18
WPA Security
The WiFi Protected Access (WPA) protocol is a collection of interoperable security
enhancements intended for use in both consumer and enterprise settings. It is a
forward-compatible subset of the upcoming 802.11i security standard that greatly
improves on the WEP security standard. WPA includes a stronger data encryption
scheme that uses the TKIP (temporal key integrity protocol) key exchange proto-
col, and a message integrity check (MIC) and an extended initialization vector
with sequencing roots to prevent interception of packets by unauthorized users.
WPA can be run on its own or in conjunction with the 802.1x procol. For most
home and small business applications, WPA is all that is necessary. When run on
its own, all that is necessary is to set up a single static
PSK String
as a shared mas-
ter key. When run in conjunction with 802.1x, it employs the same dynamic key
arrangement used by 802.1x itself.
See the previous section “802.1x Security” for an
explanation of the 802.1x setting values.
To Enable WPA:
1.
Click the
WPA
button in the
Basic Settings
menu box.
2.
Click on the the
PSK String
menu button and enter an arbitrary alphanumer-
ic string in the window. The minimum suggested length is 8 characters
Note: the
PSK String word is case sensitive.
3.
If you do not wish to enable the 802.1x protocol, simply click the
Next
button
