Summary: Methods for encrypting Wireless Networks

Encrypted wireless networks are the most basic security protection measures for wireless Internet access. What encryption methods are there? Next, let's take a look at the various wireless encryption methods in detail, hoping to be useful to everyone. Let's take a look.

1. Do wireless network security improvements need to be achieved through encrypted communication over wireless networks?

As far as I know, there are many ways to improve wireless network security. The method of encrypting communication data through wireless networks is very effective. This method can greatly improve wireless security. However, he is not the most effective. High-level hackers can use sniffer and other methods to listen for Wireless Data Communication to brute force crack encryption keys. Therefore, it is not enough for our wireless network to encrypt communication.

1) modify the default password and IP address of the wireless router:

Security level:★★★☆

Disadvantage: Some people will scan the default IP address of the wireless router through sniffer, but changing the default password can greatly improve the wireless communication security.

2) Disable wireless SSID broadcast:

Security level:★★

Disadvantage: cainiao is not a good expert. You can also use the wireless sniffer tool to scan the information of wireless communication packets and analyze the hidden SSID number.

3) encrypted communication data through the WEP wireless network:

Security level:★★★★

Disadvantage: the wireless sniffer tool monitors data for a long time. When sufficient data packets are accumulated, the WEP encryption key can be promoted through the brute force method. In reality, I have successfully cracked it.

4) Data Encryption Through WPA wireless networks:

Security level:★★★★★

Disadvantage: configuration is troublesome, but this method is highly secure. This method is safe unless the employee accidentally leaks the WPA encryption key, causing illegal personnel connection.

5) MAC address filtering:

Security level:★★★★

Disadvantage: forging a MAC address becomes a breakthrough to crack this method. Additionally, adding a complicated MAC address filtering information increases the workload for network administrators.

In the actual maintenance and use of wireless networks, if we have high requirements for wireless network security, we should adopt a combination of the above methods, A single method has a weakness. In theory, the safest way is to encrypt communication data through the WPA wireless network and filter the communication data with the MAC address, in this way, employees can avoid accidental disclosure of the WPA encryption key, which may lead to illegal personnel connections, or prevent fake connections from forging MAC addresses.

TIPS:

If WPA encryption cannot be configured, we can use WEP encryption to replace it. This combination of security measures is equally effective.

2. Will the wireless network transmission speed become slower if encryption is used to improve security?

As we all know, WEP encryption and WPA encryption are common encryption methods for wireless devices on the market. WPA2 and RADUIS verification encryption are also advanced. Many users are worried that such wireless network encryption will slow down the speed of wireless transmission. Some Articles blindly draw conclusions that affect the speed without passing tests. In actual measurement, WEP encryption does not slow down the wireless communication speed. Because WPA and WPA2 have high requirements on device compatibility, we also primarily tested the influence of WEP encryption methods on the speed.

1) Speed of wireless communication without encryption:

We installed a 54M wireless network card on a laptop, then enabled the wireless network on the wireless router, and specified the compatible wireless standard as 802.11n + 802.11g. The test result of iperf shows that the transmission speed of the 54M wireless network adapter is 21 Mbits/sec.

2) wireless communication speed after WEP encryption:

Then, we encrypt the wireless transmission data and test the actual transmission speed. First, connect to the wireless router, enable WEP encryption, and set a 64bit 10-bit key. In this case, the testing transmission speed of the 54M product is the same as the previous results, and the average speed is equal to the standard of 21 Mbits/sec. It seems that encryption does not affect the wireless transmission speed.

We further encrypt the wireless transmission data and test the actual transmission speed. First, connect to the wireless router, enable WEP encryption, and set a-bit 26-bit key. In this case, the testing transmission speed of the 54M product is the same as the previous results, and the average speed is equal to the standard of 21 Mbits/sec. It seems that encryption and the length of the encrypted digits do not affect the wireless transmission speed.

TIPS:

We only tested the speed of WEP encryption, of course, with the increase of encryption security level will inevitably affect the wireless transmission speed, for example, when we encrypt the communication for WPA2-PSK wireless network, it has an impact on the speed, which may consume 5-15% of the speed.

Therefore, we do not have to worry about the impact of encrypted communication methods on the communication speed. We can use WEP encryption or WPA to encrypt wireless networks, of course, in actual use, we must build a secure wireless network by combining multiple methods as described by the author.