WEP Encryption

    By- Asmita Mohapatra

What do we mean by WEP ENCRYPTION?

‘Encryption’ is derived from word Encrypt. Which means to hide or to secure data or to restrict the audience whom you want to address the information.

'WEP' stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. WEP is a wireless security standard to protect networks from foreign intrusion.

WEP has three settings:Off(no security),64 bit(weak security),128(better security),where 64 bit and 128 bit means that the size of the key must be of the length of 64 bit and 128 bit respectively as a password.The longer is the WEP key size,the more difficult it is to crack.If the WEP settings is default(Off),any of your neighbours can log on to your network and accesss your internet connection.

The WEP key is chosen by the network administartors to use on their networks.This key must be set on all the concerned routers as well as client devices so that they can conveniently communicate witheach other through the wifi network.

So,coming back to the question asked- WEP ENCRYPTION means hiding of network using WEP keys.

WEP keys are a series of hexadecimal values (values taken from 0 to 9 and from A to  F),for example-
• 1A648C9FE2
• 99D 678BACEA430C0176D151(size of key depends upon the WEP settings)

But the major disadvantage is that with just a little bit of technical knowledge,one could sniff into the alien network.Newer and more advanced systems including WPA and WPA2 are added to wifi routers,thus replacing the WEP.