Securitywifi
I was editing the configuration for my Time Capsule, when I noticed that I had the following options for network encryption:
Why is there an option of WPA/WPA2? Is it as secure as WPA2 Personal?
When looking for the network with other devices, I'm am told to enter a WPA2 Password. Thus, I thought that I had configured it using WPA2 Personal.
Mac OS X Mountain Lion supports Internet Sharing using WPA/WPA2. You will need to upgrade to get this functionality. This article has a little more info. And here is a screenshot of the new option for WPA2 in Mountain Lion (10.8):
To try to make things clear let's say you have 2 Mac named:
Here is the scheme of your small home network :
Internet --- USB --- Alex --- WLAN --- Bob
If when Bob try to join the wireless network (AirPort or WI-Fi or better WLAN) initiated from Alex, it gets an immediate rejection, this may be due to a network access with the wrong security setting.
To check this hypothesis, on Bob, simply go within:
System Preferences… > Network > WiFi > Advanced…
and look at the column Security.
If it is anything else than WPA2 Personal, double click on this network setting to fix it.
If it is already WPA2 Personal, double click on this network
setting to check if the registered password is OK.
Best Answer
I believe that WPA was the original WPA standard, and WPA2 was an improved version of it. Some network cards can’t connect to WPA2 networks. From the Wikipedia page on WPA:
The Wikipedia article cites a white paper from the Wi-Fi Alliance:
In a nutshell, a WPA/WPA2 network will any network card that supports WPA or WPA2 to connect to it; whereas a WPA2 only network locks out network cards that only support the newer standard. I don’t think there’s any meaningful difference in the security.
FWIW, I’ve used WPA2 Personal on my Airport Extreme since I bought it, and no device has ever had problems connecting.
Confession: I initially misread the question as being about the difference between Personal and Enterprise, and wrote this. Although not directly answering the question, I include it for interest.
“Personal” and “Enterprise” just refer to the two flavours of WPA and WPA2. From the Wi-fi Alliance’s page on WPA2:
I believe that WPA and WPA2 both come in these two flavours, hence the either/or. Personal is more suitable for a home network, but it’s less secure than enterprise. Enterprise connects to a “RADIUS server” for authentication. I don’t know what that is, but it sounds clever and secure.
I’d guess that a device connecting to your Time Capsule just sees a request for a WPA2 password, hence why it doesn’t ask you for a WPA2 Personal password.