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There are two communication mode options:
• Ad hoc: On an ad hoc network, the device is set to ad hoc communication mode and
communicates directly with other wireless devices without the use of a wireless
access point, such as a wireless router or Apple AirPort Base Station.
All devices on the ad hoc network must:
ƕ Be 802.11 compatible
ƕ Have ad hoc as the communication mode
ƕ Have the same network name (SSID)
ƕ Be on the same subnet and same channel
ƕ Have the same 802.11 security settings
• Infrastructure (recommended): On an infrastructure network, the device is set to
infrastructure communication mode and communicates with other devices on the
network, whether the devices are wired or wireless, through a wireless access point,
such as a router or Apple AirPort Base Station.
Security settings
NOTE: For the available settings for the device, see Understand the network
configuration page.
For more information on wireless security, visit
www.wifi.org.
• Network authentication: The device's factory default setting is 'Open,' which does
not require security for authorization or encryption. The other possible values are
'OpenThenShared,' 'Shared,' and 'WPA-PSK' (Wi-Fi
®
Protected Access Pre-Shared
Key).
WPA increases the level of over-the-air data protection and access control on existing
and future Wi-Fi networks. It addresses all known weaknesses of WEP, the original
native security mechanism in the 802.11 standard.
WPA2 is the second generation of WPA security; it provides enterprise and consumer
Wi-Fi users with a high level of assurance that only authorized users can access their
wireless networks.
• Data encryption:
ƕ Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) provides security by encrypting data sent over
radio waves from one wireless device to another wireless device. Devices on a
WEP-enabled network use WEP keys to encode data. If your network uses WEP,
you must know the WEP key(s) it uses.
ƕ WPA uses the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP) for encryption and employs
802.1X authentication with one of the standard Extensible Authentication Protocol
(EAP) types available today.
ƕ WPA2 provides a new encryption scheme, the Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES). AES is defined in counter cipher-block chaining mode (CCM) and supports
the Independent Basic Service Set (IBSS) to enable security between client
workstations operating in ad hoc mode.
Chapter 8
136 Configure and manage