Mailing List os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com Archived Message #6237

From: "Lewis G Rosenthal" <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> Full Headers
Undecoded message
Subject: WEP or WPA when receiving a passphrase (was: Re: [OS2Wireless] Re: Perhaps it is time to fix it?)
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:05:36 -0400
To: OS/2 Wireless Users Mailing List <os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com>

Hi, guys...

On 09/16/09 08:27 am, John Clemente thus wrote :
ED:

Ed Durrant wrote:
John Clemente wrote:


If the encryption is not set correctly you will get what appear to be communications set up errors.
No errors are reported... All you see is the "configuring tcpip"  icon but you never get an IP.  It just sits there
Nothing will be reported, however if you look at IP configuration and traffic, it will look like a lack of connectivity, even though a connection is shown.
 Well to set up WPA you need to select one of them - try one then the other.
These encrypted routers are usually "out of the box"  and most of these owners would have no idea how modify the factory default configurations.  They do not even change the default login... or password... as I can always get into the configuration screens.  Would you know what is the default encryption for the out of the box Linksys or NETGEAR $80 or $100 router?   I suspect it is WEP but on the next occasion I will fool more with WAP and it's options.

 NO NO NO - Out of the box there is NO ENCRYPTION SET AT ALL! That's why there are so many open Wifi routers about!  In fact I have read that in the US, you are now committing a crime by having an open router!!  The point being that criminals (drug dealers, bank robbers, spammers etc.) can use an open wifi router to communicate through and they can't be traced.
The routers I am trying to connect to are ones where the owners have give me permission to attach and given me the paraphrase use to set up the encryption.  Indeed I have attached to all of them with the paraphrase in XP and with the i-phone.  But, you are right it was a dumb question I could have answered myself by looking.  In fact, I have just looked at two of my routers -- all are open as I do not like the extra overhead and there are no Top Secrets in these networks.  Rather boring stuff.  Lots of traffic on Ecs etc. :-)           That said the drop down box, or buttons for encryption on Linksys and Netgear all show WEP first.  I will be at my brothers later today and will check with the i-phone to see what protocol he has set and use the exact one in Ecs and see where it goes.
John, practically *all* routers sold in the US these days default to encryption disabled. The "one button security" option on *most* of these enables WPA, not WEP. WEP is listed first purely by convention.

I highly suspect that you have a WPA passphrase and not a WEP key or phrase to use in a key generator (which are *highly* unreliable). FWIW, Stan & I had some fun a few years back at Warpstock, playing with the key generator in a Seimens Access Point (or wireless router). The keys generated were distinctly different than keys generated bya  LinkSys unit. When using a generator, the best policy is to use the generator to come up with a set of keys, and then copy the *keys* to the other devices.

That said, all things being equal, it is far too much trouble to bother with WEP encryption these days, as it takes much more time to configure than it does to crack. Again, I believe you have a WPA passphrase, so you should go through the WPA options available to you in XWLAN (WPA or WPA2). Start with WPA and see if that works for you. WPA uses only TKIP (randomly rotating keys) with 128-bit RC4 encryption, whereas WPA2 utilizes 256-bit AES encryption). Most routers configured for WPA are configured to accept TKIP+AES, thus allowing connection from either type of client.

On the subject of encryption in general (and I may fork the original subject yet again to more fully address that), it all depends upon what's on the network to be protected (vs real firewalling), and whether the network is actually *intended* for public use (in which case, there is usually some form of authentication involved, such as a captive portal (see http://www.hautspot.com/captive_portal.html ). In public venues, it is also common to employ client isolation techniques to keep the wireless users separated from each other (see http://www.hautspot.com/client_isolation.html ); this is done without any encryption, so the data flowing over the air is just as unencrypted as the data flowing over a wired connection (which can also be captured). Thus, encryption is but a tool; its use - or lack thereof - is (or should be) entirely determined by the application in question (so, it's not particularly "bad" to set up a wireless router without encryption). ;-)


Get any of the  combinations different and you will either not connect or connect but not be able to send traffic.

The WPA options are only available with the WPA supplicant that comes with the latest versions of GenMAC.
The Supplicant is loaded but I do not understand what it does although I have selected the view option
OK, you don't need the view option set. But are there WPA options displayed in the pull down menu on the encryption page.
I'll check

 
Is there a good "how to" or FAQ on how to set up encryption in the Wireless Lan Monitor?

Let me know if you find one - I looked a while ago but without any success.
Something like a FAQ on encryption would be very useful as Ecs does not have the automatic features XP and Mac's do.  I will keep looking.

Wireless Zero Configuration, or WZC (Windows XP) and WLAN AutoConfig (Vista) is/are not without their drawbacks (try using one in a crowded area, when it hops from one network to another). However, your point is well-taken; we should have more details available. If you look at the help in XWLAN, and turn to the Security page, you will see that Christian has done an admirable job of summarizing the benefits and pitfalls of the supported encryption options. Of course, you still need to know what's on the other end of the connection, and for this, WZC is quite handy.

Please let us know how you make out.

Cheers/2

--
Lewis
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Lewis G Rosenthal, CNA, CLP, CLE
Rosenthal & Rosenthal, LLC                www.2rosenthals.com
Need a managed Wi-Fi hotspot?                www.hautspot.com
Secure, stable, operating system          www.ecomstation.com
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