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Cisco 350 ACU - 128-bit WEP & SSID broadcast disabled at the AP

Can anyone confirm this?

I have several laptops using the Cisco 350 PCMCIA or mini-PCI adapter.

The ACU is the latest version 6.4 from the Cisco website.

I have profiles pre-configured, with the SSID, the encryption key, etc. So if the AP is available, the ACU supplicant should just find it.

With "64-bit" WEP, the ACU finds the access point even if its SSID is disabled.

With "128-bit" WEP, it doesn't find it.

If I use the Windows XP (SP2) supplicant instead of the Cisco ACU, that finds the AP OK but it doesn't appear to support the 128-bit mode; I cannot find the config for the key length anywhere.

I know that 128-bit WEP is barely more secure than 64-bit WEP but it's an interesting problem.

This is the same setup on which I never got WPA/PSK working, with XP or even with the Funk Odyssey client.

The AP is a Draytek 2900.

Peter.

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Reply to
Peter
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Are you absolutely sure, both sides support WEP 104? AFAIR Cisco sold even the early 350 cards (without encryption "350" and with 40bit only as "351"). Only the 352 cards do 104 bit WEP.

If you setup a 104bit key on a 40bit only card usually the entered key is simply truncated. With the result, the it doesn't match.

How dow you enter the WEP Keys? The only reliable way is entering the WEP key in hex digits. Some http interfaces interpret some characters like "?" or "!" or ":" so the used key is different from what you think you have entered.

Reply to
Uli Link

Yes, the PCMCIA card is an AIR-LMC352. The mini-PCI version looks like an AIR-MPI-350-U58H004.

Presumably, if the adapter didn't support the longer WEP mode, the ACU would not offer it?

When the ACU is set to 128-bit WEP (104 if you like :)) the wifi connection is picked up the moment I enable SSID broadcast on the Draytek router.

Afterwards, it continues to work fine. But if the client is powered down/up it won't reconnect unless the AP is visible.

The router does however have explicit support for 64 or 128 bits, so if I set the router to 128 bit WEP it shouldn't work with a 64/WEP card, and it reliably doesn't.

For testing, I am using short alpha words.

Peter.

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Reply to
Peter

The Aironet cards work reliable with *disabled SSID broadcast* against Intermec 2101, Avaya AP-3,4,5,6, ORiNOCO AP-500,AP-1000, AP-2000, Proxim AP-3 through 8 and even Symbol 4131, and all Aironet APs back 'till 1998. There is no single installation I had man hands on, that's broadcasting the SSID.

What's the authentication mode with WEP? Choose "open". The often recommended "shared key" compromises the WEP key and is therefore more insecure. The WiFi compatible mode is "open".

An AP that doesn't work with a Aironet 350 card isn't WIFI compatible. It is one of the reference cards. Period.

Stop wasting more time and simply buy working APs.

Reply to
Uli Link

It's Open.

Very true - the Cisco APs that regularly appear on Ebay do fetch good prices :)

Peter.

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Reply to
Peter

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