Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: How do I troubleshoot WEP with instant wireless products?

A: Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is an encryption scheme used to protect wireless data communications. WEP uses a combination of 64-bit or 128-bit keys to provide access control to your network and encryption security for every data transmission. To decode a data transmission, each point in a network must use an identical 64-bit or 128-bit key. Higher encryption levels mean higher levels of security, but, due to the complexity of the encryption, they may mean decreased network performance.

The term "40-bit" used in conjunction with WEP Encryption is another term for 64-bit WEP encryption. This level of WEP encryption has been called 40-bit because it uses a 40-bit secret key along with a 24-bit Initialization Vector (40 + 24 = 64). Wireless vendors may use either name. For the purposes of this document, the term "64-bit" is used to refer to this level of encryption.

If possible, before attempting to configure WEP, disable encryption and make sure your wireless network is functioning. Verify that all of your wireless devices are using the same encryption level.

Note: A 128-bit WEP encrypted wireless network do not communicate with a 64-bit WEP encrypted wireless network. Though it also uses a 24-bit Initialization Vector, 128-bit WEP uses a 104-bit secret key. Therefore, ensure that all of your wireless devices are using the same encryption level. All wireless devices complying with the 802.11b standard support 64-bit WEP.

If using a Passphrase to generate your WEP key, ensure that you use exactly the same Passphrase on all wireless devices in the network. These keys are case sensitive.

Instant Wireless products use a hexadecimal key for WEP. Other vendors may use an ASCII based key. Encryption using these two different keys do not communicate with each other. One must be converted.