Wireless authentication is the process of performing a security check on clients that request access to a wireless network. The 802.11b standard presently supports these two methods of authentication, although many vendor proprietary (and non-interoperable) methods are also in use.

Open System Authentication might better be called No authentication, since it allows any device to join a network without performing any security check.

Shared Key Authentication requires that the Station and the Access Point use the same WEP Key to authenticate. This basically means that WEP must be enabled and configured the same on the AP and client.