Mitsubishi Electronics A111 Wlan Wireless Local Area Network, WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access

Chapter 5 - Glossary

WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)

This is a group of computers and other devices connected wirelessly in a small area. A wireless network is referred to as LAN or WLAN.

WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is an improved security system for 802.11. It is part of the 802.11i draft security standard. WPA encompasses TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) along with MIC (Message Integrity Check) and other fixes to WEP such as Weak IV (Initialization Vector) filtering and Random IV generation. TKIP uses 802.1x to deploy and change temporary keys as opposed to static WEP keys once used in the past. It is a significant improvement over WEP. WPA is part of a complete security solution. WPA also requires authentication servers in enterprise security solutions.

Requirements

(1)A WPA compatible Access Point or Wireless router, (2) Operating system updates that support WPA. In XP, an updated Windows Zero Config service is needed. Users can download the Windows XP WPA patch here:

http://microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=009D8425-CE2B-47A4-ABEC- 274845DC9E91&displaylang=en

Please note that this patch requires the installation Windows XP Service Pack 1, which is available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/default.asp

For earlier Windows Operating systems, a WPA capable supplicant is required such as Funk Software’s Odyssey Client.

Chapter 5

Glossary

44 A111 Wireless Card Adaptor