ZyXEL Communications 802.11g Wireless Access Point ZyXEL G-560 - Manual (Page 70)

ZyXEL G-560 User’s Guide
70 Chapter 6 Wireless Screens
6.9 EAP Authentication Overview
EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) is an authentication protocol that runs on top of the
IEEE802.1x transport mechanism in order to support multiple types of user authentication. By
using EAP to interact with an EAP-compatible RADIUS server, the access point helps a
wireless station and a RADIUS server perform authentication.
The type of authentication you use depends on the RADIUS server or the AP. The G-560
supports EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, EAP-MD5 and PEAP with RADIUS. Refer to the appendix
about the types of EAP authentication for descriptions on the common types.
Your G-560 supports EAP-MD5 (Message-Digest Algorithm 5) and PEAP (Protected EAP)
with the built-in RADIUS server.
The following figure shows an overview of authentication when you specify a RADIUS server
on your access point.
Figure 38 EAP Authentication
The details below provide a general description of how IEEE 802.1x EAP authentication
works. For an example list of EAP-MD5 authentication steps, see the IEEE 802.1x appendix.
1 The wireless station sends a “start” message to the G-560.
2 The G-560 sends a “request identity” message to the wireless station for identity
information.
3 The wireless station replies with identity information, including username and password.
4 The RADIUS server checks the user information against its user profile database and
determines whether or not to authenticate the wireless station.
6.10 Dynamic WEP Key Exchange
The AP maps a unique key that is generated with the RADIUS server. This key expires when
the wireless connection times out, disconnects or reauthentication times out. A new WEP key
is generated each time reauthentication is performed.
If this feature is enabled, it is not necessary to configure a default WEP encryption key in the
Wireless screen. You may still configure and store keys here, but they will not be used while
Dynamic WEP is enabled.