Wi-Fi Alliance expands testing programs

Non-profit industry association the Wi-Fi Alliance this week added four new Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) types to its Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and WPA2 certification programs.

Wi-Fi Alliance certification will now include the EAP-TTLS/MSCHAPv2, PEAPv0/EAP- MSCHAPv2, PEAPv1/EAP-GTC and EAP-SIM protocols, which join the existing EAP-TLS. In addition, the group announced that supplicants and authentication servers from member companies Devicescape Software and Meetinghouse would join products from Microsoft and Funk Software in the certification program's test bed.

"The robust security enabled by WPA and WPA2 provides the high level of confidence required in large-scale, enterprise-class deployments," said Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director Frank Hanzlik in a statement. "Expanded EAP testing is a direct response to the ongoing demand for interoperability across authentication methods, and delivers greatly increased flexibility to enterprise IT managers."

Since the Wi-Fi Alliance launched the WPA program in April 2003, close to 800 products have undergone WPA and WPA2 interoperability certification.