Enabling WEP

Enabling WEP
After you eliminate the security threats caused by leaving all the defaults in
place (see the preceding section), it’s time to get some encryption going. Get
your WEP on, as the kids say.
We’ve already warned you once, but we’ll do it again, just for kicks: Every
access point has its own system for setting up WEP, and you need to follow
those directions. We can only give generic advice because we have no idea
which access point you’re using.
To enable WEP on your wireless network, we suggest that you perform the
following generic steps:
1. Open your access point’s configuration screen.
2. Go to the Wireless, Security, or Encryption tab or section.
We’re being purposely vague here; bear with us.
3. Select the radio button or check box labeled Enable WEP or Enable
Encryption or Configure WEP.
You should see a menu similar to the one shown in Figure 10-1. (This is
for a Siemens SpeedStream access point/router.)
4. Select the check box or the pull-down menu to the appropriate WEP
key length for your network.
We recommend 128-bit keys if all the gear on your network can support
it. (See the earlier section, “How about a bit more about WEP?,” for the
lowdown on WEP keys.)
5. Create your own key if you prefer (we prefer to let the program create
one for us):
a. Type a pass phrase into the Passphrase text box.
b. Click the Generate Keys button.

Figure 10-1:
Setting up
WEP on
a Speed-
Stream
access
point.
Remember the pass phrase. Write it down somewhere, and put it some
place where you won’t accidentally throw it away or forget where you
put it. Danny likes to tape his pass phrase note to the box that his Wi-Fi
gear came in so he’ll always be able to track it down.
Whether you created your own key or let the program do it for you, a
key should now have magically appeared in the key text box. Note: Some
systems allow you to set more than one key (usually up to four keys),
such as the system in Figure 10-1. In this case, use Key 1 and set this as
your default key by using the pull-down menu.
Remember this key! Write it down. You’ll need it again when you configure
your computers to connect to this access point.
Some access point’s configuration software won’t necessarily show you
the WEP key that you’ve generated — just the pass phrase that you’ve
used to generate it. You’ll need to dig around in the manual and menus
to find a command to display the WEP key itself. (For example, Apple’s
AirPort software shows just the pass phrase; you need to find the
Network Equivalent Password in the Airport Admin Utility to display the
WEP key — in OS X, this is in the Base Station Menu.)
The built-in wireless LAN client software on Windows XP numbers its
four keys from 0–3 instead of 1–4. So if you’re using Key 1 on your access
point, select Key 0 in Windows XP.
6. Click OK to close the WEP configuration window.
You’re done turning on WEP. Congratulations.
Can we repeat ourselves again? Will you indulge us? The preceding steps are
very generic. Yours might vary slightly (or in rare cases, significantly). Read
your user’s guide. It will tell you what to do.
Some access points will make you go through the extra step of requiring all
users to use WEP to connect to the access point. Look for a check box or
pull-down menu on your configuration screen with this option. If you don’t do
this, computers without your network’s WEP key might still be able to connect
to your access point.
After you configure WEP on the access point, you must go to each computer on
your network, get into the network adapter’s client software (as we describe in
Chapters 7 and 8), turn on WEP, and enter either the pass phrase or the WEP
key. Typically you’ll find an Enable Security dialog box containing a check box
to turn on security and one to four text boxes for entering the key. Simply
select the check box to enable WEP, enter your key in the appropriate text box,
and then click OK. Figure 10-2 shows this dialog box for a Proxim ORiNOCO PC
Card network adapter; the dialog box that you see is likely to be similar.

Figure 10-2:
Setting up
WEP on an
ORiNOCO
PC Card.
One area that is consistently confusing when setting up a WEP key — and
often a real pain in the rear end — is the tendency of different vendors to
use different formats for the keys. The most common way to format a key is
to use hexadecimal (hex) characters. This format represents numbers and
letters by using combinations of the numbers 0–9 and the letters A–F. (For
example, the name of Pat’s dog, Opie, would be represented in hexadecimal
as 4f 70 69 65.) A few other vendors use ASCII, which is simply the letters and
numbers on your keyboard.
Although ASCII is an easier-to-understand system for entering WEP codes (it’s
really just plain text), most systems make you use hexadecimal: It’s the standard.
The easiest way to enter hex keys on your computers connecting to
your access point is to use the pass phrase that we discuss previously. If
your network adapter client software lets you do this, do it! If it doesn’t, try
entering the WEP key itself that you wrote down when you generated it (it’s
probably hexadecimal). If that doesn’t work either, you might have to dig into
the user’s manual and see whether you need to add any special codes before
or after the WEP key to make it work. Some software requires you to put the
WEP key inside quotation marks; others might require you to put an 0h or 0x
(that’s a zero and an h or an x character) before the key or an h after it (both
without quotation marks).