Re: Can't specify key index for WEP

[Dan Williams <dcbw redhat com>]

On Mon, 2006-05-29 at 15:52 +0200, Bjorn Knutsson wrote:
> On 29 May 2006 09:00, Dan Williams wrote:
> > I guess I need to re-read the 802.11 spec to find out exactly how the
> > indexes are supposed to be used.  But I'm curious if we can get around
> > key indexes by just stuffing the right key into the card's "temp key"
> > location.  All 802.11 cards are supposed to have indexes 1 - 4, where 0
> > is the temporary transmit key that's user-set.
> 
> I'll admit to not doing my homework on 802.11 specs here, but based on
> experimentation with this particular environment, the key index on the
> access port and client machine needs to match. I.e., if the base
> station specifies the 'feeddeadbeefdefacedbedface' as key #4, I can
> only connect to this network if I set my machine up to use key #4 set
> to the correct key value. If I don't specify the key index, or if I
> set it up with the correct key on the wrong index, I could not get it
> to work.

You're right; I reread some bits of the spec and the key index may at
times be passed in the WEP-specific bits of the frame.  There's further
complications too, so we'll need to think about how we present the UI
for it.  Plus that's one more stupid thing about WEP that's not
autodetectable.

Dan