Got WPA-AES to work with Win2000 via WPA Assistant

Finally got WPA to work in my Win2K wireless network using the freeware
program WPA Assistant. The key was making sure each machine had the Linksys
software turned off and out of the startup folder when the computer booted
up and WPA Assistant was installed. That way, only the WPA Assistant
software was used for connectivity and link monitoring initially.



This is how I did it.



My equipment is as follows:



Linksys WRT54G v2 (firmware v 3.01.3)



Linksys WMP54G PCI v 2 (original driver installed v 3.30.15.0) Pentium III
800 256RAM desktop using Windows 2000 SP4



Linksys WPC54G PC card v 1.2 (original driver installed v 3.30.15.0) Pentium
III 500 256RAM laptop using Windows 2000 SP4



Settings for the ROUTER:

-Mixed Mode

-Channel: whatever 1, 6, 11

-WPA Pre-share key

-WPA-AES (could use TKIP but AES is supposedely more secure) I made up a 63
character shared key using letters,

numbers, characters, etc.)

-SSID broadcast ON (this was necessary for the WPA Assistant during intial
setup and, per-session, to initially find the

network-after it finds the network and you connect via the little key
icon, you can turn it off if you prefer (on a per

session basis)-I just leave mine on since there are no security
ramifications anyway).

-In Advanced wireless settings use all defaults (authentication type
defaults to auto; I tried to use shared key but neither the

laptop or PCI desktop would work in that mode so I left it at the default
of auto)

-Group key renewal I set at its minimum of every 600 secs (3600 is
default--this way it will renew the key more frequently

adding a little--psychological anyway--added security)

-I also have MAC filtering set up



PC and PCI card settings via device manager:

Default settings,

including 54G only mode,

set same channel as router and

shared authentication mode (that was put on PCI card, there wasn't a setting
available on the laptop).



Notes: initially in order for the WPA Assistant to work with my laptop, I
had to set the router to mixed mode (mixed G and B network). I disabled (but
didn't uninstall) the Linksys connection software and the laptop connected.
That wasn't the case with my wireless desktop with the PCI card. It would
work when the router was set to G only mode. In the case of the laptop, I
ultimately COULD use G only mode on the router but only after I went into
the hardware setting on the laptop and switched over to b only or mixed mode
and then back to G only. I have no idea why that was the case but it was
just easier to leave the router in mixed mode as the laptop will connect the
first time when it sees the network via the WPA Assistant (via little key
icon).



Also, while I disabled the Linksys WLAN software to install WPA Assistant
on both machines, you can still open up the Linksys WLAN monitors after you
have installed and connected to your router via the WPA Asssitant. The WPA
Asst status doesn't have a couple things that the Linksys software has (very
minor-in the laptop Linksys connect software it'll indicate that your
security is WPA, but in the PCI card Linksys will still show you in WEP mode
(you're really in WPA mode). The Linksys WLAN monitor and software
capabilities of the PCI card leave a lot to be desired in comparison to the
PC card software, but you already know that if you own both cards.



All in all, it seems to work well and only a very minor performance hit, if
at all.



This was only my experience. I was trying to get away from WEP and into WPA
as it is obviously much more secure. I figured if I could do it for free,
what the heck, it seems to do the job. From my reading on WPA, the critical
thing is to make your shared key 20 or more characters (might as well go for
the whole 63 and make it complicated). As with WEP, if you can dictionary
attack a simple WPA key, you can break into the system too. As I understand
it though, once the router shakes hands with the clients via this initial
key, once every interval (that you set up via the router, 600 secs, etc), it
renews with a new, randomly generated key. If there are any inaccuracies in
my understanding of this, comments appreciated.

The downside to WPA Assistant is that it doesn't connect upon reboot
possibly by design but that's another story(right WSC?). But this can
be fixed with some effort. Use the free AutoIt automation tool:


http://www.hiddensoft.com/AutoIt/downloads.php

and a script like the following:

---
Run, C:\\Program Files\\Wireless Security Corporation\\WSC
PSK\\WSCPSK.EXE
WinWaitActive, Norton System Doctor
Sleep, 10000
LeftClick, 296,315
Sleep, 1000
LeftClick, 670,-670
WinWaitActive, WPA Assistant
Sleep, 1000
Send, {ENTER}
Exit
---

This will run the assistant, wait for the Norton System Doctor
window(specific to my system) to become active then sleep 10 seconds(by
that time the wpa assistant should appear in the systray), clicks on
it, sleeps for a second, clicks on the window to make it active, waits
for it to be active, sleeps for a second then sends ENTER to connect.



Put it in your startup directory (c:\documents and settings\All
Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)

Note: you will have to change where it clicks but this can be done by
using the AutoIt reveal mode. Note that the X and Y positions are
relative to the active window. In my example I had to run AutoIt in
reveal mode, click on the norton system doctor window, then hover over
the WPA assistant icon to get the x and y positions. Then once it
clicks on it, the active window will be your taskbar so do the same
thing except click on your task bar, run AutoIt in reveal mode to give
you the X & Y positions of the WPA Assisitant window.


Also, disable login so it automatically starts this up upon reboot:

http://www.michna.com/kb/WnAutoLogon.htm


Voila.. good luck and with some tuning you can get it going.. WPA for
free, just like you promised Linksys! Thanks!!


--
serveert
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