We’ll always find 2 different security modes of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA/WPA2), while setting up a wireless network.
We try to make it easier to understand:
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TECHNICAL NAME
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| ("WPA– Personal") |
WPA - Pre-Shared Key (PSK)
- Easiest mode
- No beyond require on the wireless devices (Wireless router / Access Points)
- (Pre-Shared Key) Use one password for all devices / users
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("WPA– Enterprise")
also know as
("WPA– 802.1x RADIUS") |
WPA - Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP)
- Support businesses or organizations functions (VLANs)
- Better security and key management
- Require Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) server to support 802.1x authenticator
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WPA – Personal mode is a common method to secure wireless networks. Additionally, ONE Passphrase is used for authentication and dynamically sent between APs and Clients.
There are some risks if you use Personal mode on your organization network:
- A successfully connected user is able to see others’ traffic within the network (it possibly included passwords, emails and other private data.)
- If any wireless device lost or stolen or a user leaves the organization, the passphrases necessary manually changed on all wireless devices.
- Very important to create long and complex passphrases, because WPA-PSK remains vulnerable to password cracking attacks and brute force attack.
WPA – Enterprise mode not only included all of the features of WPA – Personal and also support for 802.1x RADIUS authentication. Intended for small-medium businesses wireless security use, you be able to understand more from following information, help to setup and manage your WPA – Enterprise security mode.
WPA – Enterprise mode clients require a username and password and/or a certificate to authenticate with a RADIUS service, in order to log onto the wireless network.
- If any wireless device lost or stolen or a user leaves the organization, the credential-types can be changed or revoked at any time on the server
- Since the Enterprise mode provides each user with a dynamic and unique encryption key, it also prevents user-to-user snooping on the wireless network.
- The dynamic keying also helps the overall strength of the WPA (TKIP) and WPA2 (AES) encryption.
