F5D7234-4 v4 Wireless G Router User Manual Rev1
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You can enter your key by typing in the hex key manually, or you can type a
passphrase in the “Passphrase” field and click “Apply Changes” to create a key.
A hex (hexadecimal) key is a combination of numbers and letters from A–F and
0–9. For 64-bit WEP, you need to enter 10 hex keys. For 128-bit WEP, you need
to enter 26 hex keys.
For instance:
AF 0F 4B C3 D4 = 64-bit WEP key
C3 03 0F AF 0F 4B B2 C3 D4 4B C3 D4 E7 = 128-bit WEP key
The WEP passphrase is NOT the same as a WEP key. Your Router uses this
passphrase to generate your WEP keys, but different hardware manufacturers
might have different methods on generating the keys. If you have multiple
vendors’ equipment in your network, the easiest thing to do is to use the hex
WEP key from your Router or access point and enter it manually into the hex
WEP key table in your Router’s configuration screen.
Wi-Fi Protected Access™ (WPA™)
WPA is a new Wi-Fi standard that was designed to improve upon the security
features of WEP. To use WPA security, the drivers and software of your wireless
equipment must be upgraded to support WPA. These updates will be found on
the wireless vendor’s website. There are two types of WPA security: WPA-PSK,
and WPA2.
WPA-PSK
uses what is known as a pre-shared key as the network key. A
network key is basically a password that is between eight and 63 characters long.
It can be a combination of letters, numbers, or characters. Each client uses the
same network key to access the network. Typically, this is the mode that will be
used in a home environment.
WPA2™
requires Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for encryption of data,
which offers much greater security than WPA. WPA uses both Temporal Key
Integrity Protocol (TKIP) and (AES) for encryption.
Sharing the Same Network Keys
Most Wi-Fi products ship with security turned off. So once you have your network
working, you need to activate WEP or WPA and make sure your wireless
networking devices are sharing the same network key.
The following diagram shows the effect of not having the correct network key
throughout your network.
