ZyXEL Communications 320W User Manual

 

All contents copyright (c) 2005 ZyXEL Communications Corporation.   

68

ESSID stands for Extended Service Set Identifier and identifies the wireless LAN. The ESSID of the 

mobile device must match the ESSID of the AP to communicate with the AP. The ESSID is a 32-character 

maximum string and is case-sensitive. 

 How do I secure the data across an Access Point's radio link?  

Enable Wired Equivalency Protocol (WEP) to encrypt the payload of packets sent across a radio link. 

Wired Equivalent Privacy. WEP is a security mechanism defined within the 802.11 standard and designed 

to make the security of the wireless medium equal to that of a cable (wire).   WEP data encryption was 

designed to prevent access to the network by "intruders" and to prevent the capture of wireless LAN 

traffic through eavesdropping.   WEP allows the administrator to define a set of respective "Keys" for 

each wireless network user based on a "Key String" passed through the WEP encryption algorithm. 

Access is denied by anyone who does not have an assigned key. WEP comes in 40/64-bit and 128-bit 

encryption key lengths. Note, WEP has shown to have fundamental flaws in its key generation 

processing.  

40 bit WEP & 64 bit WEP are the same encryption level and can interoperate. The lower level of WEP 

encryption uses a 40 bit (10 Hex character) as "secret key" (set by user), and a 24 bit " Initialization 

Vector " (not under user control) (40+24=64). Some vendors refer to this level of WEP as 40 bit, others as 

64 bit.   

A WEP key is a user defined string of characters used to encrypt and decrypt data.   

No. 128-bit WEP will not communicate with 64-bit WEP. Although 128 bit WEP also uses a 24 bit 

Initialization Vector, but it uses a 104 bit as secret key. Users need to use the same encryption level in 

order to make a connection.