Hello All,
A little background for folks, the new Apple AirPort supporting 802.11n
doesn't officially support 40/64 bit WEP except for an Easter egg access.
According to the post, "n" disables 40/64 bit WEP. Can folks chime in if this
is correct with other vendors products? 40/64 bit WEP has a purpose for legacy,
so stop moaning and groaning about WPA, 802.1x, etc. Just answer the question.
;-)
-Ben
P.S. Thanks to Rini for pointing to out to me.
----------------------------
MacInTouch Reader
I just got an Airport Extreme Basestation and was surprised to find out that
despite the claims of the marketing material, it is not possible to set it to
40-bit WEP mode; the only WEP-compatible mode it offers is named "WEP
(Transitional Security Network)", and it requires a 128-bit key specified in
ASCII mode only (13 letters).
So, not only are 40-bit keys not supported, but also there are restrictions on
the keys, because you can't specify the key in hex like you can on most
routers.
This is not a major problem if you're starting a new wireless installation; for
the user who is new to wireless and just purchased an AppleTV, this is probably
the best, easiest to setup wireless router out there. Unfortunately, in my case
I was trying to replace the router in a pre-existing network with many nodes,
some of which are only WEP-40bit capable, so I was stuck.
I did a bit of digging up around the support forums; some people had a similar
problem, but nobody had the solution, so I called Apple's tech support, and
this is what the second-level guy told me:
1) "legacy" WEP is not compatible with 802.11n draft. Switching to this mode
requires disabling the 802.11n protocol, thereby eliminating this router's best
feature, and potentially showing the AppleTV in a bad light, which is probably
why Apple decided to leave the feature out and strong arm people into using
radio modes that guarantee good performance.
2) To activate WEP, you need to select a non-802.11n radio mode; from the
Airport/Wireless tab, hold command (or control on Windows) while clicking on
the "Radio Mode" tab, and select the appropriate non-n mode, for instance
"802.11b/g compatible". WEP 40bit and 128bit become options in the "Wireless
Security" popup. Unlike with the "Transitional" mode, you can specify a
hexadecimal key by prefixing it with a dollar sign.
Hope this helps!
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