XP WPA-PSK key length issue

I want to use a long pass phrase at least 40 characters. I
can do that with my D-Link WAP however Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 is
does not allow me to enter a very long pass phrase.

Is there something I am missing with Windows OS that will let me enter
a longer pass phrase. That is the main reason I switched from WEP to
WPA so I could enter a long pass phrase making the amount of time one
would have to sniff my wireless traffic to hack me much longer. At
least that is my understanding of it from the books I have read.



Thanks,

Sam Cederas
Raleigh, N.C.

With WPA, the passphrase can be between 8 and 63 characters.
What does the error say?

/Niklas

"hello" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I want to use a long pass phrase at least 40 characters. I
> can do that with my D-Link WAP however Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 is
> does not allow me to enter a very long pass phrase.
>
> Is there something I am missing with Windows OS that will let me enter
> a longer pass phrase. That is the main reason I switched from WEP to
> WPA so I could enter a long pass phrase making the amount of time one
> would have to sniff my wireless traffic to hack me much longer. At
> least that is my understanding of it from the books I have read.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sam Cederas
> Raleigh, N.C.
>

I do not get an error echoed back to me because I have just "assumed"
that it is not working because of the following:

On my access point (DLink DI-514) I enter the long passphrase that I
want to use successfully. Every character I type is echoed back to me
on the screen. No problem there....
I go to my laptop. The laptop 1 year old and I have Windows XP SP2
installed. I go to the wireless setup that is part of XP and type in
a passphrase. I have been using a short passphrase say 15
characters. With that setup when I type the passphrase in I get a
series of asterisks echoed back every time I enter a character. One
asterisk for every character typed. I type it in again to confirm.
NO PROBLEM there as that setup worked fine.

Now today I went back into the laptops wireless configuration and
decided to change my passphrase after doing so successfully on the
D-Link access point. Here is what I noticed and assume this is a
problem. I type my new passphrase in the wireless setup on the
laptop...after I start typing the passphrase... I dunno say 16 or so
characters.... the asterisks stop echoing back any further....so I am
assuming that the characters I am typing now are not being allowed to
be used thus assuming that the passphrase is too long. For every
character I type on my keyboard I see an asterisk echoed back to
me....this I do successfully until like I said in the previous
sentence somewhere around 16 or so characters from then on for every
character I type I see no more asterisks echoed back. I then assume
this will not work and here I am.

I have not tried to just go ahead and keep typing the passphrase and
see if it will work thus disregarding whether or not I am getting
anything echoed back to me on the screen or not on the laptop.

So by the time I get some more feedback from you and others I may just
very well find out that it will work as I am going to go downstairs
and just type long passphrase in and see if it works.

Thanks for the time you have spent replying to my issue.

-Sam Cederas
Raleigh , N.C.


On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:33:37 +0100, "Niklas" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>
>With WPA, the passphrase can be between 8 and 63 characters.
>What does the error say?
>
>/Niklas
>
>"hello" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>> I want to use a long pass phrase at least 40 characters. I
>> can do that with my D-Link WAP however Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 is
>> does not allow me to enter a very long pass phrase.
>>
>> Is there something I am missing with Windows OS that will let me enter
>> a longer pass phrase. That is the main reason I switched from WEP to
>> WPA so I could enter a long pass phrase making the amount of time one
>> would have to sniff my wireless traffic to hack me much longer. At
>> least that is my understanding of it from the books I have read.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Sam Cederas
>> Raleigh, N.C.
>>
>

just going ahead and typing despite not seeing any new characters
echoed back on the screen for the passphrase on xpsp2 wireless setup
did not work.

So I do have a problem as I cannot use a long passphrase with WPA-PSK
using XPSP2's wireless configuration.

It sounds as if it's just an illusion that you don't think there are more
charcters enterd in the editbox but actually there is.
You could open notepad, type the correct password, copy the password CTRL-A
(select all), CTRL-C (copy) and paste in to the edit box (CTRL-V). Maybe
that would make it easier for you to know that you have entered to correct
password.

regards
/Niklas


"hello" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I do not get an error echoed back to me because I have just "assumed"
> that it is not working because of the following:
>
> On my access point (DLink DI-514) I enter the long passphrase that I
> want to use successfully. Every character I type is echoed back to me
> on the screen. No problem there....
> I go to my laptop. The laptop 1 year old and I have Windows XP SP2
> installed. I go to the wireless setup that is part of XP and type in
> a passphrase. I have been using a short passphrase say 15
> characters. With that setup when I type the passphrase in I get a
> series of asterisks echoed back every time I enter a character. One
> asterisk for every character typed. I type it in again to confirm.
> NO PROBLEM there as that setup worked fine.
>
> Now today I went back into the laptops wireless configuration and
> decided to change my passphrase after doing so successfully on the
> D-Link access point. Here is what I noticed and assume this is a
> problem. I type my new passphrase in the wireless setup on the
> laptop...after I start typing the passphrase... I dunno say 16 or so
> characters.... the asterisks stop echoing back any further....so I am
> assuming that the characters I am typing now are not being allowed to
> be used thus assuming that the passphrase is too long. For every
> character I type on my keyboard I see an asterisk echoed back to
> me....this I do successfully until like I said in the previous
> sentence somewhere around 16 or so characters from then on for every
> character I type I see no more asterisks echoed back. I then assume
> this will not work and here I am.
>
> I have not tried to just go ahead and keep typing the passphrase and
> see if it will work thus disregarding whether or not I am getting
> anything echoed back to me on the screen or not on the laptop.
>
> So by the time I get some more feedback from you and others I may just
> very well find out that it will work as I am going to go downstairs
> and just type long passphrase in and see if it works.
>
> Thanks for the time you have spent replying to my issue.
>
> -Sam Cederas
> Raleigh , N.C.
>
>
> On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 13:33:37 +0100, "Niklas" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>With WPA, the passphrase can be between 8 and 63 characters.
>>What does the error say?
>>
>>/Niklas
>>
>>"hello" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>>news:(E-Mail Removed). ..
>>> I want to use a long pass phrase at least 40 characters. I
>>> can do that with my D-Link WAP however Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 is
>>> does not allow me to enter a very long pass phrase.
>>>
>>> Is there something I am missing with Windows OS that will let me enter
>>> a longer pass phrase. That is the main reason I switched from WEP to
>>> WPA so I could enter a long pass phrase making the amount of time one
>>> would have to sniff my wireless traffic to hack me much longer. At
>>> least that is my understanding of it from the books I have read.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Sam Cederas
>>> Raleigh, N.C.
>>>
>>
>

