Wednesday 23 December 2015

Wireless Authentication for Windows Bods

The Wireless Networking and Authentication World

Wireless networking has a technical lingo all of its own. The following guide gives an overview of the terms and techniques a Windows programming bod may encounter in the field of wireless networking.

What is the EAP framework? (Hint: the E stands for Extensible)

The EAP or Extensible Authentication Protocol is an authentication framework (in the sense that it supports multiple authentication methods) commonly used in wireless networks.

What is UMA?

Unlicensed mobile access.

What is Pre Shared Key?

A pre-shared key (PSK) is a shared secret between two users of a communications channel.  A PSK is used in Wifi encryption methods such as WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), WPA (where there term WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK is used) and also in EAP-PSK.

What is WPA?

WPA is the recommended authentication method for IEEE 802.11 devices. It stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access and became available in 2003. WPA2 came about in 2004.

What is a WNIC?

A WNIC is a wireless network interface controller. It connects to a radio-based computer network rather than a wire-based network such as Ethernet.

What is a Service Set in the IEEE 802.11 standard?

A Service Set consists of all devices on a WLAN. A service set consists of an SSID or Service Set identifier. The technique of network cloaking inhibits broadcasting of SSIDs and is a form of security by obscurity.

What is a WMN?

A WMN is a wireless mesh network made up of radio nodes arranged in a mesh.  Mesh networks relay messages either by routing or flooding.

No comments: