beautypg.com

Wireless security, What is wpa – D-Link DIR-68 User Manual

Page 71

background image

71

D-Link DIR-68 User Manual

Section 4 - Security

Wireless Security

This section will show you the different levels of security you can use to protect your data from intruders. The

DIR-655 offers the following types of security:

• WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access )

• WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key)

• WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access)

• WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key)

What is WPA?

WPA, or Wi-Fi Protected Access, is a Wi-Fi standard that was designed to improve the security features of WEP (Wired Equivalent

Privacy).

The 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.

WPA is based on 80.11i 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/WPA-PSK uses a passphrase or key to authenticate your wireless connection. The key is an alpha-numeric password

between 8 and 6 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/WPA 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.