•PEAP (Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol): PEAP uses digital certificates for network server authentication and a password for client authentication.
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
WPA, announced by Wi-Fi Alliance, authorizes and identifies users based on a secret key that changes automatically at regular intervals. WPA uses 802.1x or WPA-PSK (WPA mode Pre-Shared Key) for authentication. WPA-PSK verifies users via a pre-shared key on both a client station and an access point. In WPA- PSK authentication, a client may only gain access to the network if the client's password matches the access point's password. WPA also uses TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) for data encryption.
Certificates
Certificates are used to validate the identity of clients and network servers and allow encrypted data communications for EAP/802.1x authentication. Certificates may be issued and signed by a trusted third party, called Certificate Authority (CA). In EAP/802.1x authentications, such as EAP-TLS, EAPTTLS, and PEAP, the dell network print server may require one or both of the following certificates:
•Root Certificate: A certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) is used to validate the identity of a network authentication server while EAP authentication methods, such as EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, and PEAP, are performed. The network authentication server's identity will be validated when the root certificate information installed on the network print server is identical to the information on a certificate received from the network authentication server, such as RADIUS. To be installed on the Network Printer Card, a root certificate must be in the form of Base64 Encoded X.509 with a .cer extension and be less than 3,072 bytes.
•Client Certificate: A client certificate is used to validate the identity of the Network Printer from a network authentication server, such as RADIUS, while the EAP-TLS authentication method is performed. To be installed on the Network Printer, a client certificate must be in the form of PKCS #12 / Personal Information Exchange with a .pfx extension and be less than 3,072 bytes.
