D-Link DWA-582 - Wireless Security; What Is WPA

22D-Link DWA-582 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-582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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 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.