Week 9 - Wi-Fi Standards

There have been many changes to the internet over time since the conception of the internet. As the technology has evolved, so has the standards for them. These standards come from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The IEEE was formed in 1963 and has worked to develop many of the IEE 802 standards. Some of the standards I would like to view are the 802.11ac standards. More specifically, I would like to view WPS.

The 802.11ac standards are an expansion of the 802.11n standards that were included. The goal of 802..11ac was to include higher streaming and bandwidth speed. There was an issue called device density. Device density is the amount of devices connected to a network. Device density can cause issues with performance and in some cases, interference. So in order to avoid dealing with device density which has a 2.4ghz band, 802.11ac uses a 5.0ghz band. Here is some information and data on 802.11ac

• Frequency: 5Ghz
• Speed: Up to 1 GBPS
• Range: 300M
• Backward Compatibility: 802.11a

So what about WPS? Well, around 2006, the 802.11 was a general standard that was becoming widely implemented in devices such as printers, and scammers. and speakers. This standard can pose problems with the devices not offering configuration settings for their wireless capabilities.  In order to add configuration settings, the WPS standard was developed. Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). The WPS offers 2 modes:": The first is the button method and the second is the pin. The button method works by pressing a button on a singular device and then pressing a WPS button on the other devices. The two devices automatically configure their settings and establish an encrypted connection. The PIN method works by connecting a PC to a WPS device available. You press the button on the WAP device and locate the SSID on the device, then enter an 8-digit PIN number of the WPA personal shared key. All WPS devices have WAPS with the PIN on the devices. Although setting up WPS is pretty easy, the technology is susceptible to different forms of attacks due to the short pin number. Because of this,.hacking the PIN number isn't too difficult for experienced hackers, so it should be implemented carefully.