Difference between WEP type

Hi,

In a manual I found there are two authentication methods, named, "Open" and "Shared", are they relating to WEP? What is the difference?

Thanks. ABAI

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Bin Chen
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Reply to
Canucklehead
*taken from above link

In the 802.11 standard, a device first Authenticates to the AP, and then Associates. The original designers intended that there would be a number of different Authentication methods to control who could use an AP.

In the 1999 version of the standard, 2 Authentication methods are defined: Open and Shared. In Open, any device can Authenticate to the AP. In Shared, only devices with the WEP key can successfully Authenticate. Sounds good so far.....

The problem with Authenticate, is that were it is in the process of establishing connectivity, none of the higher-level protocols, like

802.1X can be run inside of the Authenticate 802.11 frames. So 802.11i does not use it, just uses Open Authenticate.

Shared Authenticate has a serious flaw, in that it is a simple challenge/response protocol. This design is very open to offline dictionary attacks. A WEP key would easily be exposed. Additionally, even in Open Authentication, a device that did not have the WEP key would not be able to communicate via the AP, as the AP would discard all data packets from the device.

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Reply to
Canucklehead

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