The WPA Wi-Fi protocol is more secure than WEP, because it uses a 256-bit key for encryption, which is a major upgrade from the 64-bit and 128-bit keys used by the WEP system.
Soon, WPA3 will start to take its place in newer devices. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a wireless security protocol released in 2003 to address the growing vulnerabilities of its predecessor, WEP. Until just recently, WPA2 was considered the top standard in encryption types. WPA2 solved many of the issues of WPA, and provides stronger security with easier setup. WiFi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) – Not long after WPA came out, WPA2 became available. This means WPA has similar vulnerabilities to WEP and can be hacked more easily than its successor, WPA2. HP does have some updates available on their website ,to enable WPA compatability, but not for your model. Why? Some elements of WEP were kept as part of WPA to allow for compatibility with older devices. Dave, to be frank, I kind of gave up on trying to get my iPAQs (I have amassed four over the years: 3630, 5455, 4700 & 2790) to work on anything above WEP (although two of them are supposed to work on WPA-TKIP) since I’ve gotten an iPhone. WiFi Protected Access (WPA) – As an improvement on WEP, WPA was created in 2003, and offers more secure encryption for your WiFi network, but still isn’t considered the best security option. A WiFi network using WEP today is considered the least secure and should be upgraded or replaced in order to protect your internet activity.
Though WEP was designed to protect networks, it had poor security and was difficult to configure. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) – This was the first-ever security protocol, used from 1999 to 2004, which makes it the oldest type. Let's take a closer look at the different encryption types that you may see in your options.