User's Manual

7.3 The Security Panel
The descriptions in this section apply to the Security panels in the main window, the New Profile
dialog box, and the
Profile dialog box. These panels all contain the same controls.
Use the main window’s Security panel (shown below, without its initially blank lower part) to
view the adapter’s current security settings, and to make experimental or temporary changes.
Figure 16. The main window’s Security panel
When you want to save security settings, you must (1) access the New Profile or Profile dialog
box, either from the
Site Survey panel (by double-clicking a listed WLAN) or from the Profiles
panel (by clicking
New, or by selecting a profile and clicking Edit), and then (2) click the New
Profile
or Profile dialog box’s Security tab.
When a WLAN is auto-detected, the adapter can detect only whether security (in the form of
Wired Equivalent Privacy [WEP] encryption) is on or off (“enabled” or “disabled”). Where
security is on (that is, WEP is enabled), you must obtain WEP settings from the WLAN operator
and input them in the
Security panel to be able to join the WLAN.
Method control: The Method control is a drop-down list for selecting a WEP setting. Four
settings are offered:
Disabled, 64-Bit, 128-Bit, and 256-Bit.
(So-called 40-bit WEP encryption is the same as that offered by the
64-Bit setting. On all
wireless networking products, only 40 bits of a 64-bit key, and 104 bits of a 128-bit key, are
input by the user.)
The default setting is
Disabled. Selecting any other setting enables the Default Key control
and causes the
Key Input Method, Key 1, Key 2, Key 3, and Key 4 controls to appear.
Default Key control: On a WLAN that uses 64-bit WEP, each device can store one to four WEP
keys. The WLAN can then switch among these keys from time to time for better security.
The “default key” is the key currently in use on the WLAN. This control lets you switch
quickly, without having to input the current key each time it is switched. The default setting
is
Key 1.
Auth. Mode control: “Authentication” is the process of determining whether a requesting station
should be permitted to join the WLAN. A station authenticates itself by using the correct
SSID in its request to join. If WEP is enabled, the WLAN may require that requests to join be
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