Setting up WEP

Just gone wireless with a BT Voyager 2000 as my modem/router. My laptop has
a Realtek 8180 wireless lan card and on an open connection with security
disabled, everything is wonderful

But it all goes pear shaped as soon as I try to enable the WEP.
I generate the security key in the BT Voyager software and I repeat the
settings exactly in the configure screen of my WiFi card - or I at least
appear to do so.

But then although the notebook registers the BT Voyager network, I can't
access any web pages, nor the Voyager web based software and the only way to
get back online is to hard reset the modem box.

Any advice or helpful hints appreciated.

Reading this NG, it seems that contributers are less than impressed with
WEP - surely its better than nothing, or does web surfing slow to a crawl.
If not WEP then what? I've heard mention WPA but can this be bolted on as a
separate application?

Cheers

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004, sgw wrote:

s> Just gone wireless with a BT Voyager 2000 as my modem/router. My laptop has
s>

s> But it all goes pear shaped as soon as I try to enable the WEP.
s>


One of my sons has similar trouble with his laptop and my wireless
network. Take the keys generated on your router and type them into the
laptop.

--
Alan

( If replying by mail, please note that all "sardines" are canned.
There is also a password autoresponder but, unless this a very
old message, a "tuna" will swim right through. )

Use WFA instead - it addresses the slwoing-up that WEP encryption causes.
There is another post on here that specifies more ... but I forget which -
sorry!

"Alan Clifford" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) lifford.ac...
> On Sat, 7 Feb 2004, sgw wrote:
>
> s> Just gone wireless with a BT Voyager 2000 as my modem/router. My laptop
has
> s>
>
> s> But it all goes pear shaped as soon as I try to enable the WEP.
> s>
>
>
> One of my sons has similar trouble with his laptop and my wireless
> network. Take the keys generated on your router and type them into the
> laptop.
>
> --
> Alan
>
> ( If replying by mail, please note that all "sardines" are canned.
> There is also a password autoresponder but, unless this a very
> old message, a "tuna" will swim right through. )
>

That's what I assumed. Doesn't work - laptop 'sees' the network ok but
cannot load any webpages. Baffling!

This is from LinkSys site ...

"Configuring WEP encryption can be confusing, especially when using multiple
WLAN products from different vendors. This article will offer some simple
suggestions to aid your WEP configuration. A short description of the methods
of WEP Encryption will help to avoid some of this confusion.

There are two levels of WEP Encryption: 64 and 128 bit. You may also have heard
the number 40-bit used in conjunction with WEP Encryption. 40-bit WEP and
64-bit WEP are two different names for the same encryption method. This level
of WEP encryption has been called 40-bit because it uses a 40-bit secret key
along with a 24-bit Initialization Vector (40 + 24 = 64). Because there has
been no official standardization of these terms, wireless vendors may use
either name. For the purposes of this document, the term 64-bit will be used to
refer to this level of encryption.

Now, some simple troubleshooting tips for WEP configuration.

If possible, before attempting to configure WEP, disable encryption and make
sure your wireless network is functioning. 128-bit WEP will NOT communicate
with 64-bit WEP. 128-bit WEP also uses a 24-bit Initialization Vector (IV),
however, it uses a 104-bit secret key. Therefore, make sure that all of your
wireless devices are using the same encryption level. All Linksys wireless
devices will support 64-bit WEP, as outlined in the 802.11b standard. If using
a Passphrase to generate your WEP key, make sure you use EXACTLY the same
Passphrase on all wireless devices. These keys are case sensitive. Linksys
Instant Wireless products use a Hexadecimal key for WEP. Other vendors may use
an ASCII based key. Encryption using these two different keys will not
communicate with each other. One must be converted. "

This Google link brings up a mine of helpful sites ...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wep...8&oe=UTF-8&hl=
en&meta=

On 07 Feb 2004 21:32:05 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) (Huck Portobello)
wrote:

>Use WFA instead - it addresses the slwoing-up that WEP encryption causes.
>There is another post on here that specifies more ... but I forget which -
>sorry!

Welcome to acronym hell. WFA in this context is the WiFi Alliance, the
vendor association for wireless networking. You may be thinking of WPA
(WiFi Protected Access) which is the replacement for the discredited
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).

WPA addresses the known weaknesses in WEP by adding some
authentication and key management facilities. Bad news is while this
was designed to minimize the performance impact, its not free, so
performance will go down and not up

--
Peter Sumner

In message <c038u8$nuo$(E-Mail Removed)>, sgw
<(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Reading this NG, it seems that contributers are less than impressed with
>WEP - surely its better than nothing, or does web surfing slow to a crawl.

I have a laptop running 128 bit WEP on 802.11g and get file transfer at
around 12Mbit/s between PCs (about the same as I see over 100Mbit/s
Ethernet) so I wouldn't have thought you'd see any noticeable effect for
web browsing, I certainly don't

--
bof at bof dot me dot uk

sgw <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

: Reading this NG, it seems that contributers are less than impressed with
: WEP - surely its better than nothing, or does web surfing slow to a crawl.
: If not WEP then what? I've heard mention WPA but can this be bolted on as a
: separate application?

Do many people actually *NEED* WEP at home???

I thought long and hard about this. My router only lets wireless clients with
a known MAC address connect - and it does not broadcast its presence (SSID)
anyway. Secure banking and the like uses HTTPS anyway. I use PPTP (with it's
own encryption) when accessing work. My neighbours are unlikely to be avid
hackers.

In short for home use I don't need or use it!

Brian McIlwrath <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> sgw <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> : Reading this NG, it seems that contributers are less than impressed with
> : WEP - surely its better than nothing, or does web surfing slow to a crawl.
> : If not WEP then what? I've heard mention WPA but can this be bolted on as a
> : separate application?
>
> Do many people actually *NEED* WEP at home???
>
> I thought long and hard about this. My router only lets wireless clients with
> a known MAC address connect - and it does not broadcast its presence (SSID)
> anyway. Secure banking and the like uses HTTPS anyway. I use PPTP (with it's
> own encryption) when accessing work. My neighbours are unlikely to be avid
> hackers.
>
> In short for home use I don't need or use it!

If you practice safe passwording, don't share passwords between https
sites/work, and your systems are secure, then you are at limited risk.

MAC can be trivially forged, so that won't keep anyone determined out.
In short, if anyone wants to get in, they probably can.
The damage they can then do depends on how vulnerable your router and
systems are, and how skilled (how many kits) they are.
Some routers can have custom firmware uploaded to them, with backdoors in,
so they will lie to you.
In short, do you have anything that anyone might pay a few thousand dollars
to an investigator for?