WPS stands for Wi-Fi Protected Setup. WPS was invented by CISCO and it was first introduced in 2006. WPS is not a security feature. It is a network security standard for creating a protected and secure wireless home network.
The Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) was invented to make your Wi-Fi connections easier. The WPS has a WPS pin of 8 digit code in which you see the numeric values. This WPS feature is available only in the latest versions of the router in which Wireless Protected Access Personal / Wireless Protected Access2 (WPA/WPA2) security is available.
If we don’t want to share our Wi-Fi again and again with the same person, then we can share our WPS pin with them and after their work is done with the internet then we can reset the WPS pin again. This whole process requires the users to have complete knowledge about Wi-Fi devices and should have the ability to make the required configuration changes. WPS is designed to support numerous Wi-Fi certified 802.11 products.
WPS can be authorized using 2 options:
- PBC(Push Button Configuration): In this configuration, the user simply needs to push a button either an actual button or a virtual button on both the WPS devices to connect them. This is the optional method for those who have wireless devices.
- PIN(Personal Identification Number): In this method, the pin needs to be taken from either sticker label or from the web interface of the WPS device then this pin has to be entered in the access point (AP) or client’s WPS device for further connection. If you will use the PIN method, then there is a need to use Registrar to begin the registration between a new device and an active access point. This is the important method of setting for all the WPS enabled devices.
Characteristics
WPS which was earlier called as Wi-Fi Simple configuration is basically network security which is used to create a wireless home network.
Some of the most important characteristics can be explained as follows:
- WPS makes it possible for the owner of Wi-Fi privileges to block other users from using their own Wi-Fi.
- WPS can be made to be used by other users if we press the WPS button on router.
- WPS has two modes of authentication PBC that is Push Button Configuration and PIN that is Personal Identification Number.
- WPS protocol defined three types of devices in a network viz then Enrollee which seeks to join the network and lastly AP that is an access point which acts as a bridge between Registrar and Enrollee.
- WPS works only for wireless networks that use a password that is encrypted with the WPA Personal or WPA2 Personal security protocols.
Advantages
- WPS automatically build the network name (SSID) and password for the access points.
- During the connection of WPS enabled devices, we don’t need to know the network name and password.
- The keys are randomly generated hence no one can guess your security key.
- WPS connection is very convenient so we don’t need to remember the username and password.
- WPS is currently consolidated and supported in Windows Vista.
Disadvantages
- WPS does not support adhoc networks, the networks in which the wireless devices directly interact with each other without any access point.
- It is less secure because it is a numeric code that is easy to crack by using brute force technique.
- Difficult to connect the non-WPS client because of the long sequences of hexadecimal characters.
- Since this technology is completely new, so the WPS technology is not supported by every trader.
- WPS can only be used in the devices that support WPS otherwise, we need to make the connection in traditional way.