Slightly OT: Useable password characters?

Hi, sorry if this is slightly off topic, but I am trying to create some
strong passwords for a network and wireless router, but I'm not sure what
characters are allowed for passwords generally. Are there clear rules on
this, or are just any keyboard characters 'fair game' when creating a strong
password?

I will hazard a guess that the following characters are allowed, but are
there any others allowed?

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
1234567890

What else is allowed? Can you add anymore allowed (accepted) characters for
passwords please.

Thanks
Eric

"Eric" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi, sorry if this is slightly off topic, but I am trying to create some
> strong passwords for a network and wireless router, but I'm not sure what
> characters are allowed for passwords generally. Are there clear rules on
> this, or are just any keyboard characters 'fair game' when creating a
strong
> password?
>
> I will hazard a guess that the following characters are allowed, but are
> there any others allowed?
>
> ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
> abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
> 1234567890
>
> What else is allowed? Can you add anymore allowed (accepted) characters
for
> passwords please.

https://www.grc.com/passwords

Marcus

"Marcus Fox" <please-reply-via-newsgroup-th@-i-posted-to.com> wrote in
message news:_0WPf.65352$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> https://www.grc.com/passwords
>
> Marcus

Thanks Marcus. Thats very useful indeed. Thanks a lot.

Eric

"Eric" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi, sorry if this is slightly off topic, but I am trying to create some
> strong passwords for a network and wireless router, but I'm not sure what
> characters are allowed for passwords generally. Are there clear rules on
> this, or are just any keyboard characters 'fair game' when creating a
> strong
> password?
>
> I will hazard a guess that the following characters are allowed, but are
> there any others allowed?
>
> ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
> abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
> 1234567890
>
> What else is allowed? Can you add anymore allowed (accepted) characters
> for
> passwords please.
>
> Thanks
> Eric

I have been looking into this subject recently as I am trying out a
different Wireless Access Point with a view to arranging a swap with a
colleague.

Netgear WG602 V3 appears to accept ANY character that can be typed on the
keyboard (and probably most that can't). In this respect it is compatible
with XP wireless support. In other words any random key that I can generate
with a program that I wrote some time ago works
http://www.soroban.co.uk/wepkeygen.htm.

The Belkin F5D7230-4 router that I am testing will only accept a few
punctuation characters. I haven't tried an exhaustive test but I know it
won't accept " or £ characters. the documentation states only a-z and 0-9. I
know it does accept both upper and lower case characters. In view of this
recent discovery I am updating my program so that the character set is
selectable. I also would recommend https://www.grc.com/passwords for the
time being, at least until I fix my program.

Note that if you use a long (63 character) passphrase then the additional
security provided by additional characters is not as much as you might think
as the 63 characters are "hashed" down to a 256 bit value that is used by
the device.

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Thu, 9 Mar
2006 11:55:37 -0000, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do
uk.comp.home-networking, yawatina tan reek esk "Eric" <(E-Mail Removed)>
fornis do marikano es bono tan el:

>Hi, sorry if this is slightly off topic, but I am trying to create some
>strong passwords for a network and wireless router, but I'm not sure what
>characters are allowed for passwords generally. Are there clear rules on
>this, or are just any keyboard characters 'fair game' when creating a strong
>password?

For Windows, you're limited to alphanumerics and a few characters (such as _).
There's a list on Technet, I think.

As for anything else, it varies. I have a network printer that'll only accept
numbers (and only up to 8 of them), and another that'll take up to 255
lower-case letters. My router will take any alphanumerics, but is case
insensitive, and my WAP will take most symbols bar wildcards (*, ? and %).

deKay
--
Lofi Gaming: www.lofi-gaming.org.uk [Gamertag: deKay 01]
Gaming Diary: www.lofi-gaming.org.uk/diary/
My computer runs at 3.5MHz and I'm proud of that
"Most importantly, I'm now playing as a girl who skates around in her bra and knickers."

Soni tempori elseu romani yeof helsforo nisson ol sefini ill des Thu, 9 Mar
2006 11:55:37 -0000, sefini jorgo geanyet des mani yeof do
uk.comp.home-networking, yawatina tan reek esk "Eric" <(E-Mail Removed)>
fornis do marikano es bono tan el:

>What else is allowed? Can you add anymore allowed (accepted) characters for
>passwords please.


Also:

http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php

deKay
--
Lofi Gaming: www.lofi-gaming.org.uk [Gamertag: deKay 01]
Gaming Diary: www.lofi-gaming.org.uk/diary/
My computer runs at 3.5MHz and I'm proud of that
"Most importantly, I'm now playing as a girl who skates around in her bra and knickers."