Okay, I get it. Most enterprise and SOHO environments are probably using WPA2-Personal or WPA2-Enterprise. This goes for most home users as well. Why then, would I bother writing a post about data rate limitations for WEP and TKIP you ask? Well, the answer is simple. I work for a hospital and in healthcare all the normal rules are thrown out the window. Thanks to heavy restrictions on what can or cannot be used in healthcare the updates tend to come slowly if at all. I have spoken to other wireless engineers and exchanged horror stories. I wish I could say my experience is unique. Unfortunately, it isn't. So, this is for those of us that still have to use out dated protocols.
The 802.11n and higher amendments do not permit the use of WEP or TKIP encryption for the High Throughput (HT) and Very High Throughput (VHT) data rates. In fact, the Wifi Alliance will only certify 802.11n radios that use CCMP encryption for the higher data rates. However, newer radios should support TKIP and WEP using the slower data rates defined for legacy 802.11a/b/g radios.
What does this mean? Basically if you have a nice shiny new 802.11ac deployment all pimped out with the latest technology and Joe User decides to connect to your network using WPA he will only see a maximum data rate of 54mbps.
One of these days I will have all the pesky legacy devices off my network. Of course, by then an entirely new crop of legacy devices will be plaguing me for different reasons. It's what I call job security.
