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What is Wi-Fi Protected Access or WPA?
FAQ ID: 385 Product: WirelessUpdated:10/4/2005 9:19:11 PM
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is becoming the wireless security standard. It is a higher level of security than WEP that combines encryption and authentication to create an unbreakable level of protection.For small office and home users, the WPA preshared key (WPA-PSK) is the easiest set up and does not involve a Certificate Authority Server, which is recommended for small and large business customers. Once the preshared key is set-up on each network device, every packet sent over the wireless network will receive its own encryption key under the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP).A key benefit to WPA is its backward compatibility with WEP-only devices. For those users looking to ensure the identity of wireless clients, a Certificate Authority Server or RADIUS Server can be added. This requires a more complicated set-up and is not recommended for smaller networks. Also, one thing to note is that WPA adds to the packet size, so typical transmissions will take longer.

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