Chapter 7 Wireless

The following figure shows a WPS-enabled client (installed in a notebook computer) connecting to a WPS-enabled access point.

Figure 41 How WPS works

ACTIVATE

 

 

 

 

 

ACTIVATE

WPS

 

 

 

 

 

WPS

 

WITHIN 2 MINUTES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WPS HANDSHAKE

ENROLLEE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REGISTRAR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SECURE TUNNEL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SECURITY INFO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMMUNICATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roles of registrar and enrollee last only as long as the WPS setup process is active (two minutes). The next time you use WPS, a different device can be the registrar if necessary.

The WPS connection process is like a handshake; only two devices participate in each WPS transaction. If you want to add more devices you should repeat the process with one of the existing networked devices and the new device.

Note that the access point (AP) is not always the registrar, and the wireless client is not always the enrollee. All WPS-certified APs can be a registrar, and so can some WPS-enabled wireless clients.

By default, a WPS devices is “unconfigured”. This means that it is not part of an existing network and can act as either enrollee or registrar (if it supports both functions). If the registrar is unconfigured, the security settings it transmits to the enrollee are randomly-generated. Once a WPS-enabled device has connected to another device using WPS, it becomes “configured”. A configured wireless client can still act as enrollee or registrar in subsequent WPS connections, but a configured access point can no longer act as enrollee. It will be the registrar in all subsequent WPS connections in which it is involved. If you want a configured AP to act as an enrollee, you must reset it to its factory defaults.

 

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VSG1435-B101 Series User’s Guide