On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 16:36:22 -0500
"Loren H. Burlingame" <loren at lorenburlingame.com> wrote:
>I am going crazy here trying to get a wep key that was installed on my 
>laptop by my school for use with windows xp pro.


Are you sure its just standard wep? Many schools (SCSU, I know) uses cisco's
VPN client on top of the wireless network, and has used 802.1x authentication
previously. If its a wep key, the properties box should have the ********
line where the key is, right? (I dont know this for sure)  If it does, there
are tools available to retrieve passwords stored like that.

>I have installed a linux partition and would like to use my school's 
>wireless network but they "only support windows xp pro" and will not 
>give me the key for use with linux (or any other OS).

Have you tried telling them you are installing for windows xp pro? 


>I have tried using Airsnort with no luck (I captured millions of packets 
>with not one interesting packet) and have scoured the windows registry 
>looking for a key, also with no luck.

If its not just wep, this method will fail.  Even if it is just wep, it will
likely fail anyway. Yes, the algorithm is not strong, but that does not mean
its weak. (Most home users will never generate enough packets to really worry
about it)

>I am assuming that the key is either stored in a file somewhere on the 
>hdd or within the card itself.

The key does get stored into the card at some point, but it must first be
stored on the filesystem somewhere to load onto the card (the card will not
maintain state after powerloss)


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