London School of Puppetry wrote: > > > On 30/05/07, *Andrew Price* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > On 30/05/07 18:06, London School of Puppetry wrote: > > Can anyone tell me what a WEP key is and what it does? > > Caroline (LSP) > > Hi Caroline, > > Note: I'm a computer science geek but I'll try to keep this simple :) > > WEP ("Wired Equivalent Privacy") basically provides a layer of security > on top of a wireless network connection. In order to connect to a > WEP-secured network with your wireless card, you need to provide your > network connection manager with the WEP key for that network. The WEP > key is a string of characters (you can think of it as a sort of > password). Not all wireless connections use WEP, some are completely > open, some use different kinds of security methods. > > I'm sure someone will mention this next bit so I'll get there first: WEP > has been found to be quite easy to circumvent, so it's not that good a > way of securing a wireless network, but it's better than nothing and > it's still used quite widely. > > Hope that helps. > > -- > Andy Price > http://andrewprice.me.uk > > > Hi Andy, that was well explained- I have also looked on wikipedia and > read about WAPs > but what no-one has explained to me in what it looks like
A WEP key or similarly, a WPA key looks like is a number, usually a longish number. (note I have almost no experience of this!) an example might be ae7043c140c8dd08e0db19abd6 (see http://clariondeveloper.com/wepgen/ for where it came from) The key above is a number, believe it or not. In the hexadecimal system, you would count uop from zero using numerals 0-9 and continue with a few alphabet characters up to 15 as follows 0123456789 a b c d e ( I think..... :-) ) So in the example above '9' means - simply 9. But 'a' means the number 10. Dont worry about what the numbers are, just that a key is a sort of number. You have to enter your own secret number into the unit (network gateway device?) (do note it safely somewhere) so it can be used in a code system to cause encryption. The number is usually entered using a computer on a network connected to the gateway device, usin ga web browser on the computer. >- In my hand I > have something called 802.11b/g Security Gateway. Is this a WEP or a > WAP ? The handbook or specification summary should tell, you cannot usually tell by looking. > I have plugged it in to the computer, then plugged it using > another cable into my Alcatel Speed Touch Pro Router thinking I would get > use of my lap top downstairs for Internet but lost all internet > connection for both computers? > Is there something not compatible? > Caroline Sorry I dont know - I am about out of my depth already (!). I would look at the gateway instructions to see if it was intended to go where you expect, and how it would be setup. Good luck. -- alan cocks Kubuntu user#10391 -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
