User Manual

AirWorks AWK-3131A Web Console Configuration
3-11
Open
For security reasons, you should NOT set security mode to Open System, since authentication and data
encryption are NOT performed in Open System mode.
WEP (only for legacy mode)
NOTE Moxa includes WEP security mode only for legacy purposes. WEP is highly insecure and is considered fully
deprecated by the Wi-Fi alliance. We do not recommend the use of WEP security under any circumstances.
According to the IEEE802.11 standard, WEP can be used for authentication and data encryption to maintain
confidentiality. Shared (or Shared Key) authentication type is used if WEP authentication and data encryption
are both needed. Normally, Open (or Open System) authentication type is used when WEP data encryption is
run with authentication.
When WEP is enabled as a security mode, the length of a key (so-called WEP seed) can be specified as 64/128
bits, which is actually a 40/104-bit secret key with a 24-bit initialization vector. The AWK-3131A provides 4
entities of WEP key settings that can be selected to use with Key index. The selected key setting specifies the
key to be used as a send-key for encrypting traffic from the AP side to the wireless client side. All 4 WEP keys
are used as receive-keys to decrypt traffic from the wireless client side to the AP side.
The WEP key can be presented in two Key types, HEX and ASCII. Each ASCII character has 8 bits, so a 40-bit
(or 64-bit) WEP key contains 5 characters, and a 104-bit (or 128-bit) key has 13 characters. In hex, each
character uses 4 bits, so a 40-bit key has 10 hex characters, and a 128-bit key has 26 characters.
Authentication type
Setting Description Factory Default
Open Data encryption is enabled, but without authentication Open
Shared Data encryption and authentication are both enabled.
Key type
Setting Description Factory Default
HEX Specifies WEP keys in hex-decimal number form HEX
ASCII Specifies WEP keys in ASCII form
Key length
Setting Description Factory Default
64 bits Uses 40-bit secret keys with 24-bit initialization vector 64 bits
128 bits Uses 104-bit secret key with 24-bit initialization vector
Key index
Setting Description Factory Default
1-4 Specifies which WEP key is used Open