About WEP

WEP stands for “Wired Equivalent Privacy” and is a security protocol for wireless local area networks defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance. WEP is designed to provide security by scrambling data traveling over the wireless radio waves from one endpoint to another. WEP is usually set up as a password known as a “WEP key”. This means in order for you to wirelessly connect to a router or an access point, you and everyone on your network would need to know the password.

There are three levels of WEP security, 62-bit, 128-bit, and 152-bit. The higher the number of bits, the longer the WEP key, or “password” can be.

However, WEP is considered easily cracked by hackers and is not as secure as people thought. In order to offer stronger wireless protection, the Wi-Fi Alliance came up with a new security protocol: WPA.

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