Boost Your Wi-Fi LAN Security by Upgrading to WPA Protocols

It's no secret that Wi-Fi LAN security is in a fairly abysmal state. Wi-Fi Protected Access is a security mandate that could prompt even lax companies to upgrade their systems. Any business running Wi-Fi LANs should upgrade to Wi-Fi Protected . . . It's no secret that Wi-Fi LAN security is in a fairly abysmal state. Wi-Fi Protected Access is a security mandate that could prompt even lax companies to upgrade their systems. Any business running Wi-Fi LANs should upgrade to Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security as soon as possible. WPA provides far better security than the almost useless Wi-Fi standard security mechanism, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), that's shipped with Wi-Fi PC cards and access points. With vendors starting to roll out WPA today, upgrading should be relatively easy for small networks and casual users. It may be harder for larger networks and corporate users with scalable requirements.

If you're already running a Wi-Fi LAN, the first step will be to check with the vendor of your Wi-Fi access points, PC cards, and PCI adapters, to see if the firmware can be flash-updated to support WPA. In most cases, flashing will be possible, but there may be a few cases where access points, PC cards, or other gear will have to be replaced because the hardware lacks the necessary computational power or throughput.

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