SMC Networks SMC2555W-AG manual System Configuration

System Configuration

Note: To implement WPA on wireless clients requires a WPA-enabled network card driver and 802.1x client software that supports the EAP authentication type that you want to use. Windows XP provides native WPA support, other systems require additional software.

Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP): WPA specifies TKIP as the data encryption method to replace WEP. TKIP avoids the problems of WEP static keys by dynamically changing data encryption keys. Basically, TKIP starts with a master (temporal) key for each user session and then mathematically generates other keys to encrypt each data packet. TKIP provides further data encryption enhancements by including a message integrity check for each packet and a re-keying mechanism, which periodically changes the master key.

WPA Pre-Shared Key (PSK) Mode: For enterprise deployment, WPA requires a RADIUS authentication server to be configured on the wired network. However, for small office networks that may not have the resources to configure and maintain a RADIUS server, WPA provides a simple operating mode that uses just a pre-shared password for network access. The Pre-Shared Key mode uses a common password for user authentication that is manually entered on the access point and all wireless clients. The PSK mode uses the same TKIP packet encryption and key management as WPA in the enterprise, providing a robust and manageable alternative for small networks.

Mixed WPA and WEP Client Support: WPA enables the access point to indicate its supported encryption and authentication mechanisms to clients using its beacon signal. WPA-compatible clients can likewise respond to indicate their WPA support. This enables the access point to determine which clients are using WPA security and which are using legacy WEP. The access point uses TKIP unicast data encryption keys for WPA clients and WEP unicast keys for WEP clients. The global encryption key for

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