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WPA is wireless security with far greater protection than WEP.
It avoids most of WEP's vulnerabilities.
Advantages of WPA
- Provides extremely strong wireless security for the 2003 computing environment.
- Adds authentication to WEP's basic encryption.
- Has backward compatible WEP support for devices that are not upgraded.
- Integrates with RADIUS servers to allow administration, auditing, and logging.
Disadvantages of WPA
- Except when using with the preshared key (WPA-PSK), complicated setup is required, unsuitable for
typical home users.
- Requires firmware upgrade for main products.
- Older firmware usually will not be upgraded to support it.
- Incompatible with older operating systems such as Windows 95.
- Greater performance overhead than WEP.
- Remains vulnerable to Denial of Service attacks.
Facts About WPA
- WPA was introduced in 2003. To run WPA between two computers both must have WPA software, and all
access points and wireless adapters between them, as well. Recent computers will need to be upgraded, and
older equipment will not be upgradable.
- WPA has two significant advantages over WEP:
- An encryption key differing in every packet. The TKIP (Temporal
Key Integrity Protocol) mechanism shares a starting key between devices. Each device then changes their
encryption key for every packet. It is extremely difficult for hackers to read messages — even if
they've intercepted the data.
- Certificate Authentication (CA) can be used, blocking a hacker's
access posing as a valid user.
- WPA computers will communicate with WEP encryption, if they cannot use WPA with a particular
device.
- A Certificate Authority Server is part of the recommended configuration, to allow WPA computers
assurance that the computers with whom they share keys are who they claim.
- Since WPA adds to packet size, transmission takes longer. The encryption and decryption are slower for
devices using software, rather than dedicated WPA hardware.
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