Wireless – Security
The next screen is the Wireless – Security screen which allows you to select the network authentication method and to enable or disable WEP encryption. Note that depending on the network authentication that is selected, the screen will change accordingly so additional fields can be configured for the specific authentication method.
Network authentication methods include the following—
•Open—anyone can access the network. The default is a disabled WEP encryption setting.
•Shared—WEP encryption is enabled and encryption key strength of 64-bit or 128-bit needs to be selected. Click on Set Encryption Keys to manually set the network encryption keys. Up to 4 different keys can be set and you can come back to select which one to use at anytime.
•802.1X—requires mutual authentication between a client station and the router by including a RADIUS-based authentication server. Information about the RADIUS server such as its IP address, port and key must be entered. WEP encryption is also enabled and the encryption strength must also be selected.
•WPA—(Wi-Fi Protected Access)— usually used for the larger Enterprise environment, it uses a RADIUS server and TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) encryption (instead of WEP encryption which is disabled). TKIP uses128-bit dynamic session keys (per user, per session, and per packet keys).
•WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access – Pre-Shared Key)—WPA for home and SOHO environments also using the same strong TKIP encryption, per-packet key construction, and key management that WPA provides in the enterprise environment. The main difference is that the password is entered manually. A group re-key interval time is also required.
•WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2)—second generation of WPA which uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) instead of TKIP as its encryption method. Network re-auth interval is the time in which another key needs to be dynamically issued.
•WPA2-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 – Pre-Shared Key)—suitable for home and SOHO environments, it also uses AES encryption and requires you to enter a password and an re-key interval time.
•Mixed WPA2 / WPA—during transitional times for upgrades in the enterprise environment, this mixed authentication method allows “upgraded” and users not yet “upgraded” to access the network via the router. RADIUS server information must be entered for WPA and a as well as a group re-key interval time. Both TKIP and AES are used.
•Mixed WPA2 / WPA-PSK—useful during transitional times for upgrades in the home or SOHO environment, a pre-shared key must be entered along with the group re-key interval time. Both TKIP and AES are also used.
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