Wireless Encryption

WEP —Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an authentication method where all users share the same key. WEP is not secure as other encryption types such as TKIP.

WPA — Wi-Fi Protected Access (WAP) is introduced as an interim security enhancement over WEP while the 802.11i wireless security standard was being developed. Most current WPA implementations use a pre-shared key (PSK), commonly referred to as WPA Personal, and the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP, pronounced tee-kip) for encryption. WPA Enterprise uses an authentication server to generate keys or certificates.

WPA2 — Wi-Fi Protected Access version 2 (WPA2) is based on the 802.11i wireless security standard, which was finalized in 2004. The most significant enhancement to WPA2 over WPA is the use of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for encryption.

WPA and WPA2 can be further classified as follows:

Personal — Personal is also called Pre-Shared Key (PSK). In this type, a unique key is shared with each client in the network. Users have to use this key to securely log in to the network. The key remains the same until it is changed by authorized personnel. You can also configure key change intervals .

Enterprise — Enterprise is more secure than WPA Personal. In this type, every client automatically receives a unique encryption key after securely logging on to the network. This key is automatically updated at regular intervals. WPA uses TKIP and WPA2 uses the AES algorithm.