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The Thomson Gateway Wireless Access Point
5.3 Securing Your Wireless Connection
Introduction
You can protect the wireless communication between the wireless clients and your Thomson Gateway with a
wireless key. This means that:
Only clients which use the correct Network Name (SSID) and wireless key can connect to your network.
All data passing through your wireless access point is secured and encrypted.
Encryption types
Over the years a number of encryption types have been developed. The list below gives you an overview of
the supported encryption types ordered by descending security level; you will find the highest level of
security at the top of the list:
WPA-PSK Encryption:
The wireless connection is secured with a pre-shared key that has been defined by the user. Wireless
clients must be configured with this key before they can connect to the Thomson Gateway. The Thomson
Gateway supports the following WPA versions (ordered by descending security):
WPA2:
The most recent and most secure version of WPA. Choose this version if you are sure that all your
wireless clients support WPA2.
WPA+WPA2:
This is a mixed mode. In this mode WPA2, is the preferred encryption type but wireless clients do not
support WPA2, can still use WPA as encryption type. Choose this option if not all of your wireless
clients support WPA2 or if you are not sure. Wireless clients that support WPA2 will use WPA2, the
others will use WPA.
WPA:
The first version of WPA. Choose this option if you are sure that none of your wireless clients support
WPA2.
WEP Encryption:
The least safe encryption type used for wireless connections. Like WPA-PSK it uses a user-defined key,
but WEP has been proven to have security issues.
Configuration
Proceed as follows:
1 Open the Thomson Gateway GUI.
2 Under Home Network, click Wireless.
3 The Wireless Access Point page appears. In the upper-right corner, click Configure.
4 Under Encryption, select Use WPA-PSK Encryption.
If you want to configure WPA2 on the built-in wireless utility of Windows XP Service Pack 2
(SP2), you first have to:
Upgrade your Windows XP to Service Pack 3.
- or -
Install the following update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021.
Although the Thomson Gateway allows you to use WEP or no security, we strongly advise
against using one of them! Use WPA(2)-PSK instead.
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