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The higher level of WEP encryption, commonly referred to as 128 bit WEP, actually uses a 104 bit (26 Hex character) "secret key" (set by the user), and a 24 bit "Initialization Vector" (not under user control).
The methods for entering WEP codes are confusing enough, but it gets worse if you are trying to get wireless products from different manufacturers to work together! A particularly tricky combination is products based on the Lucent/WaveLAN drivers (ORiNOCO, Buffalo Tech) with products based on the Intersil PRISM drivers (SMC, Linksys, D-Link, others).
The Lucent based products typically require you to enter the WEP key in either ASCII or Hexadecimal (Hex) format. The default is ASCII, i.e. regular alpha-numeric characters. If you want to use Hex format, you must start the code with "0x" (that's the number zero and a lower-case "x"). A typical WaveLAN based WEP setup screen is shown below.
In this example, Keys 1, 2, and 4 use ASCII format and Key 3 uses Hexadecimal.
Now look at this typical Intersil PRISM WEP client setup screen. This example is from a Client card that allows either 64 or 128 bit WEP.
Two methods can be used: 1) Passphrase Method:
2) Manual Entry Method:
The simplest way to get these two products to work together is to use Hexadecimal keys, since that method is common to both.
See the links on this page. |
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