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User Manual of WNAP-7206
run that way to enhance network security. However it's no replacement for WEP, MAC filtering or other
protections.
A.15 What is Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA)?
Wi-Fi's original security mechanism, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), has been viewed as insufficient for
securing confidential business communications. A longer-term solution, the IEEE 802.11i standard, is under
development. However, since the IEEE 802.11i standard is not expected to be published until the end of 2003,
several members of the WI-Fi Alliance teamed up with members of the IEEE 802.11i task group to develop a
significant near-term enhancement to Wi-Fi security. Together, this team developed Wi-Fi Protected Access.
To upgrade a WLAN network to support WPA, Access Points will require a WPA software upgrade. Clients will
require a software upgrade for the network interface card, and possibly a software update for the operating
system. For enterprise networks, an authentication server, typically one that supports RADIUS and the selected
EAP authentication protocol, will be added to the network.
A.16 What is WPA2?
It is the second generation of WPA. WPA2 is based on the final IEEE 802.11i amendment to the 802.11
standard.
A.17 What is 802.1x Authentication?
802.1x is a framework for authenticated MAC-level access control, defines Extensible Authentication Protocol
(EAP) over LANs (WAPOL). The standard encapsulates and leverages much of EAP, which was defined for
dial-up authentication with Point-to-Point Protocol in RFC 2284.
Beyond encapsulating EAP packets, the 802.1x standard also defines EAPOL messages that convey the shared
key information critical for wireless security.
A.18 What is Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)?
The Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, pronounced tee-kip, is part of the IEEE 802.11i encryption standard for
wireless LANs. TKIP is the next generation of WEP, the Wired Equivalency Protocol, which is used to secure
802.11 wireless LANs. TKIP provides per-packet key mixing, a message integrity check and a re-keying
mechanism, thus fixing the flaws of WEP.
A.19 What is Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)?
Security issues are a major concern for wireless LANs, AES is the U.S. government's next-generation
cryptography algorithm, which will replace DES and 3DES.
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