[nonhuman]

When using a WPA password for securing an AirPort network, do you still need a Hex Equivalent Password to connect from a Windows machine, or is that only necessary with WEP?

[ghporter]

The WPA standard has basically standardized the passphrase-to-key process, so the text-like passphrase you use with your Mac will work with the Windows machine too-as long as the Windows machine actually supports WPA! There's a patch that needs to be installed on a WinXP-SP1 (or higher) machine to enable it to run WPA.

Here are the rules for WPA passphrases: any text up to 63 characters, or 64 hex characters. Pretty simple, but it is possible to hose this up. Make your passphrase LONG-use all 63 of those characters. And use a combination of letters, numbers, punctuation and special characters, too.

The only actual exploit that has a chance against WPA is actually a brute-force dictionary attack against poorly chosen passphrases. It is actually better security to use a group of 63 random characters than to use anything that's really human readable, or even "leet." Of course you won't type that in-save it as a text file on a USB drive and just move that USB drive from computer to computer to enter the passphrase.

YMMV, but I believe in really using good security, so I recommend going all the way.

[nonhuman]

Ok cool, thanks. I'm already using WPA in my office, I was just trying to find out how hard it would be for someone who's coming in this afternoon with a Windows laptop to connect.