Dear Larry,
I'm confused about all these acronyms for wireless security. Can you explain WEP, WPA, etc.?
Maria A.
Hello Maria,
I understand your confusion. Let me list the various Wi-Fi security methods in the order they came about.
WEP
WEP stands for Wired Equivalency Privacy. This is the oldest and least secure form of wireless encryption. It was supposed to give a security equal to that of wired networks but it has flaws that make it easily crackable.
WPA
WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access, also known as WPA-PSK (Pre-Shared Key) or WPA-TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) or sometimes WPA1. The WPA-PSK nomenclature is misleading as WPA can use a pre-shared key by default or can use a RADIUS authentication server. Both WPA and WPA2 support EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) authentication methods using RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial in User Service) servers or pre-shared keys. Corporations and ISPs use RADIUS servers. PSK is typically for home and small office networks.
WPA2
This protocol is also known as WPA-CCMP (Counter Mode with CBC-MAC Protocol) or 802.11i. CCMP uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) to encrypt data. It is more secure than TKIP in WPA. WPA2 certification is mandatory for all new devices wishing to be certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance as "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED".
If you want to make sure someone knows which security method you are referring to, I recommend using the following nomenclature: WEP, WPA-TKIP, and WPA-CCMP.
Dynamic C 10.40, which is available on our website as a free download, can use any of the three security protocols listed above.
- Larry C.
Larry Cicchinelli is Rabbit’s Technical Support Manager. He has 30 years of embedded experience, and is considered one of the foremost authorities on Rabbit products. Larry and his staff offer comprehensive technical support to Rabbit customers.
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