WEP exporting

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nuke Pave
  • Start date Start date
N

Nuke Pave

Hi all, I am about to do a wipe and reprogram on my laptop and I don't want
to lose the WEP settings in my network stack. I am working on a winXP home
machine and the wifi adapter is a toshiba wireless lan mini pci card (built
in). I have many WEP keys stored and losing them would be traumatic, I
would really appreciate some help on this.
TIA
 
"Nuke Pave"
Hi all, I am about to do a wipe and reprogram on my laptop and I don't want
to lose the WEP settings in my network stack. I am working on a winXP home
machine and the wifi adapter is a toshiba wireless lan mini pci card (built
in). I have many WEP keys stored and losing them would be traumatic, I
would really appreciate some help on this.
TIA
Click to expand...

store it in a folder on a different computer
 
The WEP key is NOT a secret! (at least not to YOU). You needed to know the
WEP key to even have configured your wireless in the first place. The WEP
key is something YOU decide on for your unique environment (if it wasn't
unique, it wouldn't be a secret, right?, or of much use). Most clients will
only "store" (if that's the right term, it's only a parameter afterall in
the wireless setup, refer to your Network Connections Properties) a "single"
key. The router side often stores 3-4 values, put only ONE is active at any
given time. Anyway, I'm willing to bet that if you don't know your WEP key,
or its location, you're probably not even configured to use it. There's
just no way you could connect to a wireless peer also using the same WEP key
unless you knew it and could configure your client with the same key.

Jim
 
OK. Let me put this in plain english. I go to a clients home, I put thier
WEP key into my computer to access thier network, I dont write it down,
windows XP just saves all of the different WEP profiles in the network stack
associated with the various SSID's. Each time I return to said site, I do
not need to re-enter the WEP key since WINXP remembers the network and the
key. I want to back up those settings so the next time I return, after
reprogramming my machine, I do not need to re-enter the WEP key. Anyone?
 
Well, if this is possible at all, it seems to me it would be done the same
way ANY Windows information can be backed up and restored -- using the Files
and Settings Transfer Wizard:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/columns/crawford/november12.asp

Just guessing, but seems logical. This is the "official" MS supported means
to migrate from one OS to another OS (or even the same OS), and retain your
configuration settings. I see no reason this doesn't apply to your wireless
config. The only reason I hesitate is that being security information,
there *may* be a restriction on such exportation, for security reasons. If
you use the registry editor (regedt32.exe) and search for ssid (match word,
or else you'll pick up all the classid refs too), you'll note that the key
is encrypted! Now think about it, if the PC you own won't even disclose the
WEP key to YOU, seems there's a good chance it's not going to export it to a
file whether someone else is far more likely to obtain it. But heck, I
could be wrong, I frankly am only speculating.

Anyway, give it a try. Backup your existing partition before reinstalling
the OS, so at least you can get back to where you started should things NOT
work out as planned.

HTH

Jim
 
Nuke said:
OK. Let me put this in plain english. I go to a clients home, I put
thier WEP key into my computer to access thier network, I dont write
it down, windows XP just saves all of the different WEP profiles in
the network stack
associated with the various SSID's. Each time I return to said site,
I do not need to re-enter the WEP key since WINXP remembers the
network and the
key. I want to back up those settings so the next time I return,
after
reprogramming my machine, I do not need to re-enter the WEP key.
Anyone?
Click to expand...

Actually, I don't think the WEP key is in clear text anywhere in
Windows. The best practice is rather to write down the key using good
old fashioned pencil and paper - or type it out using Notepad for
future reference.

Malke
 
Back
Top