I answered a question recently from someone who was using WEP (the so-called “Wired Equivalent Privacy”) encryption on their wireless network. They were considering changing to WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). The real answer is that they need to change to the second generation of WPA — WPA2.

The biggest question in their mind was whether they’d have to change the wireless passphrases on all their computers (quick answer: yes).

Why change? WEP is old, way, way old in computer terms. When it was first released, it was effective.

But, by 2004, second-generation WEP-cracking tools were widely available. In an article, SmallNetBuilder reports on a 2005 demonstration by a team of FBI agents who were able to crack a 128 bit WEP key in about three minutes.

WPA replaced WEP as the choice for encryption. Then, it fell prey…

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