D-Link DWA-510 - What Is WPA

31D-Link DWA-510 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 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 router 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.