Cisco AP541N-A-K9 Administration Guide - Page 66

4 Wireless Modifying Virtual Access Point Settings NOTE After you configure the VAP settings, you must click Apply to apply the changes and to save the settings. Changing some settings might cause the access point to stop and restart system processes. If this happens, wireless clients temporarily lose connectivity. We recommend that you change access point settings when WLAN traffic is low. Security (Mode) The Security mode you set here is specifically for this VAP. When the page initially loads, any VAP that has a security mode other than None will have a Show details link below the Security selection box. Click the Show details link to show the current security settings. When showing the current security settings, the link changes to Hide details. Click Hide details to collapse the current security settings. None (Plain-text) If you select None as your security mode, no other options are configurable on the access point. This mode means that any data transferred to and from the access point is not encrypted. This security mode can be useful during initial network configuration or for problem solving, but it is not recommended for regular use on the Internal network because it is not secure. Static WEP Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a data encryption protocol for 802.11 wireless networks. All wireless stations and access points on the network are configured with a static 64-bit (40-bit secret key + 24-bit initialization vector (IV)) or 128-bit (104-bit secret key + 24-bit IV) Shared Key for data encryption. Static WEP is not the most secure mode available, but it offers more protection than setting the security mode to None (Plain-text) as it does prevent an outsider from easily sniffing out unencrypted wireless traffic. WEP encrypts data moving across the wireless network based on a static key. (The encryption algorithm is a stream cipher called RC4.) 63 Cisco AP 541N Dual-band Single-radio Access Point Quick Start Guide