WPA over WEP

WPA aka WiFi Protected access was released to cover the holes that the older WEP encryption left behind. WPA is far more secure and far harder to crack than WEP and is a must for anyone who holds sensitive data on a wirelessly connected network.

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Its become no secret that WEP encryption is not up to scratch anymore when it comes to securing important networks. It will stop the neighbours from connecting to your network but it won't stop an experienced hacker from gaining access to your wireless network. Because of this a new standard had to be introduced. This standard is called WPA or WiFi Protected Access.

For the basic user such as you an me what you really need to know about WPA is that its a security protocol that address all the known flaws and loop holes which were discovered in the WEP protocol. When you are setting up WPA you do it in much the same way except we recommend that you use a selection of random numbers and letters as a password and keep this information safe. Using passwords that can be easily guessed is the main way that a secure system like WPA gets cracked.

To setup WPA encryption on your wireless network follow the steps shown to setup WEP encryption but from the encryption menu select WPA-PSK. the PSK stands for personal shared key and works the same as the WEP standard. You simply enter this key into the wireless network properties and access the network as normal.

The only reason why you would not use WPA on your network is if some or all of your wireless network components do not support the standard. If even one of your devices does not support the WPA protocol then the network will not work or that single device will be locked out of the network. WEP and WPA are not interchangeable or in any way compatible. The good news is that upgrades for the majority of wireless hardware are available from the manufacturers. Check your manufacturers websites for updated software and firmware for your network devices.

Although WPA is substantially stronger than WEP it should be known that WPA is only an interim standard, simply created out of necessity due to the weaknesses of WEP. WPA will be replaced by 802.11i. 802.11i is in its early stages but has been released under the name of WPA2.

WPA2 is the first standard to be released with the full feature list of 802.11i. WPA2 unlike the release of WPA was not released to cover any holes or flaws. The WiFi Alliance (non profit making consortium that test and verifies wireless products) still states that WPA is secure. WPA2 does however use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). This encryption is basically being described as "Government Standard". Sounds good, but a draw back here is that WPA2 may well require new hardware than you currently own as it requires a separate chip which handles all the encryption and decryption. WPA2 is backwards compatible with WPA but like the original WPA it isn't compatible with the older WEP protocol.