Living in Maine, my daughter is a student that has been provided with a State issued MLTI Apple laptop. While at the parent orientation last fall, I listened as the Technology Coordinator for our school district told us that these laptops were not compatible with “PC Airports”, so they would only work if there was no “passkey” protection. She proceeded with “this kind of security is not really needed in rural areas”. As I gazed off into the mass of people, I thought to myself “what a bad piece of information being delivered from this highly educated professional.” I also knew that the Apple laptops would work with “PC Airports” (Linksys, Belkin, D-Link and more).

About a month later, while driving home, I asked my daughter to fire up her Apple G4 iBook. We started in a town that was about 40 miles away and headed home staying in populated areas and driving slow. We were amazed at how many wide open wireless internet connections we were able to use. I even pulled over a couple of times so she could check her email and browse a forum. For a person who might be up to no good (hacking, pornography, identity theft, etc.), there would have been ample opportunity to access the Internet and home networks. By the way, as Letterman would say, the kids call this wardriving.

To be clear, wireless networks are not very secure when using WEP protection as described in these instructions. WPA should be used, but is not compatible with all systems. The idea is to at least create an obstacle so the would-be leach/hacker might move on to your neighbor’s unprotected connection. These instructions assume you have the basic concept of networking and are based on a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point.


Most wireless access points are managed using a web browser interface, which is accessed by entering the WAP IP address into the URL field of your favorite browser. If you don’t know this IP address, it can be the gateway IP in your computer network interface connection details (not on the WAP54G however). You can also take a guess using 192.168.1.1. and 10.0.0.1. If you come to a login prompt, you may have found it.

Next you need to logon using a username and/or password. Many of the Linksys WAPs have a default password of admin and no user name. This should be changed once logged in.

On a Linksys (WAP54G and others) you should click the “Wireless” menu item, and then the “Wireless Security” sub-item.

Ok, since we are going for compatibility here, we will use 64 bit WEP. This is the least secure option, but probably most compatible. You should use the most secure option your systems will support.

Enter a passphrase into the passphrase field and click the generate button. Again for compatibility purposes, write down both the passphrase and the hexadecimal key shown in the image below. This example will have you use the 10 character hexadecimal code.

Click the “Save Settings” button towards the bottom of the page.

On your computer, you will need to disconnect and rejoin your wireless network or join the new network if you changed the name while in there. Enter the hexadecimal code when prompted by your operating system or wireless device interface. Some systems, such as Mac OS X, require you to tell it that you are entering the hex code instead of the passphrase. This is usually done when you are entering the WEP code using the a down menu or check box.

64 bit WEP protection is only a hurdle to those who might be looking for a free internet connection. This can be cracked quite easily by a person with the right know how, tools, and desire to access your network. Again, I would recommend you experiment with WPA security and get this going if you can. Other things you can do include, changing your network name and disabling your SSID broadcast option. Enabling MAC address filtering is another measure of security you can use to ensure only your specified computers have access.


Get that wireless protected because you really don’t know who is using your connection and what they might be doing. Keep in mind that their activities track back to the IP address issued to your internet account, even if it is just a seventh grader chacking her mail.