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D-Link DAP-1860 User Manual
Appendix B - Networking Basics
Wireless Security
This section will show you the different levels of security you can use to protect your data from intruders. The DAP-1860 offers the following
types of security:
• • WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access 2)
• WPA2-PSK (Pre-Shared Key)
• • WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)
• WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key)
What is WPA?
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), is a Wi-Fi standard that was designed to improve the security features of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).
The 2 major improvements over WEP:
• •
Improved data encryption through the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). TKIP scrambles the keys using a
hashing algorithm and by adding an integrity-checking feature, ensures that the keys haven’t been tampered with.
WPA2 is based on 802.11i and uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) instead of TKIP.
•
• •
User authentication, which is generally missing in WEP, through the extensible authentication protocol (EAP). WEP
regulates access to a wireless network based on a computer’s hardware-specific MAC address, which is relatively simple
to be sniffed out and stolen. EAP is built on a more secure public-key encryption system to ensure that only authorized
network users can access the network.
•
•
WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK uses a passphrase or key to authenticate your wireless connection. The key is an alpha-numeric password between 8 and
63 characters long. The password can include symbols (!?*&_) and spaces. This key must be the exact same key entered on your wireless router
or access point.
WPA/WPA2 incorporates user authentication through the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). EAP is built on a more secure public key
encryption system to ensure that only authorized network users can access the network.
