Re: Clarification of key terminaology.

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Tue, 22 Jan 2008, Aaron Konstam wrote:

> 
> I am still unclear as to what is the difference between ASCII key and a
> passphrase? Can the latter have blanks in it or what?

Both can.  ASCII keys/passwords must be either 5 or 13 characters in length 
(depending on whether you're using 40/64 bit WEP or 104/128 bit WEP). WEP 
Passphrases can be any length up to 64 characters I believe.

The difference is in how the input (either ASCII key or WEP passphrase) gets 
turned into the actual key that is delivered to the driver.  For the ASCII key, 
the raw ASCII values of what you type directly compose the key values.  For 
WEP passphrases, what you type is repeated over and over until 64 bytes have 
been filled, then it is hashed with MD5, and the resulting hash is the WEP key.

I can try to find some stuff online about the actual key hashing process if you 
like.

Cheers,
Dan

> --
> 
> --
> =======================================================================
> Depart in pieces, i.e., split.
> =======================================================================
> Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam sbcglobal net
> 
> _______________________________________________
> NetworkManager-list mailing list
> NetworkManager-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/networkmanager-list
>