Using AX with Linsys router and WEP security

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron 700m running XP. I use a Linksys wireless router for internet access. I have configured my AX to connect to the router and, with the WEP security turned off, it worked fine. However, when I turned WEP back on, reset the AX, and tried to configure it as a client to my wireless network, it didn't work. Rather, I could not connect to my wireless network, and can only connect directly to the AX network. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tom
Dell Inspiron 700m   Windows XP  

Answer 1

One of the problems with WEP is that the actual standard relies on a 10 character HEX key for 40bit WEP and a 26 character HEX key for 128bit WEP.
In order to make things easier for people, vendors use certain algorithms to convert simple alphanumeric passwords (or passphrases) into HEX keys, thus enabling people to use simple memorable WEP password rather than lengthy HEX keys.
The problem is that different vendors use different algorithms to generate the HEX key and therefore a ASCII password on an AEBS will be hashed differently on a Netgear client and vice versa.
One thing is a 13 character 128 bit WEP password will be hashed by all vendors in the same way (if you use 40bit WEP then a 5 character password is required).
Having said that, this will only work if they use an algorithm, some don't and in these cases you must use the HEX key regardless of the length of the plain text password.
AirPort: Joining an encrypted wireless network
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106424
Choosing a password for networks that use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108058
iFelix