ZyXEL Communications zyair g-302 User Manual

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ZyXEL G-302 v3 User’s Guide
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Chapter 2 Wireless LAN Network
2.2.1  Data Encryption with WEP  
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption scrambles all data packets transmitted between 
the G-302 v3 and the AP or other wireless stations to keep network communications private. 
Both the wireless stations and the access points must use the same WEP key for data 
encryption and decryption.
There are two ways to create WEP keys in your G-302 v3.
• Automatic WEP key generation based on a “password phrase” called a passphrase. The 
passphrase is case sensitive. You must use the same passphrase for all WLAN adapters 
with this feature in the same WLAN.
For WLAN adapters without the passphrase feature, you can still take advantage of this 
feature by writing down the four automatically generated WEP keys from the Security 
Settings 
screen of the ZyXEL utility and entering them manually as the WEP keys in the 
other WLAN adapter(s).
• Enter the WEP keys manually.
Your G-302 v3 allows you to configure up to four 64-bit or 128-bit WEP keys and only 
one key is used as the default key at any one time.
2.2.2  IEEE 802.1x 
The IEEE 802.1x standard outlines enhanced security methods for both the authentication of 
wireless stations and encryption key management. Authentication can be done using an 
external RADIUS server.
2.2.2.1  EAP Authentication 
EAP (Extensible Authentication Protocol) is an authentication protocol that runs on top of the 
IEEE 802.1x transport mechanism in order to support multiple types of user authentication. By 
using EAP to interact with an EAP-compatible RADIUS server, an access point helps a 
wireless station and a RADIUS server perform authentication. 
The type of authentication you use depends on the RADIUS server and an intermediary AP(s) 
that supports IEEE 802.1x. The G-302 v3 supports EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS and EAP-PEAP. 
Refer to 
For EAP-TLS authentication type, you must first have a wired connection to the network and 
obtain the certificate(s) from a certificate authority (CA). A certificate (also called digital IDs) 
can be used to authenticate users and a CA issues certificates and guarantees the identity of 
each certificate owner.