A. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to wireless networking and data communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to the authentication and encryption of data communications to and from a network device. 2. Description of the Related Art a. Wireless Local-Area Networks (LANs) There are many types of wireless communications, including: cellular, wireless local area network (WLAN), satellite, etc. WLAN refers to wireless communications using the 802.11 protocol. There are various types of WLAN, including infrastructure and ad hoc networks. An 802.11 network includes an AP and one or more wireless nodes, which are also referred to as stations (STAs). An AP acts as a coordinator for the WLAN, and provides access to a communication network, either a wired network (e.g., Internet) or another wireless network. A communication from an AP to another STA is referred to as downlink (DL) communication, and a communication from an STA to an AP is referred to as uplink (UL) communication. Each STA in an 802.11 network is pre-configured with the appropriate network authentication credentials, such as user name and password. Each AP in an 802.11 network maintains a list of the STAs that are currently associated with the AP. The AP may take certain steps to prevent a non-associated STA from accessing the network. For example, some access points may not allow non-associated STAs to communicate through a certain communication channel that may be reserved for AP-to-STA communication. An AP may also require that an associated STA undergo certain authentication procedures in order to use the wireless medium. Once these steps have been taken, only those STAs that are associated with the AP may communicate with the AP. An STA may associate with an AP directly or through an intermediate station (STA), such as an access point or a WLAN router. An STA must be authenticated by an AP before the STA can communicate with the AP. The authentication is accomplished by a four-way handshake, as shown in FIG. 1. The first message sent by the STA to the AP is an authentication request message, shown as 1 in FIG. 1, which is sent in the clear. If the AP accepts the authentication request, it responds with a message 2 that also goes in the clear. If the AP accepts the authentication request, it responds with a message 3 also in the clear. Otherwise, the STA may determine that the AP is not an authentic AP and therefore refrain from further communication with the AP. It should be noted that this authentication mechanism does not address the issue of communication privacy. That is, a non-authenticated STA can still snoop and eavesdrop on communication between an authenticated STA and an AP. Thus, the use of this conventional mechanism is not very secure and is vulnerable to unauthorized access and monitoring. IEEE 802.11i is a security standard being developed that includes a privacy mechanism. The 802.11i standard is based on the use of a group key, which is generated at an AP by combining pairwise master keys with an element from the STA's identity. The new standard is intended to enable the use of data encryption key (DEK) to protect privacy. DEK is a private key that is assigned to each STA. This privacy mechanism requires that all communication be encrypted. This is referred to as data confidentiality, and it requires that the data payloads be encrypted in the AP-to-STA communications, as well as in the STA-to-AP communications. b. Service Set Identifier (SSID) Each STA in an 802.11 network is identified with a single service set identifier (SSID). In most instances, an SSID is a human-readable label that is assigned to the network or the wireless medium by the network operator. For example, a business's WLAN may be identified as “Bob's WIRELESS HOME”. The SSID may be used by the STAs to identify whether a communication that is received from another device is intended for the particular network. SSIDs are typically configured by a network administrator. Thus, the configuration of SSIDs is intended to be maintained by the network administrator or a trusted third party, and is not susceptible to unauthorised modification. c. Authentication Authentication is an important part of securing any wireless network, including authentication of the SSID and of the identity of the AP. The IEEE 802.11i standard includes an authentication protocol that uses a challenge-response scheme. In particular, the IEEE 802.11i standard uses a challenge-response mechanism to transmit a one-way hash of an authentication key between an AP and an STA. The AP uses the challenge-response mechanism to communicate with the STA to generate an intermediate message. The STA uses the challenge-response mechanism to generate the authentication response message based on the one-way hash. An authentication protocol that uses a challenge-response scheme is computationally efficient and the processing of the intermediate messages and the authentication response messages does not require a great deal of overhead in terms of CPU cycles. The authentication protocol using the challenge-response scheme allows the authentication to be accomplished in less than 1 millisecond. However, a disadvantage of this approach is that an AP and a STA need to exchange a message for each new STA that tries to connect to the network. IEEE 802.1X is another authentication standard that is used for network access authentication. IEEE 802.1X is intended to allow both wired and wireless devices to communicate across networks. IEEE 802.1X is designed for networks that may not be readily accessible, or may not be protected by a conventional network authentication scheme, such as WPA. IEEE 802.1X is typically used to authenticate devices to access the local network by connecting to a secure web portal that is served by the WLAN. The authentication can be completed using the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) over LAN (EAPOL). IEEE 802.1X provides a mechanism for authenticating a user to the LAN access point (AP). In addition to the normal authentication of an end user by an authentication server, the IEEE 802.1X standard provides a two-factor authentication process to ensure that the client device that is connecting to the AP is the device that is configured with the network credentials. The two-factor authentication process is intended to avoid a “man-in-the-middle” attack. The authentication server, acting as an authentication client, sends a challenge to the client device. The challenge is relayed to the AP. The client device computes a response to the challenge and transmits the response to the AP. After receiving the response, the AP can compare the response generated by the client device with the response generated by the authentication server. If the authentication server sent the challenge and the client device generated the correct response, the AP can authenticate the client device. An intermediate station, such as an AP, may be configured to not allow non-associated STAs to use the access point. This ensures that only authenticated STAs are allowed to use the wireless medium, thereby preventing access by unauthenticated or “rogue” STAs. Typically, such wireless networks are configured to allow only authenticated STAs to use the network, but may allow some STAs to have a lower security level than others. For example, some STAs may have a WEP key, while others have a WPA key, and a selected few may have a WPA2 key. d. Wireless Encryption Many existing networks use proprietary encryption standards to protect wireless communications. Some organizations may use a custom encryption protocol that is incompatible with existing encryption standards. Thus, most end-user STAs are unable to communicate with these STAs. In general, encryption provides privacy and integrity of data over an insecure network. An encrypted communication cannot be interpreted without knowledge of an encryption key. Integrity is a feature that ensures that a message transmitted has not been modified or altered. Encryption allows a network to pass through an untrusted node, such as an STA, over an insecure link, such as an 802.11 wireless medium. If an AP encrypts a packet sent to an STA, the STA must use a valid encryption key in order to decrypt the packet, and the STA is thus prevented from viewing the content of the data packet. e. Wireless Encryption at a Network Level Wireless networks that implement IEEE 802.11 can have different levels of encryption that use the pairwise master key or a stronger encryption key. The stronger key is referred to as the group key. The default encryption for an 802.11 network is an open system, and it does not provide encryption. An STA uses the network authentication credentials of an AP to secure wireless communications with the AP. However, there are some disadvantages to implementing a network with an open encryption system. The disadvantages include but are not limited to the following: (1) an open wireless network does not have a pre-determined level of security, which leaves the STA vulnerable to attack from unauthorized STAs or eavesdroppers; (2) an open network does not provide a uniform level of security for all STAs communicating with the AP; (3) an open network allows anyone to wirelessly connect to the AP and gain access to the network, including a non-authorized STA; and (4) access to the network via a wired connection may not be secure because the wired network may be accessible to a rogue STA. An IEEE 802.11 network may be encrypted at a network level by creating a “virtual LAN” through the use of an access point.