What is Shared Key Authentication?
A. Shared Key Authentication works similar to Open Authentication with one major difference. When you use Open Authentication with WEP encryption key, the WEP key is used to encrypt and decrypt the data, but is not used in the authentication step. In Shared Key Authentication, WEP encryption is used for authentication. Like Open Authentication, Shared Key Authentication requires the client and the AP to have the same WEP key. The AP that uses Shared Key Authentication sends a challenge text packet to the client. The client uses the locally configured WEP key to encrypt the challenge text and reply with a subsequent authentication request. If the AP can decrypt the authentication request and retrieve the original challenge text, the AP responds with an authentication response that grants access to the client.
