Dell 2350 User Manual page 14

Example 2
The encryption method is the same for the access point and wireless client. You select key 1
for the access point and key 2 for the wireless client. The wireless client cannot communicate
with the WLAN. To resolve this problem, select key 1 for the wireless client.
NOTE: Use the same key and encryption method for the wireless devices in the WLAN.
Otherwise, they cannot communicate with each other.
The Wireless 2350 uses either hexadecimal digits or ASCII characters to create encryption
keys. Hexadecimal digits include the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to F. For example, the
decimal number 15 is represented as F in the hexadecimal numbering system.
ASCII is the acronym for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
Pronounced ask-ee, ASCII is a code for representing English characters as numbers, with
each letter assigned a number from 0 to 127. For example, the ASCII code for uppercase M is
77. Most computers use ASCII codes to represent text, which makes it possible to transfer
data from one computer to another.
WPA
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is an upgrade to the WEP standard for securing your wireless
network. WPA is derived from and will be forward-compatible with the future IEEE 802.11i
standard. It provides improved data encryption and user authentication.
To enhance the level of security, WPA uses Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP)
encryption to address the vulnerabilities of the static keys used in WEP. TKIP includes four
algorithms: message integrity check (MIC), to protect packets from tampering; Per-Packet
Key (PPK) hashing, to prevent weak key attacks; extended initialization vector (IV), to
reduce IV reuse and the possibility that a hacker will collect sufficient packets to crack the
encryption; and a re-keying mechanism, to change the temporal key dynamically. TKIP is the
most commonly used encryption method; however, if your wireless clients do not support TKIP,
the Wireless 2350 also supports Advanced Encryption Security (AES) encryption. AES will
replace 802.11's RC4-based encryption under the 802.11i specification. AES, the
gold-standard encryption algorithm, provides maximum security for wireless network.
For user authentication, WPA adopts an authentication scheme through 802.1x. 802.1x
provides a framework for user authentication and a key distribution management method.
802.1x consists of three main elements: an Authentication Server (typically a RADIUS server),