wireless help with wep authentication

[Paul B. Mahol]

On 11/20/11, Rob Clark <rpclark at tds.net> wrote:
> Running fbsd 8.2R on a Dell C640 laptop.
> Using a pcmcia card with atheros.
>
> My 2wire wireless router comes setup default with
> wep open with wireless security enabled, i.e., needs
> the default passkey from the router.  I cannot get the
> ifconfig line correct so as to authenticate this way,
> and have tried many different strings of text here.
>
> However, following the handbook, I turned off "enable
> security" (on the 2wire router) to test things, hence,
> using wep (not as authmode shared or authmode open)
> and it works using the following in /etc/rc.conf:
>
> wlans_ath0="wlan0"
> ifconfig_wlan0="ssid Mynetname DHCP"
>
> Mynetname is different -- of course.
>
> I can browse the web and ping with 0% packet loss.
>
> I have not delved into using
> a /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf yet, I was
> hoping i could get it done in rc.conf with ifconfig.
>
> I have tried many many things, for days on end for
> authenticating with the passkey from the router.
> Any help appreciated, I can provide further info and
> things I've tried -- most things in the handbook
> wireless section, minus wpa_supplicant.conf.

Should adding "nwkey key" to ifconfig_wlan0 line above be enough?
Key may be in ascii or in hex (in which case it must start with 0x).

As you should probably already know wep provides 0% security so
having wep or open network gives you almost exactly same amount of security.