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Wifi encryption type?

jent

jent

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 31, 2010
893
568
My dad asked me to update the wifi password at his business, as it is very long and he wants a custom password so the employees can easily access the network. If I recall correctly, the only business devices that connect to the network are two Macs—everything else is just employee smartphones.

It's a Motorola Netopia 3000 wifi router and it's currently set to "WEP - Manual." Which is the best wifi network encryption method, and can I set a custom password with it? Thanks!

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I should add that my options are:

WEP - Automatic
WEP - Manual
WPA - 802.1x
WPA - PSK
OFF - No Privacy
 
LostSoul80

LostSoul80

macrumors 68020
Jan 25, 2009
2,136
7
You can set a manual password with every encryption of course, if the router allows you to. I'd tend to avoid WEP, as it's easily crackable, and choose WPA. 8 characters is the minimum password length.
 
SandboxGeneral

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
WPA or WPA2 with AES encryption is all I ever use. I also use 64-character pseudo-random generated passwords with maximum entropy. You can use a secure password generator here. Never, ever use WEP. It can be cracked in less than 60 seconds. I don't know why manufacturers still include this horrible protocol.
 
jent

jent

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 31, 2010
893
568
WPA2 is better than WPA, no? And WPA2 has been around for a while, right? I'm wondering how old this wifi router is if it doesn't even have WPA2 as an option.
 
SandboxGeneral

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
jent said:
WPA2 is better than WPA, no? And WPA2 has been around for a while, right? I'm wondering how old this wifi router is if it doesn't even have WPA2 as an option.
Click to expand...

Yes, WPA2 is better, but WPA is good too. From Wikipedia:

WPA (sometimes referred to as the draft IEEE 802.11i standard) became available in 2003 and was intended as an intermediate measure in anticipation of the availability of the more secure and complex WPA2. WPA2 became available in 2004 and is a common shorthand for the full IEEE 802.11i (or IEEE 802.11i-2004) standard.
Click to expand...
 
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