Re: WEP vs. WPA?

Whoever wrote:


On Wed, 25 Jul 2007, Chris wrote:

Whoever wrote:
I have been struggling to understand what the requirements are to have a
WPA-enabled wireless connection.

Is the WPA functionality entirely implemented in software? I looked at the
specs for the Netgear WG511T and in the specs, it clearly states that it
supports WEP encryption, but no mention of WPA, yet elsewhere I see
references to this PC-Card supporting WPA (depending on the driver, I
think)?

So, if I use this (or another supported card), is is sufficient to get
wpa_supplicant installed and working to have support for WPA?

No. WPA needs to be supported by the hardware. From the netgear site your card only supports WEP so you're stuck with WEP :(

Here is why I am confused. Check this link:
http://www.netgear.co.uk/wireless_networkcard_wg511t.php

If you look on the 'Safe & Secure' bit on this page it states:
"NETGEAR’s WG511T provides both WEP and WPA-PSK (WPA-PSK available via firmware upgrade) wireless encryption standards..."

So, orignally your card didn't support WPA, but with the firmware upgrade it now does :)

The bad news is that you need Win2K or XP to upgrade your firmware (unless there's a hack out there) :(
http://kbserver.netgear.com/release_notes/d102803.asp
.

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