{"id":300,"date":"2021-08-31T11:28:13","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T11:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/?page_id=300"},"modified":"2021-10-05T17:00:06","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T17:00:06","slug":"mixing-wep-encryption-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/mixing-wep-encryption-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixing WEP Encryption Levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

128 bit WEP devices\u00a0can<\/b>\u00a0be used with 40 or 64 bit WEP devices as long as the device driver has a way to set the lower encryption level.\u00a0 Encryption level is determined by the\u00a0encryption key length<\/b>. If a device is capable of 128 bit encryption, it’s inherently capable of 40 bit, unless the vendor decides for some reason to not allow the lower encryption level.<\/p>\n

64 bit WEP is the same as 40 bit WEP!<\/b>
\nThe lower level of WEP encryption uses a\u00a040 bit\u00a0<\/b>(10 Hex character)\u00a0“secret key”<\/b>\u00a0(set by the user), and a\u00a024 bit “Initialization Vector”<\/b>\u00a0(not under user control).\u00a0Some vendors refer to this level of WEP as 40 bit, others as 64 bit.\u00a0 Either way, they’re the same encryption level and can interoperate.<\/p>\n

The higher level of WEP encryption, commonly referred to as\u00a0128 bit WEP<\/b>, actually uses a\u00a0104 bit\u00a0<\/b>(26 Hex character)\u00a0“secret key”<\/b>\u00a0(set by the user), and a\u00a024 bit “Initialization Vector”<\/b>\u00a0(not under user control).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mixing Vendors<\/h3>\n

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!\u00a0 A particularly tricky combination is products based on the\u00a0Lucent\/WaveLAN drivers (ORiNOCO, Buffalo Tech)<\/b>\u00a0with products based on the\u00a0Intersil PRISM drivers (SMC, Linksys, D-Link, others<\/b>).<\/p>\n

The key to success is to pay attention to the WEP key formats<\/b>\u00a0that must be used for each product.<\/p>\n

The Lucent based products typically require you to enter the WEP key in either ASCII or Hexadecimal (Hex) format.\u00a0 The default is ASCII, i.e. regular alpha-numeric characters.\u00a0 If you want to use Hex format, you must start the code with “0x<\/b>” (that’s the number zero and a lower-case “x”). A typical WaveLAN based WEP setup screen is shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In this example, Keys 1, 2, and 4 use ASCII format and Key 3 uses Hexadecimal.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now look at this typical Intersil PRISM WEP client setup screen.\u00a0 This example is from a Client card that allows either 64 or 128 bit WEP.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Two methods can be used:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0Passphrase Method:<\/b>
\nThis method generates a\u00a0Hexadecimal key<\/b>\u00a0from an ASCII string that you enter.<\/p>\n

This is not the same as directly entering an ASCII key!<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

2)\u00a0Manual Entry Method:<\/b>
\nThis method requires you to enter a 10 character\u00a0Hexadecimal<\/b>\u00a0key for 64 bit WEP, and a 26 character\u00a0Hexadecimal<\/b>\u00a0key for 128 bit WEP. (The “Manual Entry” input area changes to accomodate the larger key.)<\/p>\n

\n

The simplest way to get these two products to work together is to\u00a0use Hexadecimal keys<\/b>, since that method is common to both.<\/p>\n

tip_hp-6572751\u00a0Tip #1:\u00a0<\/b>Remember to use the “0x<\/b>” prefix to indicate\u00a0Hexadecimal<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b>tip_hp-6572751\u00a0Tip #2:<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Make sure your card can support the WEP level that you are trying to set!\u00a0 ORiNOCO “Silver” cards support only 64 bit WEP.\u00a0 “Gold” cards support 64 or 128 WEP.<\/p>\n

tip_hp-6572751\u00a0Tip #3:<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>Remember to enter the\u00a0correct number of characters<\/b>\u00a0for the desired encryption level in the Lucent WEP Setup window.\u00a0\u00a0 Use the popup\u00a0WEP Code Summary<\/a><\/b>\u00a0if you forget how many characters you need to use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

128 bit WEP devices\u00a0can\u00a0be used with 40 or 64 bit WEP devices as long as the device driver has a way to set the lower encryption level.\u00a0 Encryption level is determined by the\u00a0encryption key length. If a device is capable of 128 bit encryption, it’s inherently capable of 40 bit, unless the vendor decides for some reason to not allow the lower encryption level. 64 bit WEP is the same as 40 bit WEP! The lower level of WEP encryption uses a\u00a040 bit\u00a0(10 Hex character)\u00a0“secret key”\u00a0(set by the user), and a\u00a024 bit “Initialization Vector”\u00a0(not under user control).\u00a0Some vendors refer to <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.practicallynetworked.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}