NETGEAR WG511U Chapter Wireless Security Configuration, Understanding the Security Options

Chapter 5

Wireless Security Configuration

This chapter describes how to configure the security features of your NETGEAR Double 108 Mbps Wireless PC Card 32-bit CardBus WG511U.

Note: These instructions refer to the WG511U configuration utility. The Windows XP wireless configuration utility must deselected. Check if this is so by viewing the Properties of the Network Connections for the WG511U. Click the Wireless Networks tab and clear the “Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings” check box.

Understanding the Security Options

For a full discussion of wireless security technologies, please see “Wireless Security Overview” on page B-6. The WG511U configuration utility provides the following security options:

•WEP

Wired Equivalent Privacy is an existing, widely implemented and supported, data encryption protocol for 802.11 wireless networks. All wireless nodes on the network are configured with a static 64-bit or 128-bit Shared Key for data encryption but authentication is optional.

•WPA-PSK

WPA Pre-Shared Key (WPA-PSK) performs authentication and strong data encryption that includes dynamic key generation based on a pre-shared key. WPA-PSK does not need RADIUS or certificate servers.

When you use the WG511U configuration utility to configure these security options, you can save your settings in a profile. For example, if you use WPA-PSK at work but WEP at home, you can have work and home profiles that make it easy to switch from one environment to the other. For more information on configuring profiles, see “Using Configuration Profiles” on page 4-1.

Wireless Security Configuration 5-1

August 2004