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Wi-Fi Security Still Spotty

A year after WPA's launch, many products aren't certified.

Sean Captain

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Illustration: Joe Zeff
In addition to being faster than their predecessors, new Wi-Fi-certified 802.11g wireless products promise better protection from snoops, thanks to Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption technology. But even though the WPA standard was introduced about a year ago, some 802.11g products may not support it.

The good news: In our informal tests with a half dozen Wi-Fi access points and 14 internal and external adapters, WPA worked on all products certified for interoperability by the Wi-Fi Alliance industry group. Also, a Windows XP patch that Microsoft issued last fall can fix some incompatibilities. The bad news: Certification is far from universal, especially in certain Wi-Fi product categories; some uncertified products had problems; and it's not always easy to tell what offerings (and technologies) have been certified.

Certified Trouble

The worst offender in improperly representing certification was Microsoft. Its MN-700 access point/router displays the Wi-Fi Alliance's certification label for WPA prominently on the box, but the device failed to establish a WPA connection with any of six 802.11g wireless PC Cards (including Microsoft's own MN-720 model) and with six of eight tested notebooks using integrated 11g wireless. Not all of these notebooks and cards were certified for WPA, but all connected with several other WPA-enabled routers.

Wi-Fi Alliance representatives say the Alliance certified the MN-700 for the 802.11b and 802.11g standards with security turned off. Spokesperson Brian Grimm says the Alliance will contact Microsoft about updating its labeling.

Microsoft announced in May that it was leaving the wireless networking business, but it intends to continue supporting its products. A spokesperson says that the company plans to issue a patch enabling WPA in July, although throughput will drop to about 7 megabits per second--well below the minimum 12 to 14 mbps that industry experts estimate users should expect with devices that have WPA enabled.

The Wi-Fi Alliance accurately reported Microsoft's certifications in the product database on its Web site. The database is a good resource to consult before you buy, although we did find some instances where items appeared in the wrong category. For example, D-Link's DWL-G650 PC Card appeared on the list of internal cards, not external cards as it should have.

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