Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ for Wi-Fi Protected Setup: Easing the User Experience for Home and Small Office Wi-Fi® Networks
Wi-Fi Protected Setup is the first specification to be independently developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance. Wi-Fi Protected Setup is designed to support Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ 802.11 products including consumer electronics and phones, as well as computers and access points. It applies to 802.11 devices for home and small office, including those that communicate through 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11.g as well as multiple-band devices. It is also an option for Wi-Fi CERTIFIED programs for 802.11n pre-standard products in 2007, as well as products certified for the final 802.11n standard, expected in 2009. The Wi-Fi Alliance certified the first products with Wi-Fi Protected Setup in January of 2007.
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED with Wi-Fi Protected Setup helps assure consumers that the Wi-Fi devices they purchase can be more easily configured with security features enabled on their Wi-Fi networks, and that they can add new Wi-Fi Protected Setup devices to established networks with greater ease.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup is an optional certification; not all certified products include it. Developed specifically with the SOHO market in mind, it is not targeted for use in enterprise environments, where separate network servers are employed to control network access and govern encryption. Consumers should look for the Identifier Mark of Wi-Fi Protected Setup Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products with Wi-Fi Protected Setup to ensure it is present in the devices they purchase.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup applies to typical home networks in which devices communicate via an access point (AP) or router. It does not support "ad hoc" networks in which devices directly communicate with one another, independently of an AP. It configures the network name (SSID) and WPA2 security key for the Access Point and Wi-Fi Protected Setup client devices on a network.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup's simple, standardized approaches allow typical Wi-Fi users to set up and expand their Wi-Fi networks with security enabled, even if they do not understand the underlying technologies or processes involved. For example, users no longer have to know that SSID refers to the name of the network or that WPA2 refers to the security mechanism.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup uses Wi-Fi Protected Access™ 2 (WPA2™) Personal technology and is compatible with legacy devices that are Wi-Fi CERTIFIED for WPA™ / WPA2 Personal. It does not add security features. WPA and WPA2 represent the latest in security for Wi-Fi technology. Users must remember that WLAN security is only as strong as the weakest link and that using any legacy device that is not Wi-Fi CERTIFIED for WPA / WPA2 Personal leaves their WLANs vulnerable. All Wi-Fi CERTIFIED products certified after September 2003 support either WPA or WPA2; products certified since March 2006 are required to support WPA2.
Products certified for Wi-Fi Protected Setup currently offer users at least one of three easy setup solutions, Personal Information Number (PIN), Push Button Configuration (PBC), and Near-Field Communication (NFC). The specification is also designed for extensibility to other methods.
Users with legacy devices may add them to a Wi-Fi network that includes devices Wi-Fi CERTIFIED for Wi-Fi Protected Setup as they did previously, using the manual methods provided by the device manufacturers.
