Encrypting wireless network

C

chris8105

New Member
I am trying to use WEP encryption with no luck. Here is the story, I am trying to use either WEP 64 or 128 bit encryption, I can get it working on my router, but I cant figure out how to tell my laptop what encryption it is and what the key is. My laptop is a Dell Inspirion 1300 with a 1370 wireless card.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks
 
With your laptop, are you using Windows to configure the network, or a 3rd party program that came with your wireless hardware?

If using Windows, when the network is detected, and you go to connect, it should display a windows for you to type in the key (no dashes). If you used a passphrase to create the key in the router, you can't type in the passphrase, you need the alphanumeric digits.
 
Does your router support WPA, WEP is pretty much only a deterent these days and easily cracked by easily available free downloads. I don't suggest that anyone run wep
 
WEP is badly broken and I would strongly suggest getting a router than supports WPA before you set up a wireless network. If your router doesn't support WPA, there might be a firmware upgrade available which will add WPA.

WEP is now insufficient to protect wireless networks. It's better than nothing, but not by much.

I know that doesn't answer your question, but it's not worth going to great lengths to get WEP working because it simply isn't secure. If someone wants to join your network or snoop your traffic, WEP isn't going to be much of a bar to them.
 
I think you're portraying an average neighbour to be a network hacker, when it's clearly not the case. Encryption, for the most part, is useful so every wireless adapter out there doesn't automatically connect to your network. The reason why I'm saying this is because 20 minutes ago I enabled my wireless network card, and before I knew it, I was weakly connected to an unencrypted network, without any input from me. I felt whoever owned that network needed to be warned (plus I didn't want my adapter to hone in on it every time it was booted up), so I just got off the phone to his ISP, who will call the customer and get the network secured.

WEP is fine for your average user just surfing the internet, besides, WPA has been broken as well, and is more hassle than WEP to set up, IMO.
 
If you're not worried that anyone around you could possibly be a hacker, then why enable security? The entire point of security is that you just don't know.

I'm not sure why you consider WPA to be more hassle than WEP when they're exactly the same -- you define a pre-shared key for both, enter it once and you're done.

Also, WPA is not cracked. Given a sufficiently long pre-shared key, it is still regarded as secure. The PSK should be maximum entropy, 63 characters long and ideally as random as possible. Given these conditions, WPA is still secure. The minor flaws recently discovered in WPA do not affect the overall security of the scheme.
 
Sure not everyone is a hacker, however given the copious amount of free tools out there to hack a wireless network gives you the chance of being comprimised. Once WEP is cracked they can gain access to your router, and go from there.

WPA is the same to set up, you create a passkey and share it among computers, there is no difference really when setting it versus wep. I have WPA on my router at home and it was fairly easy to set up.
 
When I said more hassle, all I meant was that although TKIP is the most common data encryption, there are others such as AES that can appear in drop down menus, which may confuse a newbie. But yes you're right, it should be straight forward.

And you are right, the WPA protocol has not been cracked per se, but WPA-PSK is open to dictionary attacks.

Sure, if you are worried about security, you'd want the best. All I was pointing out was the fact that I'm not so worried about being hacked, as I am about a novice user accidentally connecting to an unencrypted network. I agree with what you've said though.
 
Ok guys, back to the original topic and question. If you guys need to debate over WPA vs WEP, start a new thread please.

Well, for your WEP, depending on your wireless controller; windows or the one that came preinstalled on your laptop, it should recognize your connection. Then, once it does, most cases it should detect wether it is ecrypted with 64 or 128 also. If not, there should be an option to select 64 or 128. Next, in your router settings, 4 keys should have been generated when you setup your WEP.

It's usually:
Key 1 - aaaaaaaaaa
Key 2 - bbbbbbbbbb
Key 3 - cccccccccc
Key 4 - dddddddddd

Then most cases, Key 1 should be checked or selected as default. Now, copy the key and make sure it is correct. Go over to your WEP connection that you are trying to get to connect to your router on your laptop. Here, default, it should have Key 1 selected also. Just type in the key into the space of Key 1. So in this example, aaaaaaaaaa. Set it up and you should be good to go.
 
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