Cracking WEP

I think wireless networks are the future, although there is many security issues to be concerned.
IEEE released in 1999 Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) as part of their 802.11 standard.

I knew that WEP is 'crackable' but i never tried to crack it, until now :)
I am amazed with the ease that WEP can be cracked! I never thought it would be so easy.

the crack

First of all, you need these checklist:

• Remote Access Point (to be cracked)
• Remote AP user
• Wireless Network Card, many of them are not compatible
  
• Software AIRcrack-NG (you'll find the link at the bottom)

1# Start sniffing a specific wireless channel.
2# You'll analyze the wireless data packets transmitted from the AP user to Remote AP and save to a file (these process can be time consuming). WEP 64-bits key require an average of 300,000 packets, 128-bits key requires 1,000,000 packets. Note: These are average values.
3# Now we crack the key, use AIRcrack to crack the analyzed packets from file, this can take average of... 10 seconds !!!

Now you have the AP key.

How do i secure my network without WEP ?

Instead of WEP, use WPA (also crackable but much more difficult). If your network supports WPA2 you can also try this authentication method. Never use dictionary based words for passwords and it is a good policy to combine chars and digits as well.

NOTE: WEP cracking according to your country laws can be illegal. I tried to crack my home network. You can also try with yours or with AP owner permission.

I found these fine guide about cracking wep here, you can also download AIRcrack-ng.