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CONFIGURE OR CHANGE SECURITY SETTTINGS FOR A

NETWORK WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION AND WITHOUT CLEARLY UNDERSTANDING

THE SETTINGS YOU ARE APPLING. WITH POOR SECURITY SETTINGS, SENSITIVE

DATA YOU SEND CAN BE SEEN BY OTHERS.

D ATA E NCRYPTION WITH WEP

The WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) security protocol is an encryption method designed to try to make wireless networks as secure as wired networks. WEP encryption scrambles all data packets transmitted between the SMCWPCI-N2 and the access point or other wireless stations to keep network communications private. Both the wireless stations and the access points must use the same WEP key for data encryption and decryption.

There are two ways to create WEP keys in your SMCWPCI-N2.

•Automatic WEP key generation based on a password phrase called a passphrase. The passphrase is case sensitive. You must use the same passphrase for all WLAN adapters with this feature in the same WLAN.

•For WLAN adapters without the passphrase feature, you can still take advantage of this feature by writing down the four automatically generated WEP keys from the Security Settings screen of the wireless utility and entering them manually as the WEP keys in the other WLAN adapter(s).

The SMCWPCI-N2 allows you to configure up to four WEP keys and only one key is used as the default transmit key at any one time.