128-bit WEP key

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windows.networking.wireless (More info?)

I think you are experiencing some confusion with regards to what you think
of as your "passphrase" and your WEP key. Strictly speaking, standard WEP
keys are either 40bit or 104bit (plus a suffix to this of 24bits, which is
what you see marketed as 64 or 128 bits). Typically, this 40 or 104 bit WEP
key can either be entered as hexadecimal numbers or ASCII characters.

Now, because it can be difficult or tedious coming up with a nice random
104bit WEP key composed of 26 hex numbers on your own, some vendors provide
a way to come up with or "generate" a random key based off of some other
input (a "passphrase" in this case) that is easier to remember. This
usually takes the form of entering a more human-readable ASCII phrase into a
text box, clicking a button and out comes one or more 26 hexadecimal
numbers, which you can then use as a WEP key.

The problem or confusion comes from the fact that many people mistake the
"passphase" that is used to generate the WEP key as the WEP key itself! So,
the solution is to go ahead and generate a WEP key on your AP, but take note
of the WEP key generated (and it WILL be either a 40 or 128 bit key), and
input that key on the client machine.


"Ray" <NoSpam-Ray282828@Yahoo.com.hk> wrote in message
newszOL0U6xEHA.484@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> In the AP, I use passphrase to generate WEP key. In Windows XP Pro SP2,
> it does not have passphrase to enter the key at easy. It automatically
> identify if the password is ASCII code or Hex code by reading no of enter
> codes. For example, 128-bit is 26 codes for hex code and 13 codes for
> ASCII. Since my passphrase is not exactly 13 characters, how can the
> Windows read my ASCII code?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ray
>