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42D-Link DCS-932L User Manual
Section 5 - Security
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-PSK/WPA2-PSK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.