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You use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) to encrypt radio signals sent by the device and decrypt radio signals received by the device. This page allows you to select authentication types for the access point. The internal radio and the radio module both have an AP Radio Data Encryption page. Both pages contain the same settings, but you can can assign different security settings to each radio.

Settings

Use of Data Encryption by Station is:

Determine whether clients should use data encryption when communicating with the device. WEP is enabled by selecting Optional or Full Encryption. The three options are:

• No encryption -- (Default) The device communicates only with client devices that are not using WEP.
• Optional -- Client devices can communicate with this access point or bridge either with or without WEP.
• Full encryption -- Client devices must use WEP when communicating with the access point or bridge. Devices not using WEP are not allowed to communicate.
• Not available - You must set an encryption key or enable Broadcast Key Rotation first.

Accept Authentication Types

Select how to set the authentications the device recognizes.

• Open -- (Default) Allows any device to authenticate and then attempt to communicate with the bridge or access point. If the bridge or access point is using WEP and the other device is not, the other device does not attempt to authenticate with the bridge. If the other device is using WEP but its WEP keys do not match the keys on the bridge or access point, the other device authenticates with the bridge or access point but does not pass data to it. The device’s WEP key does not match the bridge’s or access point's key, so it can authenticate but not pass data.

Note While a bridge or access point can use EAP to authenticate a wireless client device, a bridge or access point cannot use EAP to authenticate another bridge or access point. In other words, when two bridges communicate with each other, the bridges must authenticate each other using the open or shared key authentication type.

• Shared key -- The bridge or access point sends an unencrypted challenge text string to any device attempting to communicate with the bridge/access point. The device requesting authentication encrypts the challenge text and sends it back to the bridge or access point. If the challenge text is encrypted correctly, the bridge or access point allows the requesting device to authenticate. Both the unencrypted challenge and the encrypted challenge can be monitored, however, which leaves the bridge or access point open to attack from an intruder who guesses the WEP key by comparing the unencrypted and encrypted text strings. Because of this weakness, Shared Key authentication can be less secure than Open authentication.

• Network-EAP -- The device uses the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) to interact with an EAP-compatible RADIUS server on your network to provide authentication for wireless client devices. Client devices use dynamic WEP keys to authenticate to the network.

Require EAP

Transmit with Key

Click the Transmit with Key button to allow you to select the key this device uses when transmitting data. Only one key can be selected at a time. All set keys can be used to receive data. The selected key must already be set before it can be specified as the Transmit key.

Encryption Key

Enter a WEP key in one of the Encryption Key fields. For 40-bit encryption, enter 10 hexadecimal digits; for 128-bit encryption, enter 26 hexadecimal digits. Hexadecimal digits are a set of characters that includes numbers 0 through 9, lower-case letters a through f, and uppercase letters A through F. Your WEP keys can contain combinations of any of these characters. WEP keys are not case-sensitive.

You can enter up to four WEP keys. The key that you select as the transmit key must also be entered in the same key slot on client devices that associate with the access point or bridge, but it does not have to be selected as the transmit key on the client devices.

This table shows an example WEP key setup that would work for the access point or bridge and an associated client device.

Because the WEP key 2 is selected as the transmit key, WEP key 2 on the client device must contain the same contents. WEP key 4 on the client device is set, but because it is not selected as the transmit key, WEP key 4 on the access point/bridge does not need to be set at all.

The characters you type for the key contents appear only when you type them. After you click Apply or OK, you cannot view the key contents.

You cannot delete a WEP key, but you can write new characters over an existing key.

Key Size

Select 40-bit or 128-bit encryption for each key. The not set selection clears the key and indicates empty key slots.

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