Which is better, WEP Open or WEP Shared?

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I'm setting up a basic wireless network just for home use and I'm planning on using just WEP as the security.

I would just like to know which is more secured between WEP's two options: WEP Shared or WEP Open?

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Best Answer by jonnydash
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Answered By 0 points N/A #95054

Which is better, WEP Open or WEP Shared?

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Good day,

WEP security is not of the safest to use, i would firstly recommend that you make of WPA just to be double sure that your WiFi network is safe and that your bandwidth is protected.

To answer your question, WEP – Open is the safer option to choose seeing as using the shared option allows for the router or access point to send the key in plain text to any device that is trying to associate with it. This in turn leaves room for the intruder to perform all kinds of text-based attacks to attempt to trap the password and gain access to your router which then allows them to make router-wide changes such as lock you out of your own router by changing the system password.

Another recommendation i can make is to set up a mac list in your router for allowed connections and then you would not need to worry about the security of the access point as it would only allow devices to connect to it if their mac addresses were listed as "allowed" in the router security config.

Hope this helps.

Answered By 590495 points N/A #95055

Which is better, WEP Open or WEP Shared?

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WEP Shared do set on plain-text Access Point. It Shared Key query to any network trying to connect to access point. This type of settings leave the Access Point open to a known-text and is vulnerable to attack from intruders and this makes WEP Share network not secure compare to WEP Open.

Log-in to Gui, 192.168.1.1
Type the log-in username and password (admin/password or admin/admin) depending on what brand your router is
Go to Wireless tab, click Wireless Security
Set the network to WEP or WEP
This should let you set your network into this settings
Set your own WEP into Key 1 field or into Passphrase
Click Apply button to save the changes

If you are decided to set WEP instead of WPA then I would advise to set it to WEP Open. This send hand-shake in reverse of WEP Shared since this offers no threat and real authentication but both authentication settings are weak compared to WPA.

If you are talking about security, why not use Mac Filtering. This allows computer connects to the network and get Internet access if the Mac Address of the computer is set and registered.

Answered By 75 points N/A #95057

Which is better, WEP Open or WEP Shared?

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Hi Rod,

I will suggest that you go for WEP open. WEP shared has some security challenges in that it allows connection for any device that attempts connect to the network hence it will be easy to break it. It also broadcasts information in form of plaintext which poses a big comprise to the security of information.

WEP open is more secure in that the information that is transferred in encrypted hence making harder for an intruder to break into the network. It does allow for snooping where by anyone without permission can gain access to the network. Instead it requires that anyone who joins the network be having some security credentials.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Lee Hung.

Answered By 0 points N/A #95059

Which is better, WEP Open or WEP Shared?

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Hi Rod,

I did a little research about your query. Here is what i found out.

The 802.11b standard supports two means of client authentication between the wireless NIC and the AP: open and shared key authentication.

Open key authentication involves supplying the correct SSID. With shared key authentication, the AP sends the client device a challenge text packet that the client must then encrypt with the correct WEP key and return to the AP. If the client has the wrong key or no key, authentication will fail and the client will not be allowed to associate with the AP.

Shared key authentication is not considered secure, because an intruder who detects both the clear-text challenge and the same challenge encrypted with a WEP key can decipher the WEP key. With open key authentication, even if a client can complete authentication and associate with an AP, the use of WEP prevents the client from sending data to and receiving data from the AP, unless the client has the correct WEP key.

This is too much blah to be honest, in short WEP open is more secured that WEP shared.

So if you are looking on getting your wireless secured, use WEP open, I just checked mine, viola! Its on WEP open.

I hope this helps,

Steve Rogers

 
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