Understanding Wpa And Wpa2; Recommended Authentication And Encryption Combinations; Table 11 Wpa And Wpa2 Features; Table 12 Recommended Authentication And Encryption Combinations - Dell PowerConnect W-IAP175P User Manual

Understanding WPA and WPA2

The Wi-Fi Alliance created the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and WPA2 certifications to describe the 802.11i
standard. The standard was written to replace WEP, which was found to have numerous security flaws. It was
taking longer than expected to complete the standard, so WPA was created based on a draft of 802.11i, which
allowed people to move forward quickly to create more secure WLANs. WPA2 encompasses the full
implementation of the 802.11i standard.
WPA2 is a superset that encompasses the full WPA feature set. WPA and WPA2 can be further classified as
follows:
Personal—Personal is also called as Pre-Shared Key (PSK). In this type, a unique key is shared with each client

in the network. Users have to use this key to securely login to the network. The key remains the same until it is
changed by authorized personnel. Key change intervals can also be configured.
Enterprise—Enterprise is more secure when compared to WPA Personal. In this type, every client

automatically receives a unique encryption key after securely logging on to the network. This key is long and
automatically updated regularly. While WPA uses TKIP, WPA2 uses AES algorithm.
Table 11
Certification
WPA
WPA2

Recommended Authentication and Encryption Combinations

Table 12
in Wi-Fi networks.
Table 12
Network Type
Employee
Guest Network
Voice Network or Handheld devices
98 | Encryption
WPA and WPA2 Features
summarizes the recommendations for authentication and encryption combinations that should be used
Recommended Authentication and Encryption Combinations
Table 11 summarizes the differences between the two certifications.
Authentication
 PSK
IEEE 802.1X with Extensible

Authentication Protocol (EAP)
PSK

IEEE 802.1X with EAP

Authentication
802.1X
Captive Portal
802.1X or PSK as supported by the
device
Dell PowerConnect W-Series Instant Access Point 6.1.2.3-2.0.0.0 | User Guide
Encryption
Temporal Key Integrity Protocol
(TKIP) with message integrity check
(MIC)
Advanced Encryption Standard --
Counter Mode with Cipher Block
Chaining Message Authentication
Code (AESCCMP)
Encryption
AES
None
AES if possible, TKIP or WEP if
necessary (combine with restricted
policy enforcement firewall (PEF) user
role).