Securing 802.11g

The products we saw only had Wired Equivalent Privacy protection, except for Apple’s AirPort Extreme, which includes support for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service authentication.

The products we saw only had Wired Equivalent Privacy protection, except for Apple’s AirPort Extreme, which includes support for Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service authentication. None of the 802.11g access points we tested had provisions for Wi-Fi Protected Access, the soon-to-be-released security technology designed as a bridge between WEP and the 802.11i standard. Any number of applications can crack WEP, and while it was initially used for wireless LAN authentication, it’s no better than a closed door. WEP is essentially worthless.

WPA uses at minimum the addition of a master access point password phrase (to be used at the client for successful access point association) and Temporal Key Integrity Protocol. WPA optionally also connects clients via the Extensible Authentication Protocol to an authenticator via 802.1X. The authenticator can be a RADIUS server or other components of a network key authentication infrastructure – Apple’s AirPort Extreme was the only access point that could require RADIUS authentication.

Back to main review: “802.11g WLAN gear”