wi fi encryption types

[acercon]

so i got a new modem and it says it has aes+tkip encryption what does that mean? does it use both? and what are they? i am just curious and i have tried googling it but cant seem to understand how they differ, my last modem/ router used  wpa2 and what is the difference between the three? ( aes, tkip, wpa2?)

[Oshino Shinobu]

AES and TKIP are both types of WPA2, though TKIP is originally used by the older WPA standard. AES is newer standard and is better in general. Unless you need backwards compatibility with legacy devices (pretty unlikely), just use AES. 

 

EDIT: On a side note: WPA2 routers can often use both TKIP and AES dynamically, so devices that use WPA will connect via WPA (WPA2-TKIP) and devices that use WPA2 will connect with WPA2-AES. If it's a home network, the chances are that all your devices are going to be WPA2, so it's not really something you need to worry about. 

[acercon]

AES and TKIP are both types of WPA2, though TKIP is originally used by the older WPA standard. AES is newer standard and is better in general. Unless you need backwards compatibility with legacy devices (pretty unlikely), just use AES

 

My modem uses tipk +AES does that mean it would be backwards compatible with older devices and have high security as well because of AES?

[Oshino Shinobu]

My modem uses tipk +AES does that mean it would be backwards compatible with older devices and have high security as well because of AES?

It would have high security with devices that are using WPA2 AES. I'd disable TKIP, as it (apparently, I have no experience with this in-particular, so I'm not sure how it works) can slow the Wi-Fi's max speed to 54Mbps. Like I said, I'm unsure if that's just for devices connected via WPA/WPA2-TKIP, or if it's for the router overall. 

[Wombo]

It would have high security with devices that are using WPA2 AES. I'd disable TKIP, as it (apparently, I have no experience with this in-particular, so I'm not sure how it works) can slow the Wi-Fi's max speed to 54Mbps. Like I said, I'm unsure if that's just for devices connected via WPA/WPA2-TKIP, or if it's for the router overall. 

TKIP has no bearing on the speed of the connection, that sounds like someone connected a legacy device and slowed the whole network. TKIP is insecure and shouldn't be used whenever possible. AES is the best option as TKIP was basically a work-around for the issues present in WEP. However shortly after its release it was found that TKIP was also quite insecure, and thus we have WPA2/PSK using AES for authentication.

[Wombo]

My modem uses tipk +AES does that mean it would be backwards compatible with older devices and have high security as well because of AES?

Well it depends on how it is shown. Some devices can accept both forms of authentication however if you don't have devices that can only perform TKIP, just change it to only allow authentication with AES.

[brwainer]

I actually found that when my router was set to TKIP+AES, android and apple phones would connect fine, but three different Windows 7 laptops (HP, Dell, Toshiba) could not connect - they would fail at joining the network, before trying to get an IP. That problem was resolved when I changed the router to AES only. I'm sure it was an issue mainly with the wireless adaptors in the laptops, and I never looked any further into it as TKIP is less secure.