Use a wireless encryption system to encode the information being sent to prevent unwanted capture and use of data. Both ends of every link must use the same encryption standard.
Most wireless access points support several different security modes. The most common ones are:
- Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) - The first generation security standard for wireless. Attackers quickly discovered that WEP encryption was easy to break. The encryption keys used to encode the messages could be detected by monitoring programs. After the keys were obtained, messages could be easily decoded.
- Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) - An improved version of WEP, WPA covers the entire 802.11i standard (a security layer for wireless systems). WPA uses much stronger encryption than WEP encryption.
- Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) - An improved version of WPA. This protocol introduces higher levels of security than WPA. WPA2 supports robust encryption, providing government-grade security. WPA2 has two versions: Personal (password authentication) and Enterprise (server authentication).
Additions to WPA and WPA2
Other security implementations have been added to the WPA standard.
- Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) - This technology changes the encryption key on a per packet basis and provides a method to check the integrity of messages.
- Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) - Uses a centralized authentication server to increase security.
- Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) - A protocol that does not use a certificate server.
- Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) - A symmetric key encryption method added to WPA2 only.
To add wireless security, use the following path, as shown in the figure:
Wireless > Wireless Security > select a Security Mode > select an Encryption Type > type the Pre-shared Key > set Key Renewal > Save Settings > Continue