User guide

Security
7-13
Alvarion
Deny non-encrypted Data
If you decide to use wireless data encryption, you are advised to encrypt all data
that will be transmitted via the wireless medium.
In some cases however you may wish to choose to allow the Base Station also
to process non-encrypted data as well.
Examples of such situations could be:
! Network environments that include both wireless stations equipped with
cards (Client Manager) some wireless stations that support WEP
Encryption and cards that do not support encryption.
! Network environments where you are about to install a large number of
wireless stations, using “out-of-the-box” configurations, which by default
will have encryption disabled.
If you would start-up such stations with their default configuration, these
stations would not be able to establish an initial connection to the network,
since they wouldn't be able to interpret the encrypted beacon messages.
For optimal security against unauthorized access to your network, you are
advised always to leave the
Deny non-encrypted data option enabled (=default).
Only when you would have good reasons to decide otherwise, you could clear this check-
box, to allow the Base Station to communicate with wireless stations that either support
WEP encryption or not, or have the WEP encryption enabled or disabled.
Please read the information described in the following section prior to clearing the Deny
non-encrypted Data tick box.
How WEP Encryption works
The IEEE 802.11 standard on wireless LANs was designed to provide an easy to
use, and easy to install wireless network, that would allow users to combine
wireless LAN products from different vendors.
The drawback of easy access and interoperability is the vulnerability to
unauthorized access to and/or use of your network. Although WEP encryption
provides a good way to secure access to your wireless data, there are a few
things you need to know to ensure your network provides the right level of
security.
When you enable WEP encryption there are two modes of WEP operation:
! Enable encryption & deny non-encrypted data
! Enable encryption & allow non-encrypted data
For optimal security, you are advised always to use the
Deny non-encrypted data
option (=default).