WEP Keys

Steve Gibson's (grc.com) new password generator site has sparked my
interest in WiFi security.

I've got an older Netgear WG602 Access Point that only supports WEP,
I'm a wee bit confused as to the four keys.

The help file explains as follows;

Select the key to be used as the default key. Data transmissions are
always encrypted using the default key. The other keys can only be
used to decrypt received data.

Does this mean then that data sent to adapters by the AP will always
be encrypted using the default key but that the adapters can use any
of the four (If supported) available keys.

Geoff Lane



Geoff Lane

Geoff Lane wrote:
> Steve Gibson's (grc.com) new password generator site has sparked my
> interest in WiFi security.
>
> I've got an older Netgear WG602 Access Point that only supports WEP,
> I'm a wee bit confused as to the four keys.
>
> The help file explains as follows;
>
> Select the key to be used as the default key. Data transmissions are
> always encrypted using the default key. The other keys can only be
> used to decrypt received data.
>
> Does this mean then that data sent to adapters by the AP will always
> be encrypted using the default key but that the adapters can use any
> of the four (If supported) available keys.

Yes. Any device (NIC or AP) will use one key to transmit but will have
up to four keys for reception purposes. I think the idea is that you can
switch which key is used, periodically, to improve security a little.
XPs implementation of WEP only seems to support one key as the NIC end
however.

John

On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 12:03:16 GMT, John Fryatt <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>> Does this mean then that data sent to adapters by the AP will always
>> be encrypted using the default key but that the adapters can use any
>> of the four (If supported) available keys.
>
>Yes. Any device (NIC or AP) will use one key to transmit but will have
>up to four keys for reception purposes. I think the idea is that you can
>switch which key is used, periodically, to improve security a little.
>XPs implementation of WEP only seems to support one key as the NIC end
>however.

Thanks, I've got a Dell handheld which has a really basic WiFi card,
it appears to support 4 keys but the method of entry gives no
confidence as to what is happening.

Geoff Lane