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Bradley's Wireless / Networking Blog

By Bradley Mitchell, About.com Guide to Wireless / Networking since 1999

AES vs TKIP for Wireless Encryption

Thursday August 21, 2008
Most modern Wi-Fi home networking equipment supports WPA wireless security (and often the newer, improved WPA2). When setting up your network with WPA, you will see several options to choose from, typically including a choice of encryption method - AES or TKIP. Which one of these is better?

AES offers stronger encryption technology and is the right choice (assuming all of the devices on your network support it). However, TKIP is also strong and tends to be supported by more equipment on the market. Either is far preferable to using no encryption at all, but consider AES first and TKIP as a reasonable backup option.

See Also - Top 10 Tips for Wireless Network Security
More - Securing Your Wireless Network - Encryption and Authentication (netsecurity.about.com)
Comments
November 7, 2008 at 4:09 pm
(1) Pete says:

Now, with the checksum weakness discovered in TKIP, AES is the clear choice for best security.

November 9, 2008 at 1:55 am
(2) compnetworking says:

See also About.com Network Security coverage of the recent crack – WPA Encryption Cracked

November 19, 2008 at 6:18 am
(3) dp says:

This title should read either “AES vs. RC4″ or “CCMP vs. TKIP.” The former are encryption methods; the latter are protocols. (CCMP uses AES, etc.) Similarly, the text mixes these distinctions up.

July 10, 2009 at 1:01 am
(4) Rufus says:

Hate to disagree, but the title is perfect the way it is. Those are the two choices given when setting up a router/card. A green installer doesn’t care if one of them is a breed of pumpkin, he just wants to know which choice to make.

September 29, 2009 at 6:16 pm
(5) Bradford says:

I agree with him the tittle is perfect you just want to through around that you know some thing start your own blog!

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