Chapter 8 Wireless Security Screen

8.3 What You Need To Know

User Authentication

Authentication is the process of verifying whether a wireless device is allowed to use the wireless network. You can make every user log in to the wireless network before they can use it. However, every device in the wireless network has to support IEEE 802.1x to do this.

For wireless networks, you can store the user names and passwords for each user in a RADIUS server. This is a server used in businesses more than in homes. If you do not have a RADIUS server, you cannot set up user names and passwords for your users.

Unauthorized wireless devices can still see the information that is sent in the wireless network, even if they cannot use the wireless network. Furthermore, there are ways for unauthorized wireless users to get a valid user name and password. Then, they can use that user name and password to use the wireless network.

The following table shows the relative effectiveness of wireless security methods:.

Table 21 Wireless Security Levels

SECURITY

SECURITY TYPE

LEVEL

 

Least

Unique SSID (Default)

Secure

 

Unique SSID with Hide SSID Enabled

 

 

 

 

MAC Address Filtering

 

 

 

WEP Encryption

 

 

 

IEEE802.1x EAP with RADIUS Server Authentication

 

 

 

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)

 

 

Most Secure

WPA2

 

 

 

The available security modes in your NWA are as follows:

•None. No data encryption.

•WEP. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption scrambles the data transmitted between the wireless stations and the access points to keep network communications private.

•802.1x-Only.This is a standard that extends the features of IEEE 802.11 to support extended authentication. It provides additional accounting and control features. This option does not support data encryption.

•802.1x-Static64.This provides 802.1x-Only authentication with a static 64bit WEP key and an authentication server.

•802.1x-Static128. This provides 802.1x-Only authentication with a static 128bit WEP key and an authentication server.

•802.1x-Static152. This provides 802.1x-Only authentication with a static 152bit WEP key and an authentication server.

•WPA. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a subset of the IEEE 802.11i standard.

•WPA2. WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i) is a wireless security standard that defines stronger encryption, authentication and key management than WPA.

•WPA2-MIX.This commands the NWA to use either WPA2 or WPA depending on which security mode the wireless client uses.

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NWA1100-N User’s Guide