Operation Manual

Network configuration 57
devolo dLAN 500 WiFi
Security
Without encryption, not only are all data transmitted
from client computers to the dLAN 500 WiFi in your
wireless network without protection, but there is also
no password prompt to establish the connection. If no
other security measures were set up, such as a Wi-Fi fil-
ter (see Chapter 6.5.3 WLAN filters), third parties can
gain access to your network at any time and, for exam-
ple, share your Internet connection. Each instance of
access is visible to you in the Wi-Fi monitor (see Chap-
ter 6.3.2 WLAN status).
To secure the data transmission in your wireless net-
work there are two security standards available.
쎲 The older and weaker WEP standard can protect
communication with the help of a key having
either 10 or 26 characters. To do so, enter a
series of hexadecimal characters with the corre-
sponding number of characters into the Key field.
A WEP key consists of a hexadecimal number
which in turn consists of max. 26 characters
(from 0 to 9 and A to F, e.g.
"8AF34597FF5KK6LM4DF3OP2JK1"). No oth-
er special characters (e.g. colons) may be used.
쎲 The state-of-the-art WPA and WPA2 (Wi-Fi Pro-
tected Access) methods allow individualised keys
consisting of letters and numbers with a length
of up to 63 characters. You can simply enter this
using the keyboard, without having to convert it
into hexadecimal format first (as with WEP).
Under Mode, you can limit access of clients to the
dLAN 500 WiFi to the method you have selected.
Save all modified settings before leaving this configu-
ration area again.
You should always encrypt the con-
nections in your Wi-Fi. Otherwise an-
yone within range could penetrate
into your home network and, for ex-
ample, share your Internet connec-
tion. If possible, always select the
better WPA2 encryption method.
Only use WEP if one of your wireless
terminal devices does not operate
with a better standard.