Networking Question (probably really dumb and easy)

tinyfist

I tried googling, but am not sure I have found the right answer. And this is where I go when google can't help me. So much knowledge here.

I was helping set up my girlfriend's home network the other day. We were replacing a DLink router with a Linksys WRT54GL.

The old DLink was using WEP encryption and she used an old 10-digit phone number to generate a key. For all of her machines (laptops, iphone, blackberry) she was able to log into the network using that 10-digit phone number.

Once I got the Linksys up and running, I used the same WEP encryption so her family members wouldn't have to change all their settings. So I used the same old 10-digit phone number to generate a key. The problem was, none of the machines could log into the network. I had to go to each machine and manually change the 10-digit phone number to the generated key and then they were able to get on without any problems.

What happened? Did I miss a step somewhere? How come they were able to get on the network using the 10-digit phone number and the DLink router, but the Linksys required the key itself?

I'm getting very frustrated here because it seems like I'm missing such a small piece of information. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sarcastro

Because you used a generated key instead of a custom key, you mutated the original ten digit password into something else. The something else didn't match the original pw on the devices, so no access for you until you changed the pw on those devices to reflect the generated pw mutation you created.

tinyfist

How would I avoid doing that on the linksys router? As far as I know, on both routers I put the 10-digit phone number as a passphrase. Are you saying that the linksys generated a new key but the dlink did not?

tinyfist

Another way to phrase the question: why did the linksys mutate my 10 digit number into a new key, when the dlink did not?

AngelHedgie

Seriously, there is only one right answer to this question - stop using WEP. It's worse than leaving your network unsecured, because it gives the illusion of security while providing none at all. Furthermore, the passphrase should be treated like a password.

Hevach

tinyfist wrote: »

Another way to phrase the question: why did the linksys mutate my 10 digit number into a new key, when the dlink did not?

Because you did it differently, most likely. There's a few ways to get a WEP key out of a phone number:
1. Enter the phone number directly as the WEP key (if I remember right that'll even work for a 64 bit key).
2. Enter it as decimal and then convert to hex to get a WEP key (this won't always work).
3. Enter it as the ASCII passcode and then select one of the generated keys it gives you back (you can get four different keys from the same passcode this way).

My guess? You did the first (maybe the second) with the first router and the last with the new one. You may not have even been using the same level of encryption if you did this - you can enter a 10 digit number as ASCII and then generate any size wep key off of it.

If you're not using the actual 10/26/58 hex digit (depending on how strong the encryption is) key itself, you're not guaranteed to get the same key both times unless you're double careful you use that phone number the same way both times.

Anyway, what AngelHedgie said is pretty much it. WEP's really only strong enough to stop an accidental connection, like your neighbor clicking your network in the list instead of his own. If somebody who knows what Google is actually wants to connect, it's not going to stop them.

Sarcastro

tinyfist wrote: »

Another way to phrase the question: why did the linksys mutate my 10 digit number into a new key, when the dlink did not?

Pretty sound consensus up in here. The answer to this specific question is that by default linksys routers assume you want the freedom of a generated passcode (which lets you put in anything), whereas most dlink routers assume you will conform to a set number of digits (ten or thirteen) and convert that number into hex for ease of use. You can do either on either though, you just have to muck about a bit.