What You Need To Know About Wireless Security - ZyXEL Communications NWA-3160 - V3.70 Manual

Chapter 10 Wireless Security Screen

10.1.2 What You Need To Know About Wireless Security

The following terms and concepts may help as you read through this chapter.
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.
You can configure up to 16 security profiles in your NWA. The following table
shows the relative effectiveness of wireless security methods:.
Table 37 Wireless Security Levels
SECURITY
LEVEL
Least
Secure
Most Secure
The available security modes in your NWA 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.
160
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
NWA-3160 Series User's Guide