Importance Of WPA

 

Though most of the Wi-Fi accesses used for residential and business purposes seem to be protected, they are virtually unsecured. It is a big challenge for the people to make their network secured despite the difficulties in achieving it. Till recent days, WEP (wired equivalent privacy) was considered as the encryption standard for the protection of networks. But with the advanced wireless routers, access points and wireless adapters, the capability of WEP is not sufficient to tolerate all these needs. So absolutely there is a need for a better option.

Here comes the option. Wi-Fi alliance has afforded the WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) for the secured Wi-Fi enabled network. Actually the technical features of WEP are updated and designed as a WPA. It simply indicates a security protocol for the Wi-Fi accessed computer networks. This WPA protocol is designed based on the IEEE 802.11i standard. TKIP (Temporary Key Integrity Protocol) is also incorporated with this WPA. This TKIP is actually integrated with wireless interface cards of pre WPA installation which is based on hashing algorithm.

Previously some flaws were found with TKIP integrated WEP and which are completely eliminated with the TKIP integrated WPA. The authentication of users is completely missed in WEP but it is finely achieved in WPA by means of EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol). This EAP is employed with extremely secured public key encryption features. In fact, WEP is based on MAC (Memory Access Control) address of computer hardware which enhances the options of stealing and sniffing. But these threats can be eliminated with the WPA.

Without the complexity of 802.1x authentication server, you are able to protect your network. This is achieved with the help of pre shared key mode (PSK) which is otherwise called as personal mode. A 256 bit key is provided to each node of the wireless network for the purpose of encryption. In this mode, the keys are automatically changed for a certain period and this process is called re-keying so as to purvey extra strong encryption. Since shared key mode is more vulnerable to the cracking or hacking of pass words, PSK is the most preferable. There is no tampering of keys due to the integrity checking features. The integrity of the messages through MIC (Message Integrity Check) is absolutely insured. So your network is safeguarded with the randomly generated PSKs.

Initially you need to configure this WPA-PSK for your network for enabling the set up of the wireless routers and access points in the network. These configurations may vary some times. And you can even update the settings of WPA without any additional software. No confusion of multiple or different keys for the home broadband users in WPA as in WEP. They just provide consistent keys and ultimately more easy access for the users. It basically uses a shared secret or pass-phrase for the WPA clients and also for the wireless routers and access points. In fact this WPA is not at all an official standard but it would be considered as the compatible one for the up coming security standard 802.11i.