Cisco AP and Symbol Wireless Card - WEP issue

[m-carey]

I have a SSID setup with a 128-bit WEP key with a Cisco 1200 AP and a Symbol LA-4123 802.11b card (don't ask why). When I remove the 128-bit WEP key, I can connect to the network, but when I apply the key, no connection.

With Symbol being such a big player in the barcode market, has anyone else experience inter-operability issues with Symbol and Cisco?

Also, I want to sniff the packets to see what is going on. I have ethereal on the machine, but it doesn't pick up any packets because it hasn't authenticate to the access point yet. I want to see what it is passing for the WEP authentication. How can I do this?

[scottmac]

First: Make sure the WEP key you're using is the same characters, in the same format: Some devices ask for the WEP key in HEX characters, some will automatically convert the ASCII text characters into HEX.

So, if you've added a key like:01 02 03 04 ....into the symbol (symbol thinks it's HEX and treats it as a number) and the same key into the Cisco (with the bullet checked as "ASCII") then the WEPs don't match because the "01" "02" "03" etc are being converted into the HEX equivelent of the ASCII representation.

Wireless analyzer software is your only option there. You can check out CommView (tamos.com) or AiroPeek (wildpackets.com), or AirMagnet (airmagent.com).

CommView and AiroPeek Laptop SE are pretty good deals (~hundreds of dollars versus Thousands of dollars).

All three have download demo software that will provide limited functionality and / or time-bombed.

Check 'em out and see which one fits your needs best.

Good Luck

Scott