WEP and WPA Personal and AirPort 5th gen

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Level 6

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WEP and WPA Personal and AirPort 5th gen

Hi,

I just got a new AirPort extreme 5th gen to replace my old AirPort extreme from 2004 (I suspect the old AirPort couldn't reliably handle the many new wifi gear we now have so I got an upgrade. I also have an old DSL modem that could also be a bottleneck, too).

Question: does the new AirPort Extreme support WEP at all?

Yes, I know WEP is not secure. But our Nintendo DS can connect only via WEP.

If the new AirPort does not support WEP, can I extend its network via the old AirPort's WEP so the Nintendo DS can access the net?

A related note: the 5th gen AirPort defaults to WPA2 Personal. But my Canon iP 4000R printer supports only WPA Personal, so I had to enable that in order to print wirelessly.

thanks,

Posted on Aug 27, 2011 2:05 PM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

Level 10

148,321 points

Aug 27, 2011 4:31 PM in response to Matti Haveri

Question: does the new AirPort Extreme support WEP at all?

It does, but only if you change to a Radio Mode that is not one of the "n" options. That is, you would need to set the either the 2.4 GHz radio to "802.11g only" or the 5 GHz radio to "802.11a only" to get the "pure" WEP choices. When using any of the "n" modes, you will only get the "WEP (Transitional Security Network)" choice. Note: You will have to hold down the Option key before making the selection for this option to appear.

A related note: the 5th gen AirPort defaults to WPA2 Personal. But my Canon iP 4000R printer supports only WPA Personal, so I had to enable that in order to print wirelessly.

The 5th generation Extreme & 4th generation Time Capsule, running firmware 7.5.2+ implemented the full 802.11n standard. This standard does NOT allow the use of the TKIP encryption protocol. This protocol is used for both WEP and WPA. WPA2 introduced a much more secure protocol: AES/CCMP.

However, I don't believe Apple (or other vendors) have completely eliminated TKIP so the WEP & WPA options are still there.

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Answer 2

Matti Haveri Author

Level 6

14,454 points

Aug 28, 2011 1:23 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for the detailed answer!

I guess I must start phasing out the Nintendo DS's online games. But it is nice to know the option to use it via the new AirPort still exists!

I guess I could use the Canon iP 4000R printer via its wired Ethernet interface so I can keep using WPA2 (printing via wifi occasionally didn't work until I rebooted the old AirPort).

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