[ubuntu-uk] WEP key

[Neil Greenwood]

On 30/05/07, Andrew Price <andy at andrewprice.me.uk> wrote:
> 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.

Sorry, but that's not correct. It's not better than nothing - at least
with nothing you don't think you're secure!

It takes about 2-3 minutes to capture enough wireless traffic to crack
WEP now, followed by a few seconds of CPU time.

WEP is now totally worthless. If you can, use WPA or WPA-2 instead. If
your hardware only supports WEP, don't use it and set up a VPN
(virtual private network - this encrypts all the data being sent over
the air).


I'd guess this is far too technical for the original poster, but I
just wanted to point out how broken WEP is.

Hwyl,
Neil.

P.S. If anyone wants slightly more technical info, search
theregister.co.uk for the article called "Gone in 120 seconds!", a
reference to the 2-3 minutes I mentioned above.