Chapter 8

There are two communication mode options:

•Ad hoc: On an ad hoc network, the device is set to ad hoc communication mode and communicates directly with other wireless devices without the use of a wireless access point, such as a wireless router or Apple AirPort Base Station.

All devices on the ad hoc network must:

◦Be 802.11 compatible

◦Have ad hoc as the communication mode

◦Have the same network name (SSID)

◦Be on the same subnet and same channel

◦Have the same 802.11 security settings

•Infrastructure (recommended): On an infrastructure network, the device is set to infrastructure communication mode and communicates with other devices on the network, whether the devices are wired or wireless, through a wireless access point, such as a router or Apple AirPort Base Station.

Security settings

NOTE: For the available settings for the device, see Understand the network configuration page.

For more information on wireless security, visit www.wifi.org.

•Network authentication: The device's factory default setting is 'Open,' which does not require security for authorization or encryption. The other possible values are 'OpenThenShared,' 'Shared,' and 'WPA-PSK' (Wi-Fi®Protected Access Pre-Shared Key).

WPA increases the level of over-the-air data protection and access control on existing and future Wi-Fi networks. It addresses all known weaknesses of WEP, the original native security mechanism in the 802.11 standard.

WPA2 is the second generation of WPA security; it provides enterprise and consumer Wi-Fi users with a high level of assurance that only authorized users can access their wireless networks.

•Data encryption:

◦Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) provides security by encrypting data sent over radio waves from one wireless device to another wireless device. Devices on a WEP-enabled network use WEP keys to encode data. If your network uses WEP, you must know the WEP key(s) it uses.

◦WPA uses the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) for encryption and employs 802.1X authentication with one of the standard Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) types available today.

◦WPA2 provides a new encryption scheme, the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES is defined in counter cipher-block chaining mode (CCM) and supports the Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS) to enable security between client workstations operating in ad hoc mode.

136 Configure and manage