D-Link DAP-1525 - What Is WPA

56D-Link DAP-1525 User Manual
Section 4 - Wireless Security
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 2 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haven’tbeentamperedwith.WPA2is
basedon802.11iandusesAdvancedEncryptionStandard(AES)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sniffed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-PSK/WPA2-PSK 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 Access Point or access point.
WPA/WPA2 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.