WEP Systems

The 3 main WEP systems

·         The 256- bit WEP key is generally the strongest and hardest to crack among the WEP system. 232 bits are used for typical security with the remaining 24 bits as the IV.The 232 bits a practically keyed as 58 hexadecimal characters[i.e. (58 * 4 bits =232 bits)+ 24 IV bits = 256-bit WEP key]

·         The 128-bit WEP system is normally entered as a string of 26 hexadecimal characters. (i.e. 26 * 4 bits=104 bits). Like the 256-bit WEP system, 24 bits are used for I.V's. In total we get a 128-bit WEP key.

·         The weakest amongst them, the 64-bit WEP key is also entered as a string of 10 hexadecimal base 16 characters(i.e. 0-9 and A-F). In total, we have (10 *4 bits =40 bits). In addition to the 24 bits used as IV's,  gives a full 64-bit WEP key.

Reference : Wikipedia