HP C8907A User Guide - Page 25

(continued) WPA IEEE 802.11i an extended 128-bit WEP protocol using a 104-bit key size. A 128bit WEP key is almost always entered by users as a string of 26 Hexadecimal (Hex) characters (0-9 and A-F). Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2) is a class of systems to secure wireless (Wi-Fi) computer networks. It was created in response to several serious weaknesses researchers had found in the previous system, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). WPA is designed to work with all wireless network interface cards, but not necessarily with first generation wireless access points. WPA2 implements the full standard, but will not work with some older network cards. Both provide good security, with two significant issues: either WPA or WPA2 must be enabled and chosen in preference to WEP. WEP is usually presented as the first security choice in most installation instructions. in the "Personal" mode, the most likely choice for homes and small offices, a passphrase is required that, for full security, must be longer than the typical 6 to 8 character passwords users are taught to employ. IEEE 802.11i, also known as WPA2, is an amendment to the 802.11 standard specifying security mechanisms for wireless networks (see Wi-Fi). The draft standard was ratified on 24 June 2004, and supersedes the previous security specification, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), which was shown to have severe security weaknesses. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) had previously been introduced by the Wi-Fi Alliance as an intermediate solution to WEP insecurities. WPA implemented a subset of 802.11i. The Wi-Fi Alliance refers to their approved, interoperable implementation of the full 802.11i as WPA2. 802.11i makes use of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block cipher; WEP and WPA use the RC4 stream cipher. User Guide 25