[CentOS] WEP and CentOS 4

Tue Jun 7 22:30:29 UTC 2005
Lamar Owen <lowen at pari.edu>

On Tuesday 07 June 2005 17:03, Hugh Tollan wrote:
> Any advice about configuring CentOS 4 and wep?

Now that several people have expended too much effort denouncing and defending 
WEP, let's see if we can't actually answer your question.

I have a Dell Inspiron 600m with a ipw2100, close kin to the 2200 you have.  
It Just Works.  I think I had to specifically tell system-config-network 
about it and that it was a wireless device, not an ethernet, but at that 
point I created a connection with it, gave it the WEP key in hex (of the 
right length), the SSID (which is case-sensitive, I might mention), and told 
it to use Managed Mode.  I think in order to properly recognize the adapter I 
had to load firmware manually once, then the wireless settings Just Worked.

Ask the IPW220 list for more detailed information; oddly, try 
ipw2100.sourceforge.net and subscribe to the list.

I don't consider 'don't use WEP' to be advice about configuring WEP, 
personally.  Layered security, folks; while WEP may be close to useless on 
its own, it can serve its use in that you have to use the specific tools to 
crack it; it's not wide open like a non-WEP link would be; at least then you 
can say you made an effort to secure your AP if someone uses your AP and 
internet to crack a bank's servers; someone with a wide-open AP might be 
liable in that case.
-- 
Lamar Owen
Director of Information Technology
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu