[ubuntu-uk] WEP key

[Andrew Price]

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