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Reference Manual for the NETGEAR ProSafe Wireless Access Point 802.11g WG302

Glossary

13

July 2005 v3.0

As a recent development, the debate over the legality of warchalking is still going on. 

The practice stems from the U.S. Depression-era culture of wandering hobos who would make marks 
outside of homes to indicate to other wanderers whether the home was receptive to drifters or was 
inhospitable. 

War Driving 

War driving is the act of locating and possibly exploiting connections to wireless local area networks while 
driving around a city or elsewhere. To do war driving, you need a vehicle, a computer (which can be a 
laptop), a wireless Ethernet card set to work in promiscuous mode, and some kind of an antenna which can 
be mounted on top of or positioned inside the car. Because a wireless LAN may have a range that extends 
beyond an office building, an outside user may be able to intrude into the network, obtain a free Internet 
connection, and possibly gain access to company records and other resources. 

Some people have made a sport out of war driving, in part to demonstrate the ease with which wireless 
LANs can be compromised. With an omnidirectional antenna and a geophysical positioning system (GPS), 
the war driver can systematically map the locations of 802.11b wireless access points. 

WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) 

Basic wireless security provided by Wi-Fi. In some instances, WEP may be all a home or small-business 
user needs to protect wireless data. WEP is available in 40-bit (also called 64-bit), or in 108-bit (also called 
128-bit) encryption modes. As 108-bit encryption provides a longer algorithm that takes longer to decode, it 
can provide better security than basic 40-bit (64-bit) encryption. 

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) 

Another name for IEEE 802.11b. Products certified as Wi-Fi are interoperable with each other even if they 
are from different manufacturers. A user with a Wi-Fi product can use any brand of access point with any 
other brand of client hardware that is built to the Wi-Fi standard. 

Wi-Fi Alliance (formerly WECA – Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance) 

The Wi-Fi Alliance is a nonprofit international association formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of 
wireless Local Area Network products based on IEEE 802.11 specification. Currently the Wi-Fi Alliance 
has 193 member companies from around the world, and 509 products have received Wi-Fi certification since 
certification began in March of 2000. The goal of the Wi-Fi Alliance's members is to enhance the user 
experience through product interoperability (

www.weca.net

). 

Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) 

WPA is a security technology for wireless networks that improves on the authentication and encryption 
features of WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). In fact, WPA was developed by the networking industry in 
response to the shortcomings of WEP. 

One of the key technologies behind WPA is the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP). TKIP addresses 
the encryption weaknesses of WEP. Another key component of WPA is built-in authentication that WEP 

Summary of Contents for WG3002

Page 1: ...LANs and pertains to systems operating in the 5 GHz frequency range with a bandwidth of 54 Mbps Another standard 802 11g is for WLANS operating in the 2 4 GHz frequency but with a bandwidth of 54 Mbp...

Page 2: ...defines software patches to WEP to provide a minimally adequate level of data privacy AES or AES OCB Advanced Encryption Standard and Offset Codebook is a robust data privacy scheme and is a longer te...

Page 3: ...capabilities such as NAT routing DHCP firewalls security etc Ad Hoc mode A client setting that provides independent peer to peer connectivity in a wireless LAN An alternative set up is one where PCs...

Page 4: ...wireless gateway or access point Instead of the signals transferring in parallel paths from one set of plugs to another the signals crossover If an eight wire cable was being used for instance the sig...

Page 5: ...eries of numbers like 107 22 55 26 Every website has its own specific IP address on the Internet Encryption Key An alphanumeric letters and or numbers series that enables data to be encrypted and then...

Page 6: ...may also provide VPN support roaming firewalls various levels of security etc Hot Spot also referred to as Public Access Location A place where you can access Wi Fi service This can be for free or fo...

Page 7: ...nt AP As compared to Ad Hoc mode whereby PCs communicate directly with each other clients set in Infrastructure Mode all pass data through a central AP The AP not only mediates wireless network traffi...

Page 8: ...of the spheres below represent a mesh router Corporate servers and printers may be shared by attaching to each mesh router For wireless access to the mesh an access point must be attached to any one...

Page 9: ...rver or central hub or router All the networked PCs are equally able to act as a network server or client and each client computer can talk to all the other wireless computers without having to go thr...

Page 10: ...nd alone mode in a parking lot or in a neighbor s building Rogue APs by definition are not under the management of network administrators and do not conform to network security policies and may presen...

Page 11: ...the server in order to have a secret key exchange for that session Subnetwork or Subnet Found in larger networks these smaller networks are used to simplify addressing between numerous computers Subn...

Page 12: ...ndwidth of up to 400 Mbps VoIP Voice over IP Voice transmission using Internet Protocol to create digital packets distributed over the Internet VoIP can be less expensive than voice transmission using...

Page 13: ...or small business user needs to protect wireless data WEP is available in 40 bit also called 64 bit or in 108 bit also called 128 bit encryption modes As 108 bit encryption provides a longer algorith...

Page 14: ...S CCMP These features are either not yet ready for market or will require hardware upgrades to implement Wi Fi Protected Access for the Enterprise Wi Fi Protected Access effectively addresses the WLAN...

Page 15: ...ess for all Wi Fi clients and access points WiMAX An IEEE 802 16 Task Group that provides a specification for fixed broadband wireless access systems employing a point to multipoint PMP architecture T...

Page 16: ...Reference Manual for the NETGEAR ProSafe Wireless Access Point 802 11g WG302 16 Glossary July 2005 v3 0...

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