[NDBounce]

Here's the situation. My roommate and I just got DSL and have it running through a wireless network (D Link 802.11b "base station").

My friend is very paranoid about security, so we are trying our best to have a secure network. He has the DLink turned on to 128 bit encryption.

I can join the network from my rev A ibook, OS 10.2.1, but in order to do so, I have to select the network from the little icon in my menu bar, and then change the pop-up box from Password to 128 bit ASCII encryption.

He also would like to turn the "broadcast" function off. However, I can't figure out how to join the network when he turns this off. I can no longer pull up the network from the airport icon in the menu bar. When I choose connect or create network, it only gives me an option to type a password, but not to enter a 128 bit encryption key.

My question boils down to this: how do I join an 802.11b network when it has WEP encryption on AND is not broadcasting. I have the network name, and I know the encryption key, I just can't figure out how to enter the key.

If you can help me, please do so.

Thank you,

O
B unce!

[chabig]

From this Knowlegebase Article:

If you want to join a non-Apple encrypted wireless network from a computer with an AirPort card, you must use one of two different styles for password entry; and it must be the one chosen by the network administrator. They are:

1. ASCII password
If you were given a password that may be plain language, containing characters from the full range of ASCII, use the double quotation mark (") before and after the password. These are case-sensitive, and they are five characters long for 40-bit encrypted networks or 13 characters long for 128-bit encrypted networks.

Example of 40-bit: "pw123"
Example of 128-bit: "password12345"

2. Hexadecimal password
If you were given a password that uses only the hexadecimal range of characters (which are: abcdef0123456789), put a dollar sign ($) before the password. These passwords are 10 characters long for 40-bit encrypted networks or 26 characters long for 128-bit encrypted networks. In a hexadecimal password, the dollar sign is called the Hex Escape. It notifies the software that the characters that follow it should be treated as a hexadecimal number. Other possible hex escapes are "0x" and "0X" (zero-x, and the "x" may be upper or lower case).

Example of 40-bit: $1234abcdef
Example of 128-bit: $12345678901234567890abcdef