Vista Says WEP Key Is Wrong Length

[kwillcocks]

I have Vista on my laptop. I need to connect to a wireless network
which has WEP encryption with a 6 character pass phrase. Every time
I attempt to connect Vista tells me that the pass phrase must be 5 or
13 characters long. The other users all have XP machines and are
connected and working. There is no way to get the pass phrase
changed. How can I overcome this problem?

 

[Seth]

I have Vista on my laptop. I need to connect to a wireless network
which has WEP encryption with a 6 character pass phrase. Every time
I attempt to connect Vista tells me that the pass phrase must be 5 or
13 characters long. The other users all have XP machines and are
connected and working. There is no way to get the pass phrase
changed. How can I overcome this problem?

Your 6 character pass phrase is more likely actually a 6 character seed key
being used by some other software to generate a WEP key. Link Linksys
offers this utlity in their wireless managers. The actual WEP key is always
(I thought) 10 or 26 (for 64bit or 128bit respectively).

 

[PC Medic]

I have Vista on my laptop. I need to connect to a wireless network
which has WEP encryption with a 6 character pass phrase. Every time
I attempt to connect Vista tells me that the pass phrase must be 5 or
13 characters long. The other users all have XP machines and are
connected and working. There is no way to get the pass phrase
changed. How can I overcome this problem?

Look in your routers configuration screen.
On the screen that contains the security setting for WEP you should see the
'Pass Phrase (may appear only as ******)
Just below this you should see the actual Encryption Key. Try entering this
instead of the actual pass-phrase. May be case sensitive so type it exactly
as it appear there.

 

[Keith Willcocks]

Look in your routers configuration screen.
On the screen that contains the security setting for WEP you should see
the 'Pass Phrase (may appear only as ******)
Just below this you should see the actual Encryption Key. Try entering
this instead of the actual pass-phrase. May be case sensitive so type it
exactly as it appear there.

Regrettably the router is not accessible to me. It is a company one and
only the outsourced IT people can get in. They have given me the 6
character key which is, and I am happy to quote here because it is of no use
to anyone else, "l0gger" with one numeric character (the zero). As far as
they are concerned that is all I need but it seems that Vista, unlike XP,
won't play ball.

 

[Seth]

Regrettably the router is not accessible to me. It is a company one and
only the outsourced IT people can get in. They have given me the 6
character key which is, and I am happy to quote here because it is of no
use to anyone else, "l0gger" with one numeric character (the zero). As
far as they are concerned that is all I need but it seems that Vista,
unlike XP, won't play ball.

Yeah, that is definitely NOT a WEP key. That's a seed for a utility to
create a key from. A WEP key is a hex number (so none of the letter would
be higher than "f".

Heck, that can't even be used as a WPA key as those are minimum 8
characters.

 

[Mick Murphy]

I told you in "Installation and Setup" that you post crap.
Are you here to screw people's computer up?

Pass phrase is different to Security Keys.

Go away!

 

[PC Medic]

Regrettably the router is not accessible to me. It is a company one and
only the outsourced IT people can get in. They have given me the 6
character key which is, and I am happy to quote here because it is of no
use to anyone else, "l0gger" with one numeric character (the zero). As
far as they are concerned that is all I need but it seems that Vista,
unlike XP, won't play ball.

What they are giving you is the 'Pass Phrase and NOT the key.
Many times (especially with different branded NICs and Routers in a network)
entering the pass Phrase will not work and you must instead enter the actual
Key. Ask them for the Key. If they were willing to give you the Pass Phrase
then there is no reason they should not be willing to provide you the actual
hex key.

 

[Keith Willcocks]

What they are giving you is the 'Pass Phrase and NOT the key.
Many times (especially with different branded NICs and Routers in a
network) entering the pass Phrase will not work and you must instead enter
the actual Key. Ask them for the Key. If they were willing to give you the
Pass Phrase then there is no reason they should not be willing to provide
you the actual hex key.

I work there every Wednesday so I will pose that question next week. Thanks
for the advice.