48CHAPTER 5: GATEWAY CONFIGURATION
Encryption Figure 34 Encryption Screen
Wired Equivalent Privacy or WEP allows you to encrypt the traffic between your Wireless PC and the Gateway. It is important to remember that with WEP disabled anyone with a Wireless PC can eavesdrop on your network. 3Com recommends that you get the network working with WEP disabled first and then enable it as the last step. This will simplify setting up your network.
If you enable WEP on the Gateway, you must reconfigure your wireless PCs to use exactly the same Encryption Type and Keys otherwise the devices will not understand each other.
WEP is for securing data transmitted through wireless communications between the Gateway and it's wireless clients. Enabling WEP has no security effect on data transmitted through wired (Ethernet) connections or through your connections to the Internet.
Wireless Encryption Type
There are two levels of encryption available, 64 bit (sometimes referred to as 40 bit) and 128 bit. 128 bit will result in a higher level of security, but may cause a slight decrease in performance. Use the Wireless Encryption Type box to select the desired level.
