xwepgen 0.8 review

xwepgen lets Mac OS X users use WEP passphrases from nearly all non-Apple 802.

License: GPL OS: Mac OS X File size: 0K Developer: apparissus Price: $0.00 Updated: 21 Jul 2005

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xwepgen lets Mac OS X users use WEP passphrases from nearly all non-Apple 802.11b software and hardware to connect to encrypted wireless networks.

Devices connecting via encrypted 802.11b network use a WEP key to encrypt the data they send. An actual WEP key looks like: 57EAB0FF for a 40-bit (64-bit) link, and similar, though longer, for a 104-bit (128-bit) link.

However, some 802.11b hardware and software (Apple products, many Linksys, Lucent, D-Link, and other products) have the user input a passphrase instead of an actual WEP key. These products then use some algorithm to convert the passphrase to a WEP key.

The problem Mac users face is that Apples passphrase-to-key algorithm differs from the one used by most other products. Using xwepgen, Apple users can input a Linksys/DLink/Lucent/etc. passphrase, and get the WEP key to use in airport password dialogues.

xwepgen is freely ditributed under the GNU General Public License. If you have any problems or questions, visit the project's Sourceforge page or e-mail apparissus@users.sourceforge.net.

Usage:
1) Get the passphrase and encryption method (40-bit or 104-bit) from thenetwork admin. Also, if the encryption method is 40-bit, find out which WEP key (1 through 4) the network is using. If unsure, try 1 first, then try theothers.
2) Start xwepgen and enter the passphrase in the appropriate field. Click‘Generate WEP keys’.
3) Tell your Mac to connect to the network, and where it requests the ‘AirportPassword’, enter the WEP key. Make sure the wep key begins with a ‘$’. (For example, if my WEP key is 50FFA0FF, then I would enter $50FFA0FF).xwepgen inserts the ‘$’ for you by default.
4) Finally, click ‘OK’, ‘Apply’, or whatever’s appropriate, and watch in wonder asyou connect to the Linksys/D-Link/Lucent/etc. network! Enjoy.