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Chapter 6 Wireless LAN
NWA1000 Series User’s Guide
54
The NWA secure communications via data encryption, wireless client authentication and MAC
address filtering. It can also hide its identity in the network.
User Authentication
Authentication is the process of verifying whether a wireless device is allowed to use the wireless
network. You can make every user log in to the wireless network before they can use it. However,
every device in the wireless network has to support IEEE 802.1x to do this.
For wireless networks, you can store the user names and passwords for each user in a RADIUS
server. This is a server used in businesses more than in homes. If you do not have a RADIUS server,
you cannot set up user names and passwords for your users.
Unauthorized wireless devices can still see the information that is sent in the wireless network,
even if they cannot use the wireless network. Furthermore, there are ways for unauthorized
wireless users to get a valid user name and password. Then, they can use that user name and
password to use the wireless network.
The following table shows the relative effectiveness of wireless security methods:.
The available security modes in your NWA are as follows:
• None. No data encryption.
• WEP. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption scrambles the data transmitted between the
wireless stations and the access points to keep network communications private.
• WPA2. WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i) is a wireless security standard that defines stronger encryption,
authentication and key management.
• WPA2-MIX. This commands the NWA to use either WPA2 depending on which security mode
the wireless client uses.
• WPA2-PSK. This adds a pre-shared key on top of WPA2 standard.
• WPA2-PSK-MIX. This commands the NWA to use WPA2-PSK depending on which security
mode the wireless client uses.
Note: To guarantee 802.11n wireless speed, please only use WPA2 or WPA2-PSK security
mode. Other security modes may degrade the wireless speed performance to
802.11g.
Table 10 Wireless Security Levels
SECURITY
LEVEL
SECURITY TYPE
Least
Secure
Most Secure
Unique SSID (Default)
Unique SSID with Hide SSID Enabled
MAC Address Filtering
WEP Encryption
IEEE802.1x EAP with RADIUS Server Authentication
WPA2