Help! WAP11 Authentication & Encryption

Hi all....

I have got myself a little confused here.....

I am using a Linksys WAP11 with WEP encryption and MAC address filtering
enabled for security, all works perfectly.

I was looking through the setting on the WAP11 and in particular the
wireless section where there is one called "Authentication" with an option
to set it to "Open System" "Shared Key" or "Both"

At present mine is set to "Both" and I am confused now if this is linked to
WEP encryption or not? if I changed this setting to "Open System" would that
disable WEP?

I thought I understood the encryption side of things!

Regards,

Paul

On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 07:36:49 GMT, Paul Westwell spoketh

>Hi all....
>
>I have got myself a little confused here.....
>
>I am using a Linksys WAP11 with WEP encryption and MAC address filtering
>enabled for security, all works perfectly.
>
>I was looking through the setting on the WAP11 and in particular the
>wireless section where there is one called "Authentication" with an option
>to set it to "Open System" "Shared Key" or "Both"
>
>At present mine is set to "Both" and I am confused now if this is linked to
>WEP encryption or not? if I changed this setting to "Open System" would that
>disable WEP?
>
>I thought I understood the encryption side of things!
>
>Regards,
>
>Paul
>

Authentication and encryption are two very separate things. Choosing
"open system" or "shared key" will not affect the encryption methods
used, and choosing "open system" does not disable WEP encryption.

"Shared key" means that the access point and the wireless client uses
the WEP keys not only for encryption, but also to authenticate the
connection. This is not good, as it actually transmits your WEP keys
between the two, and exposes your encryption keys to anyone "listening
in".

"Open system" means no authentication is made. Even if this sounds
unsecure, it's actually more secure than "Shared keys" because it
doesn't expose your WEP keys, and outsiders cannot (easily) listen in to
your wireless network traffic anyways due to the encryption, and access
may be denied due to MAC address filtering.

When using WPA, shared key authentication are not used, at least not in
the same manner as with WEP. Check and see if there's a firmware upgrade
available for the WAP11, and also if there are drivers for your wireless
network card that allows the use of WPA. WPA is a significant
improvement over WEP both with regards to authentication and encryption.

Lars M. Hansen
www.hansenonline.net
Remove "bad" from my e-mail address to contact me.
"If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?"

WEP is Wired Equlivant Privacy - basically gives you same security as
a wired connection - not very secure and from a Cisco enginner can be
cracked in 4 hours.

WPA is Wireless Protected Access - this is what you want if deploying
a wireless network in a corporate enviornment. WPA requires a RADIUS
server for authentication, the wifi adapter must support WPA.

Over summer did a wifi deployment using Funk Software Odyssey client
software, RADIUS server and using Proxim AP's and DLink AG650 cards -
opted to go for the 802.11a band (althought both wifi cards and AP can
do 802.11g) the reason we choose 802.11a was due to not being as
popular as the 802.11b/g standard.

To ensure security each client had a certificate in order to validate
the user to the RADIUS server 0 also using TKIP - the encryption key
changes every so many thousand packets.


On Sat, 16 Oct 2004 07:36:49 GMT, "Paul Westwell"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hi all....
>
>I have got myself a little confused here.....
>
>I am using a Linksys WAP11 with WEP encryption and MAC address filtering
>enabled for security, all works perfectly.
>
>I was looking through the setting on the WAP11 and in particular the
>wireless section where there is one called "Authentication" with an option
>to set it to "Open System" "Shared Key" or "Both"
>
>At present mine is set to "Both" and I am confused now if this is linked to
>WEP encryption or not? if I changed this setting to "Open System" would that
>disable WEP?
>
>I thought I understood the encryption side of things!
>
>Regards,
>
>Paul
>