How Do I Secure Data Transmitted To/From An Access Point Over The Wireless Connection; What Is The Difference Between 40-Bit And 64-Bit Wep Keys; A Wep Key Is A User-Defined String Of Characters Used To Encrypt And Decrypt Data - ZyXEL Communications P-2608HWL-D1 Support Notes

P-2608HWL Series Support Notes
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How do I secure data transmitted to/from an Access Point over the wireless connection?

Enable Wired Equivalency Protocol (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) to encrypt the payload of
the packets sent across a wireless connection.
What is WEP?
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a security mechanism defined in the IEEE 802.11 standard and is
designed to ensure that the security of the wireless medium equal to that of a cable (wire). WEP data
encryption is designed to prevent access to the network from unauthorized users or "intruders" and to
prevent wireless LAN traffic from been eavesdropped. WEP allows administrators to define a set of
security "Keys" for each wireless user based on a "Key String" based on the WEP encryption algorithm.
Access is denied from anyone who does not have an assigned key. You can configure 40/64-bit and
128-bit encryption key lengths for WEP. However, WEP is known to have flaws in its key generation
processing.

What is the difference between 40-bit and 64-bit WEP keys?

40-bit WEP and 64-bit WEP have the same encryption level, thus they are essentially the same. WEP
encryption uses 40 bits (10 Hex character) for the "secret key" (set by the user), and a 24-bit "
Initialization Vector " (not under user control) (40+24=64). Some vendors refer this level of WEP as
40-bit, while others refer it as 64-bit WEP.
What is a WEP key ?

A WEP key is a user-defined string of characters used to encrypt and decrypt data.

A WEP key is a user-defined string of characters used to encrypt and decrypt data?
Wireless clients must use the same WEP key and the same key length to communicate with one another.
This means that a wireless client using a 128-bit WEP key cannot communicate with a peer wireless client
who is using a 64-bit or 256-bit WEP. Although a 128-bit WEP key also uses a 24-bit Initialization Vector,
it uses a 104-bit secret key.
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