The invention provides a secure Wi-Fi communications method and system. In
an embodiment of the invention, unique physical keys, or tokens, are
installed at an access point and each client device of the network. Each
key comprises a unique serial number and a common network send
cryptographic key and a common network receive cryptographic key used
only during the authentication phase by all components on the LAN. Each
client key further includes a secret cryptographic key unique to each
client device. During authentication, two random numbers are generated
per communications session and are known by both sides of the wireless
channel. Only the random numbers are sent across the wireless channel and
in each case these numbers are encrypted. A transposed cryptographic key
is derived from the unique secret cryptographic key using the random
numbers generated during authentication. Thus, both sides of the wireless
channel know the transposed cryptographic key without it ever being
transmitted between the two.