User's Manual

27D-Link DWA-525 User Manual
Section 4 - Wireless Security
Wireless Security
Thissectionwillshowyouthedierentlevelsofsecurityyoucanusetoprotectyourdatafromintruders.TheDWA-525oers
thefollowingtypesofsecurity:
•WPA/WPA2-Personal  
•WPA/WPA2-Enterprise
What is WPA
™
?
WPA,orWi-Fi
®
ProtectedAccess,isaWi-FistandardthatwasdesignedtoimprovethesecurityfeaturesofWEP(WiredEquivalent
Privacy).
ThetwomajorimprovementsoverWEP:
•ImproveddataencryptionthroughtheTemporalKeyIntegrityProtocol(TKIP).TKIPscramblesthekeysusinga
hashingalgorithmand,byaddinganintegrity-checkingfeature,ensuresthatthekeyshavenotbeentampered
with.WPA2isbasedon802.11iandusesAdvancedEncryptionStandardinsteadofTKIP.
•Userauthentication,whichisgenerallymissinginWEP,throughtheextensibleauthenticationprotocol(EAP).
WEPregulatesaccesstoawirelessnetworkbasedonacomputer’shardware-specicMACaddress,whichis
relativelysimpletobesniedoutandstolen.EAPisbuiltonamoresecurepublic-keyencryptionsystemto
ensurethatonlyauthorizednetworkuserscanaccessthenetwork.
WPA/WPA2-Personal uses a passphrase or key to authenticate your wireless connection. The key is an alpha-numeric password
between8and63characterslong.Thepasswordcanincludesymbols(!?*&_)andspaces.Thiskeymustbetheexactsamekey
entered on your wireless router or access point.
WPA/WPA2-EnterpriseincorporatesuserauthenticationthroughtheExtensibleAuthenticationProtocol(EAP).EAPisbuilton
amoresecurepublickeyencryptionsystemtoensurethatonlyauthorizednetworkuserscanaccessthenetwork.