User guide

C HAPTER 6 | Wireless Configuration
WLAN Security
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WPA PRE-SHARED
KEY
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) was introduced as an interim solution for the
vulnerability of WEP pending the adoption of a more robust wireless
security standard. WPA2 includes the complete wireless security standard,
but also offers backward compatibility with WPA. Both WPA and WPA2
provide an “enterprise” and “personal” mode of operation.
For small home or office networks, WPA and WPA2 provide a simple
“personal” operating mode that uses just a pre-shared key for network
access. The WPA Pre-Shared Key (WPA-PSK) mode uses a common
password phrase for user authentication that is manually entered on the
access point and all wireless clients. Data encryption keys are
automatically generated by the access point and distributed to all clients
connected to the network.
Figure 22: Security Mode - WPA-PSK
The following items are displayed in this section on this page:
Security Mode — Configures the WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK security modes
used by clients. When using WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK, be sure to define the
shared key for the Wireless-N Access Point/Repeater and all its clients.
(Default: Disable)
◆ WPA-PSK — Clients using WPA with a Pre-shared Key are accepted for
authentication. The default data encryption type for WPA is TKIP.
◆ WPA2-PSK — Clients using WPA2 with a Pre-shared Key are accepted
for authentication. The default data encryption type for WPA is AES.
◆ WPA-PSK_WPA2-PSK — Clients using WPA or WPA2 with a Pre-
shared Key are accepted for authentication. The default data encryption
type is TKIP/AES.
◆ WPA Algorithms — Selects the data encryption type to use. (Default
is determined by the Security Mode selected.)
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TKIP — Uses Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) keys for
encryption. WPA specifies TKIP as the data encryption method to
replace WEP. TKIP avoids the problems of WEP static keys by
dynamically changing data encryption keys.