User's Manual
Table Of Contents
- Trademarks
- Statement of Conditions
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Compliance Notice: Radio Frequency Notice
- Canadian Department of Communications Compliance Statement
- CE Declaration of Conformity
- Contents
- Chapter 1 About This Manual
- Chapter 2 Introduction
- Chapter 3 Basic Installation and Configuration
- Observing Placement and Range Guidelines
- Default Factory Settings
- Understanding WG602 v2 Wireless Security Options
- Installing the 54 Mbps Wireless Access Point WG602 v2
- Two Ways to Log In to the WG602 v2
- Using the Basic IP Settings Options
- Understanding the Basic Wireless Settings
- Understanding Wireless Security Options
- How to Configure WEP Wireless Security
- How to Configure WPA-PSK Wireless Security
- How to Restrict Wireless Access by MAC Address
- Chapter 4 Management
- Chapter 5 Advanced Configuration
- Chapter 6 Troubleshooting
- Troubleshooting
- No lights are lit on the access point.
- The Ethernet LAN light is not lit.
- The Wireless LAN activity light is not lit.
- I cannot configure the wireless access point from a browser.
- I cannot access the Internet or the LAN with a wireless capable computer.
- When I enter a URL or IP address I get a timeout error.
- Using the Reset Button to Restore Factory Default Settings
- Troubleshooting
- Appendix A Specifications
- Appendix B Wireless Networking Basics
- Appendix C Network, Routing, Firewall, and Cabling Basics
- Appendix D Preparing Your PCs for Network Access
- Glossary
- Index
User’s Guide for the WG602 54 Mbps Wireless Access Point
Wireless Networking Basics B-9
• Enhanced data privacy
• Robust key management
• Data origin authentication
• Data integrity protection
The Wi-Fi Alliance is now performing interoperability certification testing on Wi-Fi Protected
Access products. Starting August of 2003, all new Wi-Fi certified products will have to support
WPA. NETGEAR will implement WPA on client and access point products and make this
available in the second half of 2003. Existing Wi-Fi certified products will have one year to add
WPA support or they will loose their Wi-Fi certification.
The 802.11i standard is currently in draft form, with ratification due at the end of 2003. While the
new IEEE 802.11i standard is being ratified, wireless vendors have agreed on WPA as an
interoperable interim standard.
How Does WPA Compare to WEP?
WEP is a data encryption method and is not intended as a user authentication mechanism. WPA
user authentication is implemented using 802.1x and the Extensible Authentication Protocol
(EAP). Support for 802.1x authentication is required in WPA. In the 802.11 standard, 802.1x
authentication was optional. For details on EAP specifically, refer to IETF's RFC 2284.
With 802.11 WEP, all access points and client wireless adapters on a particular wireless LAN must
use the same encryption key. A major problem with the 802.11 standard is that the keys are
cumbersome to change. If you don't update the WEP keys often, an unauthorized person with a
sniffing tool can monitor your network for less than a day and decode the encrypted messages.
Products based on the 802.11 standard alone offer system administrators no effective method to
update the keys.
For 802.11, WEP encryption is optional. For WPA, encryption using Temporal Key Integrity
Protocol (TKIP) is required. TKIP replaces WEP with a new encryption algorithm that is stronger
than the WEP algorithm, but that uses the calculation facilities present on existing wireless devices
to perform encryption operations. TKIP provides important data encryption enhancements
including a per-packet key mixing function, a message integrity check (MIC) named Michael, an
extended initialization vector (IV) with sequencing rules, and a re-keying mechanism. Through
these enhancements, TKIP addresses all of known WEP vulnerabilities.