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What's the difference between Open System and Shared Key authentication?

Wireless authentication is the process of performing a security check on clients that request access to a wireless network. The 802.11 standard supports these two methods of authentication:

Open System Authentication might better be called No authentication, since it allows any device to join a network without performing any security check.

Shared Key Authentication requires that the Station and the Access Point use the same WEP Key to authenticate. This basically means that WEP must be enabled and configured the same on the AP and client. This article has a good explanation of each method, along with a description of the general weaknesses of 802.11b authentication.

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