Netgear WNDAP350 – ProSAFE Dual Band Wireless-N Access Point User Manual

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Basic Installation and Configuration 
17
 ProSAFE Dual Band Wireless N Access Point WNDAP350
Understanding WNDAP350 Wireless Security Options
Your wireless data transmissions can be received well beyond your walls by anyone with a 
compatible adapter. For this reason, use the security features of your wireless equipment. 
The WNDAP350 wireless access point provides highly effective security features which are 
covered in detail in this chapter. Deploy the security features appropriate to your needs.
Figure 3. 
There are several ways you can enhance the security of your wireless network:
Restrict Access Based on MAC address. You can restrict access to only trusted PCs 
so that unknown PCs cannot wirelessly connect to the WNDAP350. MAC address 
filtering adds an obstacle against unwanted access to your network, but the data 
broadcast over the wireless link is fully exposed. 
Turn Off the Broadcast of the Wireless Network Name (SSID). If you disable 
broadcast of the SSID, only devices that have the correct SSID can connect. This nullifies 
the wireless network discovery feature of some products but the data is still fully exposed 
to a determined snoop using specialized test equipment like wireless sniffers.
Use WEP. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) data encryption provides data security. WEP 
open authentication and WEP data encryption will block all but the most determined 
eavesdropper. 
Use WPA or WPA-PSK. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) data encryption provides data 
security. The very strong authentication along with dynamic per frame rekeying of WPA 
make it virtually impossible to compromise. Because this is a new standard, wireless 
device driver and software availability may be limited.
Note:
 WEP and TKIP provide only legacy rates of operation. So, AES is the 
recommended solution to use the 802.11n rates and speed.