View article

An access arrangement (11) provides secure access by at least one mobile communications device (12 1–12 3) by first authenticating the device itself, and thereafter authenticating the traffic therefrom. To authenticate the traffic from the mobile communications device, an authentication server (24) associated with the access arrangement (11) establishes a Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption key for both the access arrangement and the mobile communications device. The authentication server provides the WEP encryption key to the device in connection with a command to cause the device to execute a resident ActiveX control to encrypt traffic with the WEP encryption key. Utilizing the Active X control within the mobile communications device to encrypt traffic with the WEP encryption key provides a simple, easy-to-implement method to achieve secure access.