ZyXEL Communications EMG8726-B10A User Manual page 96

Chapter 7 Wireless
enrollee (the device that receives network and security settings. The registrar creates a secure EAP
(Extensible Authentication Protocol) tunnel and sends the network name (SSID) and the WPA2-PSK pre-
shared key to the enrollee. Whether WPA2-PSK is used depends on the standards supported by the
devices. If the registrar is already part of a network, it sends the existing information. If not, it generates
the SSID and WPA2-PSK randomly.
The following figure shows a WPS-enabled client (installed in a notebook computer) connecting to a
WPS-enabled access point.
Figure 42 How WPS works
ACTIVATE ACTIVATE
WPS WPS
WITHIN 2 MINUTES
WPS HANDSHAKE
ENROLLEE REGISTRAR
SECURE TUNNEL
SECURITY INFO
COMMUNICATION
The roles of registrar and enrollee last only as long as the WPS setup process is active (two minutes). The
next time you use WPS, a different device can be the registrar if necessary.
The WPS connection process is like a handshake; only two devices participate in each WPS transaction.
If you want to add more devices you should repeat the process with one of the existing networked
devices and the new device.
Note that the access point (AP) is not always the registrar, and the wireless client is not always the
enrollee. All WPS-certified APs can be a registrar, and so can some WPS-enabled wireless clients.
By default, a WPS devices is "unconfigured". This means that it is not part of an existing network and can
act as either enrollee or registrar (if it supports both functions). If the registrar is unconfigured, the security
settings it transmits to the enrollee are randomly-generated. Once a WPS-enabled device has
connected to another device using WPS, it becomes "configured". A configured wireless client can still
act as enrollee or registrar in subsequent WPS connections, but a configured access point can no longer
act as enrollee. It will be the registrar in all subsequent WPS connections in which it is involved. If you
want a configured AP to act as an enrollee, you must reset it to its factory defaults.
EMG6726/8726-B10A User's Guide
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