> On my access point (DLink DI-514) I enter the long passphrase that I
> want to use successfully. Every character I type is echoed back to me
> on the screen. No problem there....

I don't think the DI-514 supports WPA. It uses WEP. If you have it set to
256 bit encryption this may be the problem. Try setting it to 64 bit and see
if that works. If it does try 128 bit. Hope this helps.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

I disabled windows from handling my wireless configuration and
downloaded a utility for my wireless adapter which is a Atheros
AR5004G.

The utility works great and actually echoes back the text as typing.
I am thinking I have an issue with my Dlink DI-514 Wireless Router
because using the Atheros Utility I am able to type a long passphrase
like I want and see the characters echoed back however I still am not
able to connect.
If I shorten the passphrase then I am able to connect with the laptop.
The passphrase I want to use is 43 characters long.


On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 14:39:47 +0100, "Niklas" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>It sounds as if it's just an illusion that you don't think there are more
>charcters enterd in the editbox but actually there is.
>You could open notepad, type the correct password, copy the password CTRL-A
>(select all), CTRL-C (copy) and paste in to the edit box (CTRL-V). Maybe
>that would make it easier for you to know that you have entered to correct
>password.
>
>regards
>/Niklas
>
>

I think you are on to something.
D-Link claims to support WPA-PSK with the current firmware dated July
2004 version 1.03 or something.
I however cannot get a passphrase longer that 20 characters to work
with the D-Link. I make a 20 character long passphrase and I am able
to connect to the D-Link just fine.
I create a 21 character passphrase and I cannot connect.
The http interface for the D-Link has the necessary gui for me to
click on to address WPA-PSK so one would assume their stuff is working
properly.
It has been 8 months since they have release a firmware upgrade for my
model (DI-514).


Well I have hit a wall right now.

Thanks for your help !

-Sam
>
>I don't think the DI-514 supports WPA. It uses WEP. If you have it set to
>256 bit encryption this may be the problem. Try setting it to 64 bit and see
>if that works. If it does try 128 bit. Hope this helps.
>
>Kerry Brown
>KDB Systems
>

>I think you are on to something.
> D-Link claims to support WPA-PSK with the current firmware dated July
> 2004 version 1.03 or something.

I wasn't aware of the firmware upgrade. I was reading from an old manual
:-). In my experience D-Link is pretty good at updating firmware for fairly
current products. Maybe they will come out with another version. In the mean
time it would probably be best to change your keys on a regular basis.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

The way I would "key" a wireless network is to use the Wireless Network Setup
Wizard, even if your AP doesn't support Windows Connect Now functionality.
First, work through the Wizard.

In the first screen, select "Automatically assign a network key" and
determine your SSID yourself. Here, the PC determines the WEP or WPA key
randomly.

In the second screen, select "Set up a network manually".

In the last screen, select "Print network settings". You will see a Notepad
screen with the network settings as a "rap sheet". Save the "rap sheet" to a
UFD and print it out.

Log in to your AP and set the SSID and WPA key according to what you see in
the "rap sheet" and confirm these settings

Restart the Wireless Network Setup Wizard and select "I want to add devices
to the network" option.

Select the "Use a USB Flash Drive" in the second screen and follow the
instructions here on to set up your wireless-capable laptops to the network.

If you are lucky enough to have a router or AP with Windows Connect Now,
work straight through the Wizard once, but set the AP first when "dipping"
the USB flash drive in to the devices.

Whever you change the network key, use the Wireless Network Setup Wizard for
this purpose. I always have said this that it works in a similar manner to
any door lock that works with a key. With these devices, the manufacturer or
the locksmith who rekeys them doesn't need you to determine what the key
"cut" will be. You are also sure that your neighbour's front door key will
not work your front door lock and your front door key will not operate your
neighbour's front door lock, even though both locks are from the same
manufacturer and use the same keyway.

This program uses the maximum key-length possible, which is equivalent to
using a lock that works on 5 or more pins or levers compared to using one
that uses 3 or 4 pins or levers like some cheaper padlocks. Here, the more
pins or levers yields more "changes" (many different keys) and less risk of
other keys opening your door.

With regards,

Simon Mackay

"Kerry Brown" wrote:

> >I think you are on to something.
> > D-Link claims to support WPA-PSK with the current firmware dated July
> > 2004 version 1.03 or something.
>
> I wasn't aware of the firmware upgrade. I was reading from an old manual
> :-). In my experience D-Link is pretty good at updating firmware for fairly
> current products. Maybe they will come out with another version. In the mean
> time it would probably be best to change your keys on a regular basis.
>
> Kerry Brown
> KDB Systems
>
>
>