Wireless Security In Detail - NetComm NB9 User Giude

Wireless Security in Detail

The following provides a detailed summary of wireless terms and acronyms and more in-depth
explanations of the topic. It assumes little prior knowledge of wireless networking and is aimed at
providing background for the terminology used in the NB9W Wireless Security screens.
Warning: Wireless Networking is a technically challenging subject!
Authentication and Encryption
The two major aims of wireless network security are:
(1) to prevent unauthorised persons from joining the network and
(2) to prevent interception of network data or 'eavesdropping'. These aims are
accomplished by:
• Authentication: establishes the identity of those seeking to join the network
• Encryption: ensures that data is protected in such a way that those outside the
network cannot access it.
Network Keys
The term 'network key' is often used in the context of wireless networking. The Network Key can
be a text string, although in some systems network keys are generated from a 'pass-phrase' which is
entered in one field from which up to four keys are derived in fields underneath the entry field.
In all cases, the Wireless Router/Access Point and the workstations wishing to connect must use the
same Network Key which needs to be communicated to clients prior to connection.
'Re-keying' refers to the frequency with which network keys are changed; for security purposes,
they need to be changed frequently in case they re-occur frequently enough to identify them.
In some wireless systems, network keys are entered by a variety of means including:
• ASCII – any letter, number, or punctuation mark but no special characters
• Hex – Letters A-F, Numbers 0-9 only
• Pass phrase – enter a phrase in the top field of a set of fields, an algorithm then generates
a series of keys based on the entered values.
These methods have been standardised in the later implementations of Wireless Security and are
easier to use in WPA.
WEP and WPA
'WEP' stands for Wireless Equivalent Privacy and was the original wireless security method. Over
time it was found to be vulnerable to attacks based on de-coding the 'keys' used to encrypt the
data. While no longer recommended for enterprise-level security, WEP is certainly secure from
casual interception and will repel any non-specialised attempt to join the network or intercept data;
it can be penetrated with various kinds of software tools and techniques but these are beyond the
capability of the average computer user.
'WPA' stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access and is an improvement on WEP. WPA2 offers further
refinements to WPA.
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YML790 Rev1
NB9/NB9W ADSL2+ VoIP Router