RCA 620, 608WL, 605 manual Select Security Level 1 WEP, Bits, Alphanumeric, Bits, Hexadecimal

Chapter 5

Expert Configuration

WEP The Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm is used to protect wireless communication from eavesdropping.

WEP relies on a secret key that is shared between the wireless client (e.g. a laptop with a wireless ethernet card and the SpeedTouch™. The fixed secret key is used to encrypt packets before they are transmitted. I.e. during transmission between client and AP ("in the air") the information in the packets is encrypted

To enable level1 - WEP:

1Select Security Level 1 - WEP.

2In the Type list, click the desired Data Security level (either 64-bit or 128-bit and Alphanumeric or Hexadecimal).

3In the Encryption key box, type a Network key of your choice. In case of:

64 bits, Alphanumeric:

The 40-bits Network key must consist of 5 alphanumeric characters.

64 bits, Hexadecimal:

The 40-bits Network key must consist of 10 hexadecimal digits.

128 bits, Alphanumeric:

The 104-bits Network key consists of 13 alphanumeric characters.

128 bits, Hexadecimal:

The 104-bits Network key consists of 26 hexadecimal digits.

4Click Apply to immediately apply your changes.

WPA-PSKThe SpeedTouch™ supports WPA-PSK which has 3 improvements regarding to WEP:

Authentication via a 4-way handshake to check whether the Pre-Shared Keys (PSKs) are the same.

Stronger encryption types:

Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) (default): Instead of using a fixed WEP key, TKIP uses in pairs temporary session keys which are derived from the PSK during the 4-way handshake. For each packet it uses a different key. TKIP also provides a message integrity check (MIC) and a rekeying mechanism (in seconds).

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): State-of-the-art encryption; can only be used if all wireless devices in your WLAN support AES.

Message Integrity Check (MIC), which is a strong mathematical function in which the recipient and transmitter each compute and compare the MIC. If they don't match it is assumed that a third person has been trying to read the data.

To enable level2 - WPA-PSK:

1Select Security Level 2 - WPA-PSK (WPA Personal).

2In the WPA passphrase box, type a passphrase (also known as Pre-shared key) of your choice. The passphrase must consist of 8 to 63 ASCII characters or 64 HEX digits.

3In the Encryption list, click the desired Encryption method (either TKIP or AES).

AES is not yet implemented in most clients but AES is implemented in the SpeedTouch™ because it will be the future security standard.

4Optionally select the rekeying interval.

5Click Apply to immediately apply your changes.

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