3Com WX4400 3CRWX440095A, WXR100 3CRWXR10095A, WX1200 3CRWX120695A manual Certificates

20	MANAGING KEYS AND
	CERTIFICATES

A digital certificate is a form of electronic identification for computers. The WX switch requires digital certificates to authenticate its communications to 3Com Wireless Switch Manager and Web Manager, to WebAAA clients, and to Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) clients for which the WX performs all EAP processing. Certificates can be generated on the WX or obtained from a certificate authority (CA). Keys contained within the certificates allow the WX, its servers, and its wireless clients to exchange information secured by encryption.

If the switch does not already have certificates, MSS automatically generates the missing ones the first time you boot using MSS Version 4.2 or later. You do not need to install certificates unless you want to replace the ones automatically generated by MSS. (For more information, see “Certificates Automatically Generated by MSS” on page 418.)

Before installing a new certificate, verify with the display timedate and display timezone commands that the WX switch is set to the correct date, time, and time zone. Otherwise, certificates might not be installed correctly.

Why Use Keys and Certain WX switch operations require the use of public-private key pairs

Certificates? and digital certificates. All 3Com Wireless Switch Manager and Web Manager users, and users for which the WX performs IEEE 802.1X EAP authentication or WebAAA, require public-private key pairs and digital certificates to be installed on the WX switch.

These keys and certificates are fundamental to securing wireless, wired authentication, and administrative connections because they support Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption and dynamic Wired-Equivalency Privacy (WEP) encryption.