Cisco WAP551 Administration Manual page 106

Wireless
Networks
Cisco Small Business WAP551 and WAP561 Wireless-N Access Point
Static WEP
Static WEP
Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) is a data encryption protocol for 802.11 wireless networks.
All wireless stations and access points on the network are configured with a static 64-bit (40-
bit secret key + 24-bit initialization vector (IV)) or 128-bit (104-bit secret key + 24-bit IV)
Shared Key for data encryption.
Static WEP is not the most secure mode available, but it offers more protection than setting the
security mode to None (Plain-text), as it does prevent an outsider from easily sniffing out
unencrypted wireless traffic.
WEP encrypts data moving across the wireless network based on a static key. (The encryption
algorithm is a stream cipher called RC4.)
These parameters configure Static WEP:
• Transfer Key Index—A key index list. Key indexes 1 through 4 are available. The
default is 1.
The Transfer Key Index indicates which WEP key the WAP device uses to encrypt the
data it transmits.
• Key Length—The length of the key. Select one:
- 64 bits
- 128 bits
• Key Type—The key type. Select one:
- ASCII
- Hex
• WEP Keys—You can specify up to four WEP keys. In each text box, enter a string of
characters for each key. The keys you enter depend on the key type selected:
- ASCII—Includes uppercase and lowercase alphabetic letters, the numeric digits,
and special symbols such as @ and #.
- Hex—Includes digits 0 to 9 and the letters A to F.
Use the same number of characters for each key as specified in the Characters
Required field. These are the RC4 WEP keys shared with the stations using the WAP
device.
Each client station must be configured to use one of these same WEP keys in the same
slot as specified on the WAP device.
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