New Airport won't work with 40-bit WEP??

Bhatin · Bhatin #1 (**permalink**)

02-13-2011, 12:50 PM

I got a new MBA, and have had endless issues getting kicked off the internet, while all the other wireless devices in the house (including other Macs) stay connected. After about a month of calls and visits to Apple, a "wireless expert" on Apple phone support told me it was my router's encryption causing the problem - he said newer Macs are incompatible with 40-bit WEP and I have to switch to 128. I'm skeptical - anyone else hear of this? If so, any options to fake compatibility short of changing my encryption? While I can do that in my house, I travel a lot, and don't want to run into this issue in every hotel and office I run into. Any wisdom would be appreciated!

bobtomay · bobtomay #2 (**permalink**)

02-13-2011, 01:17 PM

We have seen repeated issues with WEP and Macs as long as I've been a member here.

Point of the matter, you may as well not be using any encryption as to use WEP. It is a dead encryption technology as it can be broken in under a minute by any of your neighborhood 12 year olds that chooses to do so.

You need to move to WPA/WPA2. There shouldn't be any businesses using WEP on their networks, at least not if they care about the security of the data on their network.

Most hotel wifi is unencrypted.

bobtomay #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Dec 22, 2006 Location: Texas, where else? Posts: 21,788 Mac Specs: 15" MBP 2.33 C2D 256 4GB, MBA 13" i7 1.8, MB 2.0 2GB, Nano 4th, 3GS, iPad 1	02-13-2011, 01:17 PM We have seen repeated issues with WEP and Macs as long as I've been a member here. Point of the matter, you may as well not be using any encryption as to use WEP. It is a dead encryption technology as it can be broken in under a minute by any of your neighborhood 12 year olds that chooses to do so. You need to move to WPA/WPA2. There shouldn't be any businesses using WEP on their networks, at least not if they care about the security of the data on their network. Most hotel wifi is unencrypted. I cannot be held responsible for the things that come out of my mouth. In the Windows world, most everything folks don't understand is called a virus. Place your vote for our Member of the Month
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New Airport won't work with 40-bit WEP??

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Bhatin #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Jan 29, 2011 Location: Detroit (The D) Posts: 3 Mac Specs: MBA 13: 2.13GHz; 4GM. iPad	02-13-2011, 12:50 PM I got a new MBA, and have had endless issues getting kicked off the internet, while all the other wireless devices in the house (including other Macs) stay connected. After about a month of calls and visits to Apple, a "wireless expert" on Apple phone support told me it was my router's encryption causing the problem - he said newer Macs are incompatible with 40-bit WEP and I have to switch to 128. I'm skeptical - anyone else hear of this? If so, any options to fake compatibility short of changing my encryption? While I can do that in my house, I travel a lot, and don't want to run into this issue in every hotel and office I run into. Any wisdom would be appreciated!
	QUOTE Thanks

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