| Term | Description |
| WEP | WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is IEEE security protocol, specified in the Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity, or 802.11b) standard. WEP is designed to provide a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network, a.k.a LAWN ;) ) with a level of security and privacy comparable to what is usually expected of a wired LAN, by encrypting data transmitted over the WLAN. Although WEP provides some level of security, there has been some controversy whether it lives up to being equivalent to that of wired LANs. Either way, WEP should always be used in conjunction with all other traditional security practices. In 2001, a fast WEP cracking algorithm was discovered, coming from capturing enough "weak IV" frames, something that occurs randomly. Manufactures have since altered the algorithm to not use weak IVs in most devices -- this technology is sometimes known as WEP-plus. When entering WEP keys manually, note the following guidelines: - One ASCII character is 8 bits, one Hex character is 4 bits. - 64 (or 40) bit WEP code has 5 ASCII or 10 HEX characters. - 128 (or 104) bit WEP code has 13 ASCII or 26 HEX characters. |