Networking Fundamentals

Disabling Wi-Fi Protected Setup

Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) was implemented to make connecting to networks even easier. What could be simpler than pressing a button on the wireless router and a couple of clicks on your computer? None of that confusing choosing SSIDs, encryption, PSKs, and so on. The problem was WPS was not implemented very well and works on the principle of sharing an 8-digit PIN. Unfortunately, that PIN is split into two 4 digit sections, and the 8^th digit is actually a check-digit to make sure the others are correct. Combined, this makes it easier to brute force, hence some devices only allow several attempts before locking out the device for a period of time.

A word of caution, I disabled this on my home router, only for ...