WEP hangs on

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I had to update the wireless management program on one of our laptops. Out of curiosity, I ran a network survey to see what was around. Good grief, the rest of the neighborhood is still living in the '90s, running WEP . . . or wide-open unencrypted.

Not that there is a high risk of someone cracking WEP around here. But AES is now easy enough to run and reduces overhead.

As to the unencrypted networks, I didn't bother going in. These are probably the same homes with eleven deadbolts and SOTA alarms.
 
Someone with Aircrack-ng and about ten minutes is all it normally takes.
 
The local telco still, by default, installs DSL boxes, with built-in, and enabled WEP-based wireless.

WPA2 is available, but you have to go into the web-based management tool inside the router and actually enable it. Which evidentally isn't done for a good 80% of users (who often aren't even told that there's wireless built into their DSL modem).
 
I have WEP, but I live out in the country where my neighbors can't pickup my signal so I'm pretty safe, and even if they did I trust them all like family anyways. My file sharing is all locked down with passwords etc. and my neighbors aren't exactly computer literate.

I can't be bothered to change it as we have too many laptops that have the key, and my brother/sister when they are home would have to change as well.

But yeah I could see others in more urban areas needing WPA2.
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I can understand why so many people are still using WEP, or even open connection.

Most of the WEP routers are 2wire, the free wireless equipment given by AT&T and some other phone companies. What seems to be the case is the DSL providers don't want to alienate residents with old equipments that doesn't work reliably with WPA or even support it.

Not everyone upgrade their routers, network card, or laptop every 3-4 years, and not all wireless equipment works with WPA reliably. Some of the earlier junks crash or slow to a snail when using WPA or WEP.
 
Many older wifi cards (the PCMCIA ones for instance), do not support wpa or wpa2.

Many of these are from windows xp vintage machines.

We just got rid of our last old laptop, and could upgrade to WPA, but the average joe is never going to know anything about encryption algorithms.

They just go by what the provider setup in home.
 
Our laptops are not exactly new. The oldest is a 1998 vintage Compaq running Win2k with wireless card. But they can all handle WPA w/AES.

You have to have very, very old hardware or just be unaware to still be running WEP. The novice teenage hacker can now break through WEP. Even TKIP is an improvement.

But the other posters are correct; most home computer users are security/encryption illiterate and never bother to check.
 
My old USB wireless dongle from when 802.11g came to the market could only handle WEP. But now all our devices, including the Wii, can work with WPA.
 
Originally Posted By: Volvohead
Our laptops are not exactly new. The oldest is a 1998 vintage Compaq running Win2k with wireless card. But they can all handle WPA w/AES.


You have good quality components, but many of the junk from Taiwan don't support their older products in WPA, or they get so unreliable that people never bother using it.

Also back in the days everyone is a 802.11b/g chip manufacture, but now there are only a handful (Intel, Broadcom, Atheros, Marell, Ralink, etc), so compatibility is better now and they all have much better driver and firmware quality.
 
Yeah, the coffee shops where I frequent run WEP most likely for compatibility reasons since they must do what they can to "one size fits all". But I run WPA at home with about a 59-character password so I'm probably safe for another hour or two.

And I STILL come across a few unencrypted networks! Can someone say "Not the brightest bulbs in the box"?
 
Originally Posted By: Crashbox
... I run WPA at home with about a 59-character password so I'm probably safe for another hour or two.


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When I'm out of town visiting family, I thrive on the open wifi networks and WEP encrypted ones. WPA is hackable too, but they have to be using their wifi so you can kick them off to get the WPA handshake. There are tutorials on youtube.
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Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
When I'm out of town visiting family, I thrive on the open wifi networks and WEP encrypted ones. WPA is hackable too, but they have to be using their wifi so you can kick them off to get the WPA handshake. There are tutorials on youtube.
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Some people just want wireless to work with their internet. They don't care about open networks or WEP security. They just want internet. Get it?

Older wireless cards that have compatibility issues so they have to use WEP. WEP is also the "recommended" encryption on most APs. So why not following manufacture's recommendation? Something that is so often preached here.
 
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Originally Posted By: sunfire


Some people just want wireless to work with their internet. They don't care about open networks or WEP security. They just want internet. Get it?

Older wireless cards that have compatibility issues so they have to use WEP. WEP is also the "recommended" encryption on most APs. So why not following manufacture's recommendation? Something that is so often preached here.


I get it. Must be the same people who are subject to credit card identity theft. Ignorance is bliss
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I'm guilty of still running WEP until recently. I had some device that was not compatible, but I don't remember what. I upgrade to wireless G, and WPA2 and it's working fine. WEP may not be the best, but at least most people now have something. You used to be able to drive around and find dozens of unsecured networks.
 
Sadly, there is no WPA stack for Solaris, so when I connect my Solaris based laptop, I have to use WPA.

I just get on the VPN right away, so it's not a big issue. That's pretty secure, so I don't worry too much.

I'm thankful for unsecured access points in the world. oilBabe and I just went to Hot Springs and while we couldn't get the wi-fi for our timeshare condo (too far from the office) we could pick up someone's wi-fi in the neighboring condo complex.

So we were able to look at pics of the kids at camp while on the road, send them messages, etc.
 
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