Question about security

[Duckman]

My router can have 128 bit WEP enabled. When I select this, it allows me to type in a key. I have ASCII characters selected. Can I just type in anything that I want?

I realize that if I type in a WEP key, I would also have to have it set up on all of my wireless devices.

Thanks for any assistance!

[RommelS]

Yes you can type in anything you want, but your key has to be 26 or 31 characters long since you're using 128 bit.

[Duckman]

Cool, it worked. Now I feel a little more secure.

I have been following Cnet's article about wireless technology and the number of people who do not take any security measures is kind of amazing.

I have a firewall software, firewall router, anti-virus, now WEP.

What a pain just to keep your information/network safe. :wacko:

[Duckman]

Alas.....it does not work for my Axim. :angry:

I set up WEP with my Axim, and I cannot access the internet. I retyped in the key numerous times.....did soft resets.....nothing. Put the card into my laptop and it works.

Oh well.......WEP will not keep me from using my Axim to surf....I should see if there is an updated driver for my Axim's card.

bummer!

[RommelS]

Ok here we go again. LOL.
Use the Microsoft Pocket PC Conncetion Wizard

The connection wizard will configure your device to connect to your network properly.

[Computer Ninja]

RommelS, I had problems getting WEP to work even without getting my AXIM involved. I set my key to something real simple, 40bit. I have a D-Link WAP, I think it's the DWL-1000.

I entered the proper length passkey (ASCII), and it never worked. I didn't even bother trying to get this to work on my Axim.

I guess I'll have to give it another shot.

[RommelS]

I'll try it again on my Axim, and see what I can find out.

Somoene requested a landscape application that was designed for the iPaq to be tested with the Axim. Needless to say the only way I can get out from it was to do a hard reset.

[RommelS]

Upon further review, Here are some info on the WEP Key lenghts. Apparently different company has their own implementation of WEP key lengths.

Be sure that you check your manual for the proper length

64 Bit (also known as 40):
5 ASCII / Alphanumeric values
10 Hexadecimal values

128 Bit
13 ASCII / Alphanumeric values
26 Hexadecimal values

[Computer Ninja]

I'll give it a shot, again...

[JTMoney]

FYI, WEP, even "128-bit" is trivial to break. It's no security at all.

The best security measure you can take with the current crop of consumer level access points is to manually manage the MAC address table of nodes allowed access to the wireless network.

If you hardcode your Axim's MAC address to your access point, you are preventing any other wireless node from attaching to it. If a wireless node can't attach to the access point, the access point won't send it any traffic. No traffic means no WEP session key.

With anywhere from 1-5 GB of data, it is trivial to break a WEP session key with commonly available tools. A cracker can't get that data, though, if his wireless node can't attach to the access point.

For the home user, this is no big deal...you just add the MAC address of your wireless card to the access point and you are done. If friends come over, you add them. That's what I did when ComputerNinja came over with his...I added the MAC address to my access point, and we were both good to go, and the access point will keep his MAC address until I delete it, which means that with future visits, we won't have to go through the process.

For the ultimately paranoid, the best WiFi security you can have is to have a Linux machine with a WiFi PCCard act as your access point and router, and use an SSH client to encrypt and forward all traffic from your PDA to the Linux box, and let it decrypt and forward the traffic over the wire to the other hosts on your LAN.

JT$