What You Need To Know About Wireless Security; Table 15 Wireless Security Levels - ZyXEL Communications 802.11b/g Wireless Access Point NWA-1100 User Manual

Chapter 7 Wireless Security Screen

7.3 What You Need To Know About Wireless Security

User Authentication
Authentication is the process of verifying whether a wireless device is allowed to use the
wireless network. You can make every user log in to the wireless network before they can use
it. However, every device in the wireless network has to support IEEE 802.1x to do this.
For wireless networks, you can store the user names and passwords for each user in a RADIUS
server. This is a server used in businesses more than in homes. If you do not have a RADIUS
server, you cannot set up user names and passwords for your users.
Unauthorized wireless devices can still see the information that is sent in the wireless network,
even if they cannot use the wireless network. Furthermore, there are ways for unauthorized
wireless users to get a valid user name and password. Then, they can use that user name and
password to use the wireless network.
The following table shows the relative effectiveness of wireless security methods:.

Table 15 Wireless Security Levels

SECURITY
LEVEL
Least
Secure
Most Secure
The available security modes in your ZyXEL Device are as follows:
• None. No data encryption.
• WEP. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption scrambles the data transmitted
between the wireless stations and the access points to keep network communications
private.
• 802.1x-Only. This is a standard that extends the features of IEEE 802.11 to support
extended authentication. It provides additional accounting and control features. This
option does not support data encryption.
• 802.1x-Static64. This provides 802.1x-Only authentication with a static 64bit WEP
key and an authentication server.
• 802.1x-Static128. This provides 802.1x-Only authentication with a static 128bit WEP
key and an authentication server.
• WPA. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a subset of the IEEE 802.11i standard.
• WPA2. WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i) is a wireless security standard that defines stronger
encryption, authentication and key management than WPA.
• WPA2-MIX. This commands the ZyXEL Device to use either WPA2 or WPA
depending on which security mode the wireless client uses.
• WPA2-PSK. This adds a pre-shared key on top of WPA2 standard.
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SECURITY TYPE
Unique SSID (Default)
Unique SSID with Hide SSID Enabled
MAC Address Filtering
WEP Encryption
IEEE802.1x EAP with RADIUS Server Authentication
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)
WPA2
ZyXEL NWA-1100 User's Guide