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Sabot's avatar
Sabot
Follower
Aug 13, 2020
Solved

Question about WIFI encryption

So my buddy and I are having a debate. This is non-model specific and a general home wifi question.
He said that when a wifi router encrypts traffic, it encrypts it all the way to the destination through the internet.
I'm saying it only encrypts from the client to the wifi router itself. It doesn't encrypt past the router.

Does anyone know the answer? Thanks!

  • > He said that when a wifi router encrypts traffic, it encrypts it all
    > the way to the destination through the internet.

     

       He's wrong.  Wi-Fi (stupid name) encryption is Wi-Fi encryption; it
    works on the link between the wireless access point and the client
    device.  It is intended to prevent someone who has a radio receiver in
    the neighborhood from gleaning useful information from your radio
    signals.

     

       The wireless access point and the client device negotiate the link
    encryption; some remote Web site (for example) knows nothing about it.

     

       Additional end-to-end encryption (HTTPS, SSH, SSL, ...) is entirely
    independent of Wi-Fi encryption.

1 Reply

  • > He said that when a wifi router encrypts traffic, it encrypts it all
    > the way to the destination through the internet.

     

       He's wrong.  Wi-Fi (stupid name) encryption is Wi-Fi encryption; it
    works on the link between the wireless access point and the client
    device.  It is intended to prevent someone who has a radio receiver in
    the neighborhood from gleaning useful information from your radio
    signals.

     

       The wireless access point and the client device negotiate the link
    encryption; some remote Web site (for example) knows nothing about it.

     

       Additional end-to-end encryption (HTTPS, SSH, SSL, ...) is entirely
    independent of Wi-Fi encryption.