N-150 2-Port Wireless Router WNR500 User Manual
Safeguarding Your Network
2-9
v1.0, November 2011
WEP connections can take slightly longer to establish. Also, WEP, WPA-PSK, and WPA2-
PSK encryption can consume more battery power on a notebook computer, and can cause
significant performance degradation with a slow computer. Instructions for configuring the
security options can be found in
“Choosing Appropriate Wireless Security” on page 2-1
. A full
explanation of wireless security standards is available in the online document that you can
access from
“Wireless Networking Basics” in Appendix B
.
3.
Click
Apply
to save your settings.
Configuring WEP Wireless Security
WEP Shared Key authentication and WEP data encryption can be defeated by a determined
eavesdropper using publicly available tools.
WEP offers the following options:
•
Automatic
. With the Automatic option, the router will try both Open System and Shared Key
authentication. Normally this setting is suitable. If it fails, select
Open System
or
Shared Key
.
You can also refer to your wireless adapter’s documentation to see what method to use.
•
Open System
. With Open System authentication and 64 or 128 bit WEP data encryption, the
WNR500 router
does
perform data encryption but
does not
perform any authentication.
Anyone can join the network. This setting provides very little practical wireless security.
•
Shared Key
. With Shared Key authentication, a wireless device must know the WEP key to
join the network. Select the encryption strength (64 or 128 bit data encryption). Manually
enter the key values, or enter a word or group of printable characters in the
Passphrase
field.
Manually entered keys
are not
case-sensitive, but passphrase characters
are
case-sensitive.
To configure WEP data encryption:
1.
Select
Wireless Settings
under Setup in the main menu.
2.
In the Security Options section, select
WEP
. The WEP options display.
Note:
If you use a wireless computer to configure WEP settings, you will be disconnected
when you click
Apply
. You must then either configure your wireless adapter to
match the wireless router WEP settings or access the wireless router from a wired
computer to make any further changes. Not all wireless adapter configuration
utilities support passphrase key generation.
