ZyXEL Communications MAX-207HW2R, User Manual

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Chapter 6 The WIFI Configuration Screen
MAX-207HW2R User’s Guide
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Authentication Type
The IEEE 802.11b/g standard describes a simple authentication method between
the wireless stations and AP. Three authentication types are defined: Auto, Open
and Shared. The MAX-207HW2R supports the WEP (Open) and WEP (Shared)
authentication types.
• Open mode is implemented for ease-of-use and when security is not an issue.
The wireless station and the AP or peer computer do not share a secret key.
Thus the wireless stations can associate with any AP or peer computer and listen
to any transmitted data that is not encrypted.
• Shared mode involves a shared secret key to authenticate the wireless station
to the AP or peer computer. This requires you to enable the wireless LAN
security and use same settings on both the wireless station and the AP or peer
computer.
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
WPA encrypts data transmitted between wired and wireless networks to keep the
transmission private. It affords vastly stronger security than its lower-tier
counterpart, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). It comes in two different flavors:
WPA and WPA2. Always try to use WPA2 as it implements the full version of the
security standard while WPA does not.
WPA2
WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i) is a wireless security standard that defines stronger
encryption, authentication and key management than WPA. It includes two data
encryption algorithms, Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) and Advanced
Encryption Standard (AES) in the Counter mode with Cipher block chaining
Message authentication Code Protocol (CCMP). WPA2 reduces the number of key
exchange messages from six to four (CCMP 4-way handshake) and shortens the
time required to connect to a network. Other WPA2 authentication features that
are different from WPA include key caching and pre-authentication. These two
features are optional and may not be implemented in all wireless devices. See also
WPA.
Pre-Shared Key (PSK)
A pre-shared key is a password shared between the server and the client that
unlocks the algorithm used to encrypt the data traffic between them. Without the
proper password, the client and the server cannot communicate.