802.11g Wireless 4-port Router User's Guide
Table Of Contents
- User’s Guide
- Copyright
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Interference Statement
- ZyXEL Limited Warranty
- Customer Support
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- Getting to Know Your ZyAIR
- 1.1 Introducing the ZyAIR
- 1.2 ZyAIR Features
- 1.2.1 Physical Features
- 1.2.2 Firmware Features
- 1.2.2.1 Internal RADIUS Server
- 1.2.2.2 Wi-Fi Protected Access
- 1.2.2.3 802.11b Wireless LAN Standard
- 1.2.2.4 802.11g Wireless LAN Standard
- 1.2.2.5 STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) / RSTP (Rapid STP)
- 1.2.2.6 Certificates
- 1.2.2.7 Limit the number of Client Connections
- 1.2.2.8 SSL Passthrough
- 1.2.2.9 Firewall
- 1.2.2.10 Brute-Force Password Guessing Protection
- 1.2.2.11 Wireless LAN MAC Address Filtering
- 1.2.2.12 WEP Encryption
- 1.2.2.13 IEEE 802.1X Network Security
- 1.2.2.14 Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)
- 1.2.2.15 Dynamic DNS Support
- 1.2.2.16 PPPoE Support (RFC2516)
- 1.2.2.17 PPTP Encapsulation
- 1.2.2.18 Network Address Translation (NAT)
- 1.2.2.19 Traffic Redirect
- 1.2.2.20 NAT for Single-IP-address Internet Access
- 1.2.2.21 DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
- 1.2.2.22 Multicast
- 1.2.2.23 IP Alias
- 1.2.2.24 IP Policy Routing
- 1.2.2.25 SNMP
- 1.2.2.26 Full Network Management
- 1.2.2.27 Logging and Tracing
- 1.2.2.28 Diagnostics Capabilities
- 1.2.2.29 Embedded FTP and TFTP Servers
- 1.2.2.30 Wireless Association List
- 1.2.2.31 Wireless LAN Channel Usage
- 1.3 Applications for the ZyAIR
- Introducing the Web Configurator
- Wizard Setup
- System Screens
- LAN Screens
- Wireless Configuration and Roaming
- Wireless Security
- 7.1 Wireless Security Overview
- 7.2 Security Parameters Summary
- 7.3 WEP Overview
- 7.4 Configuring WEP Encryption
- 7.5 Introduction to WPA
- 7.6 Configuring WPA-PSK Authentication
- 7.7 Wireless Client WPA Supplicants
- 7.8 Configuring WPA Authentication
- 7.9 Introduction to RADIUS
- 7.10 Configuring RADIUS
- 7.11 802.1x Overview
- 7.12 Dynamic WEP Key Exchange
- 7.13 Configuring 802.1x and Dynamic WEP Key Exchange
- 7.14 Configuring 802.1x and Static WEP Key Exchange
- 7.15 Configuring 802.1x
- 7.16 MAC Filter
- Internal RADIUS Server
- WAN
- Single User Account (SUA) / Network Address Translation (NAT)
- Static Route Screens
- Remote Management Screens
- UPnP
- Firewalls
- Firewall Screens
- Content Filtering
- Certificates
- 17.1 Certificates Overview
- 17.2 Self-signed Certificates
- 17.3 Configuration Summary
- 17.4 My Certificates
- 17.5 Certificate File Formats
- 17.6 Importing a Certificate
- 17.7 Creating a Certificate
- 17.8 My Certificate Details
- 17.9 Trusted CAs
- 17.10 Importing a Trusted CA’s Certificate
- 17.11 Trusted CA Certificate Details
- Log Screens
- Maintenance
- Introducing the SMT
- General Setup
- Menu 2 WAN Setup
- LAN Setup
- Internet Access
- Remote Node Configuration
- Static Route Setup
- Dial-in User Setup
- Network Address Translation (NAT)
- Filter Configuration
- Enabling the Firewall
- SNMP Configuration
- System Security
- System Information and Diagnosis
- Firmware and Configuration File Maintenance
- System Maintenance and Information
- Remote Management
- Call Scheduling
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Appendix C
- Appendix D
- Appendix E
- Appendix F
- Appendix G
- Appendix H
- Appendix I
- Appendix J
- Appendix K
- Appendix L
- Index
ZyAIR G-2000 Plus User’s Guide
Chapter 7 Wireless Security 94
7.5.2 Encryption
WPA improves data encryption by using Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), Message
Integrity Check (MIC) and IEEE 802.1x.
Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) uses 128-bit keys that are dynamically generated and
distributed by the authentication server. It includes 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.
TKIP regularly changes and rotates the encryption keys so that the same encryption key is
never used twice.
The RADIUS server distributes a Pairwise Master Key (PMK) key to the
AP that then sets up a key hierarchy and management system, using the pair-wise key to
dynamically generate unique data encryption keys to encrypt every data packet that is
wirelessly communicated between the AP and the wireless clients. This all happens in the
background automatically.
The Message Integrity Check (MIC) is designed to prevent an attacker from capturing data
packets, altering them and resending them. The MIC provides a strong mathematical function
in which the receiver and the transmitter each compute and then compare the MIC. If they do
not match, it is assumed that the data has been tampered with and the packet is dropped.
By generating unique data encryption keys for every data packet and by creating an integrity
checking mechanism (MIC), TKIP makes it much more difficult to decode data on a Wi-Fi
network than WEP, making it difficult for an intruder to break into the network.
The encryption mechanisms used for WPA and WPA-PSK are the same. The only difference
between the two is that WPA-PSK uses a simple common password, instead of user-specific
credentials. The common-password approach makes WPA-PSK susceptible to brute-force
password-guessing attacks but it’s still an improvement over WEP as it employs an easier-to-
use, consistent, single, alphanumeric password.
7.5.3 WPA-PSK Application Example
A WPA-PSK application looks as follows.
1 First enter identical passwords into the AP and all wireless clients. The Pre-Shared Key
(PSK) must consist of between 8 and 63 ASCII characters (including spaces and
symbols).
2 The AP checks each client’s password and (only) allows it to join the network if it
matches its password.
3 The AP derives and distributes keys to the wireless clients.
4 The AP and wireless clients use the TKIP encryption process to encrypt data exchanged
between them.