3e Technologies International 3e-525A, User Manual

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3e-525A Wireless Access Point
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Chapter 4: Configure as gateway
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WEP is designed to provide the same level of security for wireless
LANs as that of a wired LAN. To use WEP encryption, identify the level
of encryption (64 or 128). If using 64-bit WEP, you will need to program
the Default WEP key on the AP and each wireless device and designate
the four alternate 64-bit WEP keys. The four WEP keys thus programmed
have to be input to the setup utility on each wireless device that will be
part of the WLAN.
If using 128-bit WEP, simply designate the 48 hexidecimal digits on
the AP and program the same number on each wireless device.
Key management becomes increasingly difficult as the number of
clients increases, but the use of WEP encryption on small office wireless
networks provides some measure of security. WEP was never intended to
be a complete security solution but rather provides protection equivalent
to that of wired networks.
WPA (non-FIPS)
Wi-Fi Protected Access or WPA was designed to enable use of wire-
less legacy systems employing WEP while improving security. WPA uses
improved data encryption through the temporal key integrity protocol
(TKIP) which scrambles keys using a hashing algorithm and, by adding
an integrity-checking feature, ensures that the keys haven’t been tam-
pered with. In addition, user authentication is enabled using the exten-
sible authentication protocol (EAP).