User Guide

an extended 128-bit WEP protocol using a 104-bit key size. A 128-

bit WEP key is almost always entered by users as a string of 26

Hexadecimal (Hex) characters (0-9 and A-F).

WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2) is a class of systems

to secure wireless (Wi-Fi) computer networks. It was created in

response to several serious weaknesses researchers had found

in the previous system, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WPA is

designed to work with all wireless network interface cards, but not

necessarily with first generation wireless access points. WPA2

implements the full standard, but will not work with some older

network cards. Both provide good security, with two significant

issues: either WPA or WPA2 must be enabled and chosen in

preference to WEP. WEP is usually presented as the first security

choice in most installation instructions. in the "Personal" mode,

the most likely choice for homes and small offices, a passphrase

is required that, for full security, must be longer than the typical 6

to 8 character passwords users are taught to employ.

IEEE 802.11i IEEE 802.11i, also known as WPA2, is an amendment to the

802.11 standard specifying security mechanisms for wireless

networks (see Wi-Fi). The draft standard was ratified on 24 June

2004, and supersedes the previous security specification, Wired

Equivalent Privacy (WEP), which was shown to have severe

security weaknesses. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) had

previously been introduced by the Wi-Fi Alliance as an

intermediate solution to WEP insecurities. WPA implemented a

subset of 802.11i. The Wi-Fi Alliance refers to their approved,

interoperable implementation of the full 802.11i as WPA2. 802.11i

makes use of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block

cipher; WEP and WPA use the RC4 stream cipher.

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User Guide