T30 Wireless Encryption

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skitty4gzus · #1 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 2:02 pm

I need some more help at the moment! I am trying to set up my thinkpad to use the wireless router portal I just got from SBC DSL and it says in the thinkpad when im entering the SSID and the password that the password needs to be either 40 bit or 104 bit encryption. The problem is the router is setup on 64 bit encryption and there is no way to change the router. How do I tell the thinkpad to allow 64 bit encryption? Im sure this is a very obvious thing but I cant seem to figure it out. Thanks in advance and God Bless You

Sportler2k3 · #2 Post by **Sportler2k3** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 2:37 pm

Hey,

try to reset the router and reconfigure it. Everything less than a WPA Encryption and i mean EVERYTHING is not secure!!!

u should find a manual to your router on the producers homepage and how to configure it. the router should also be WPA-PSK ready with its latest firmware.

XP with SP2 is WPA-PSK (Pre Shared Key) ready and very easy to configure(with its biult in configurator).

If u have a special software with ur card and want to use it (special features) then use it

its often easier to config than the xp-tool.

Greetz Marc

#3 Post by **jdhurst** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:01 pm

The card that came with the T30 back when the T30 was new does not support WPA. It does, however, support 128-bit encryption. I don't have a T30 anymore, but I just set one up and it took 128 bits. It was, however, limited to WEP. ... JD Hurst

skitty4gzus · #4 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:34 pm

there is no way to configure this router to my knowledge. There is no way to control it or change it is what i was told. The router has built in software and the password and SSID are all built in to it and all i can do is choose to use it or not. So the only thing that can give is the thinkpad. So back to the question. How do you change the settings on the thinkpad to accept 64 bit encypted SSID's and passwords. Is there a way through AC or what? I have an atheros card and so far I havent really been able to do any sort of configuring with that card and to the best of my knowledge there is no configuration software from atheros. I know with my belkin USB adapter there is some things you can work with, and with my SMC router there are a few things I can work with, but this router is straight from AT&T. It is a 2wire portal and thats about all i know.

Sportler2k3 · #5 Post by **Sportler2k3** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 11:33 pm

If i understood ur signature right then ur using an 5004 Atheros chipset.
And as u see on that page, the card is able to encrypt with WPA.
http://atheros.com/pt/AR5004GBulletin.htm

if ur driver doesnt support it, try this one, it is!
ftp://ftp.wildpackets.com/pub/outgoing/atheros421@.zip

Can u give me more information to ur router? (for example SMC "wr14t")

Greetz

skitty4gzus · #6 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 12:23 pm

Im not using an SMC router, that is just an extra router I used for example. The supplied router is a wireless router gateway all In one from the local DSL company. I really dont want to use the SMC router on top of the other router thats already there. Seems kinda redundant dont you think? But if thats the only way to get WPA and if there is no way to adjust the settings on either the router or the thinkpad or the card. Than I guess I will have to go that route. Im not sure what driver I have for that card in there right this moment as Im at work, but I will check when i get home. Thanks

Website · #7 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:03 pm

There is almost ALWAYS a way to go in and modify a router...expecially a wireless one.

What is the brand and model number for the router that the DSL company gave you? Westell?

skitty4gzus · #8 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 3:18 pm

it is a 2wire DSL portal. It came with no software or utilities or anything. Everything is built into the router. I didnt even see it on their webpage or AT&T's page either. So as far as configuring the router itself I have not a clue of whether it can be or not. I am at work and not looking at it myself, but its the newest wireless portal from 2wire so if you see a pic of it anywhere it has black steel mesh on the top of it with a gray plastic band wrapped around it. It lays flat, not standing up and like i said earlier all the SSID and password, which is the serial number, all stay stored in the unit. I talked to their "tech" support guy and he said there was no way to configure this router. But every router I have used has its own utilities and software so the end user can configure it anyway they want. Like turn on and off WPA, you can even turn on and off wireless transmit on most. You can set firewalls and everything on most, and apparently on this one it is set for some kind of optimum safety setting. Which I think I am losing some serious bandwith with these factory settings. I also think I am having packet loss because Starcraft multiplayer keeps crashing and sending an error. But that itself may have nothing to do with the connectiong itself because I am not getting disconnected first, the game just crashes. Beats me??????

rayh · #9 Post by **rayh** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 4:48 pm

64 bit WEP uses a specific algorithm to get its keys. Only 40 of the 64 bits are available to the user, so it is sometimes refered to as a "40 bit" key. The 40 bit key is really the 64 bit WEP.

The same can be said for the 104/128 WEP - it is the same thing. I can't remember exactly how the key is computed (the reserved bits have something to do with the random generator seed), but some bytes are reserved for the algorithm used, so only 104 bits are available to the user. Sometimes it is refered to as 128 Bit WEP or 104 bit WEP.

WEP is better than nothing, and given the choice I'd do 128-bit over 64-bit hands down. However, there are tools available that can hack it and get the keys within a few minutes.

If you are going to use just WEP, then read your router documentation on how to set up a filter to limit its access to only specific MAC addresses. These are specific to each individual card. To find out what your card MAC address is under Windows 32-bit (WinNT4, Win2K, WinXP, Vista) open a command prompt and type "ipconfig /all" The MAC address will be the "physical address". Make sure that you are looking at your network interface (i.e., your network card).

If you are one of the lucky few that are running Linux, then open up a shell and type /sbin/ifconfig, then look for your wifi interface (could be wifi0, ath0, etc, depending on your chipset/driverset, etc.) You will see something like:
<b>ath0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx</b>
The xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx will be the actual Hardware address of your card. You will then enter that string into a table on the router. Make sure you do that for ALL cards that connect, because once you turn the filter on, it will only let THOSE cards listed connect to it.

This explains WEP better than I ever could...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy

Sportler2k3 · #10 Post by **Sportler2k3** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 5:53 pm

wep is better than nothing ur right,
but mac filter is even more useless than wep-encryption.
the first thing u get when sniffing a network is the mac-address and after that the packets to find out the key.
even the windows drivers alows to fake Macaddresses!

shortly:
Mac address filters are only useful to prevent users to connect to ur AP by mistake.

Greetz

T30 Wireless Encryption

T30 Wireless Encryption

40 Bits =64 bit WEP, 140 bits=128 bit WEP

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