Friday, November 1, 2002
Improved Wi-Fi Security in the Making
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "NEWS" @ 01:06 AM
http://www.allnetdevices.com/wireless/news/2002/10/31/new_protection.html
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a new solution aimed at improving security in wireless networks. It's the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance, the "consortium behind interoperability standards and testing for 802-11 based networks", that has deviced this solution as a replacement of the built-in WEP standard.
"Why not wait for 802.11i? According to Dennis Eaton, the chairman of the Wi-Fi Alliance, "[IEEE] Task Group I doing 802.11i is still on a path to be complete about this time next year with a fully ratified standard, but that's a little too long. We had to do something sooner." That something sooner is WPA, which, according to Eaton, will work with the majority of 802.11-based products out today once they've gone through a firmware/software upgrade. WPA is forward compatible with 802.11i. By the time 11i is ratified around September of next year, expect to see a WPA version 2.0 with full 802.11i support. Eventually, the Alliance expects to require Wi-Fi products to shop with WPA turned on as a default."
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) is a new solution aimed at improving security in wireless networks. It's the non-profit Wi-Fi Alliance, the "consortium behind interoperability standards and testing for 802-11 based networks", that has deviced this solution as a replacement of the built-in WEP standard.
"Why not wait for 802.11i? According to Dennis Eaton, the chairman of the Wi-Fi Alliance, "[IEEE] Task Group I doing 802.11i is still on a path to be complete about this time next year with a fully ratified standard, but that's a little too long. We had to do something sooner." That something sooner is WPA, which, according to Eaton, will work with the majority of 802.11-based products out today once they've gone through a firmware/software upgrade. WPA is forward compatible with 802.11i. By the time 11i is ratified around September of next year, expect to see a WPA version 2.0 with full 802.11i support. Eventually, the Alliance expects to require Wi-Fi products to shop with WPA turned on as a default."
