Securing Your Wireless Connection - THOMSON TG580 Setup And User Manual

3.3

Securing Your Wireless Connection

Introduction
By using encryption, communication between the wireless clients and your Thomson Gateway is protected
by a passphrase. Only clients which use the correct network name (SSID) and passphrase can connect to your
network.
Encryption methods
During the years a number of encryption types have been developed. The list below gives you an overview of
the supported encryption types ordered by security level, you will find the highest level of security at the top
of the list:
WPA-PSK Encryption:
The wireless data is being encrypted with a user-defined key. Wireless clients must be configured with
this key before they can connect to the Thomson Gateway.
WEP Encryption:
The first encryption type used for wireless connections. Like WPA-PSK it uses a user-defined key, but WEP
has been proven to have some security issues.
WPA-PSK versions
The Thomson Gateway supports the following WPA-PSK versions:
WPA2 (also referred to as WPA2-PSK):
WPA2 is the most secure version, but not all wireless clients already support it. Before you select this
version, make sure all of your wireless clients support it.
WPA+WPA2:
If not all of your wireless clients support WPA2 or you are not sure if they support WPA2, we recommend
you to choose WPA+WPA2. Wireless clients that support WPA2 will use WPA2, the others will use WPA.
WPA:
If none of your wireless clients support WPA2 choose this option.
If you want to configure WPA2 on the built-in wireless utility of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2),
you first have to:
Upgrade your Windows XP to Service Pack 3.
- or -
Install the following update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021.
Which encryption method should I use?
We strongly recommend you to use WPA+WPA2.
Although the Thomson Gateway allows you to use WEP or no security, it is not recommended to use these
settings. Only use WEP if you have wireless clients that don't support a higher encryption level.
Configuring the wireless encryption
Proceed as follows:
1 Open the Thomson Gateway
2 On the left menu, click Home Network.
E-DOC-CTC-20090507-0002 v1.0
We strongly recommend you to use WPA-PSK instead.
GUI.
3 Wireless Access
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