[Tarcat]

I bought a linksys wireless WRT54G router for my MacBook. It works fine when no securtiy is enabled. The problem is that it won't work with WEP. I set up WEP, turn it on, enter the WEP key, and it refuses to connect. I don't get it. Any ideas?

[ghporter]

The way a WEP key is entered in a Linksys router is different from the way the key is entered on a Mac. In fact, Apple does almost everything different from the rest of the industry in WEP. Linksys uses some algorithm for converting a password into a key, but also lets you enter a hex key directly. Apple uses a DIFFERENT method of changing a password into a key, and you have to specifically tell the AirPort configuation utility that you're entering a hex key (either with a radio button or by starting the entry with a '$' without quotes) or it's interpreted as plain text.

And you DO NOT want to depend on WEP. Why? Because it's poo. Its encryption is now almost trivial to break.

You want to use WPA. WPA is robust, truly secure, and (best of all for you) the method of entering the passphrase is part of the standard! That means that once you enter the passphrase in the Linksys router, you enter exactly the same thing in your MacBook's AirPort configuration and you're done! I guarantee that both your WRT54G and your MacBook support WPA.

[Tarcat]

Thanks. Works perfect.

[fwj111]

thank you, thank you, and did I say thank you?
I thank google also for sending me to this thread.

One less wire on the desk.

Peace,
out!

[dpweiblen]

I had this same problema, and sometimes when I unplugged and replugged the router it would light up, but this was a great fix. Awesome!

Thanks so much!

[Blasphemy]

cool.
Some threads are timeless.

[Chris_o]

In some cases however you need WEP encryption... I'm using two access points for my WLAN, so the neighbors can use it too. To bridge between the two APs, I use WDS. When using WPA encryption, your MAC address is encrypted into the datagrams, which makes it unsuitable for WDS. With WEP encryption you don't have this problem.

However, my macbook doesn't handle WEP well. Even when I manually enter the WEP key in hex, I can associate with the access point but I don't get an IP address so something's wrong with the connection. I've had this problem with multiple acecss points.

Does anybody have a solution to this problem? My last resort is MAC address filtering, but this is too much work for guests coming by and is also very easy to bypass.

Thanks,
Chris

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Chris_o 

In some cases however you need WEP encryption...

As a start, it looks like WDS needs an overhaul so that WPA (and WPA 2) work properly with it and vice versa. There's no reason for such a useful and important feature as WDS to require the use of -at most- WEP, which is almost trivial to break. In the interim, you might want to investigate less obvious security measures, such as a tunneling system to secure your connections. It's not particularly simple to do, but it can be very secure.

By the way, when combined with strong encryption, such as WPA, MAC address filtering is VERY secure and is not "easy to bypass" for the very reason that WPA isn't appropriate for WDS-the MAC addresses are encrypted. Personally, I don't feel that finding a guest's wireless MAC and adding it to my list is that big a deal, and it takes mere moments to do, but your situation is obviously different from mine.

[mariochava]

Thanks for the advice of $ before the key access

Now all works...

Best Regards from Mexico.

Mario Ruiz