Asus WL-300g User Manual page 28

Chapter 3 - Home Gateway Utilities
Authentication Method
It is suggested to select "Shared Key Only". If "Open System Only" or
"Shared Key and Open System" is used, the home gateway may accept
connection requests from unauthorized wireless clients.
WEP
The IEEE 802.11b standard specifies an optional encryption feature, known
as Wired Equivalent Privacy or WEP, that is designed to provide a wireless
LAN with a security level equal to what is found on a wired Ethernet network.
WEP encrypts the data portion of each packet exchanged on the 802.11b
network using either a 64-bit or 128-bit encryption algorithm. In addition,
WEP is also used in conjunction with the optional Shared Key
Authentication algorithm to prevent unauthorized devices from associating
with an 802.11b network.
Enabling WEP can protect your data from eavesdroppers. If you do not
need this feature, select "no" to skip the following setting. The SpaceLink
Home Gateway supports both 64-bit and 128-bit encryption using the Wired
Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm. Select the type of encryption you
want to use (64 or 128 bit) and configure one to four WEP Keys. The "128-
bit" method is more secure than the "64-bit".
64/128bits versus 40/104bits
You may be confused about configuring WEP encryption, especially when
using multiple wireless LAN products from different vendors. There are
two levels of WEP Encryption: 64 bits and 128 bits.
Firstly, 64 bit WEP and 40 bit WEP are the same encryption method and
can interoperate in the wireless network. This lower level of WEP encryption
uses a 40 bit (10 Hex character) as a "secret key" (set by user), and a 24 bit
"Initialization Vector" (not under user control). This together makes 64
bits (40 + 24). Some vendors refer to this level of WEP as 40 bits and
others refer to this as 64 bits. ASUS SpaceLink products use the term 64
bits when referring to this lower level of encryption.
Secondly, 104 bit WEP and 128 bit WEP are the same encryption method
and can interoperate in the wireless network. This higher level of WEP
encryption uses a 104 bit (26 Hex character) as a "secret key" (set by user),
and a 24 bit "Initialization Vector" (not under user control). This together
28 ASUS SpaceLink 802.11g Access Point