I tried to connect to the encrypted wireless under command line. What I did is:

# ifconfig wlan0 up
# iwlist wlan0 scan ( and I see my target wireless network is there)
# iwconfig wlan0 essid "My_Network" key 0123456789
# dhclient wlan0

But it did not work. What I was sure was I managed to connect to this network with this key in Ubuntu Network Manager, if using GUI. I later searched for this problem and it seemed that iwconfig recognized the key as hex by default. If using ascii, it should be:

# iwconfig wlan0 essid "My_Network" key s:0123456789

which used an ascii key. But even that I failed too. So I am just wondering how to get a hex key out of it? Is there any algorithm for this...?

Thank you very much.

You say "it didn't work", but you don't say exactly what happened. For example, with my router, it is sometimes necesary to re-boot the router to get the wireless to work. iwconfig does not give any useful feedback in certain situations.

If the ascii key is "fred", then the hex is simply the codes for each letter--66 72 65 64. I don't remember if they are separated by ":" or something else.

when I type:

# iwconfig wlan0 essid "My_Network" key s:0123456789

I get Error for wireless request "Set Encode" (8B2A)

I don't know what it means

Hmmm

On my router, there are 3 choices for WEP key:

64-bit: 5 characters
128-bit: 13 characters
256-bit: 29 characters

In each mode, I have to use exactly the stated # of characters. Thus, there is no mode that would allow me to have a wep key with 10 characters.

Check your router settings to see what the options are, and post the settings of the router.

But this is the key I use to connect to the wireless successfully with Ubuntu Network Manager and wicd... This is the info from iwlist wlan0 scan:

Cell 08 - Address: 00:1E:58:37:83:A9
ESSID:"My_Network"
Mode:Master
Channel:6
Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
Quality=58/100 Signal level:-73 dBm Noise level=-76 dBm
Encryption key: on
Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
Extra:tsf=00000157d60d6748
Extra: Last beacon: 24ms ago

What kind of router do you have?
Some routers have the ability to enter the wep key in hex or ascii.
ASCII 5 character key is 10 hex characters
ASCII 13 character key is 26 hex characters
etc

Rich

I use D-link.

Please humor me and look at the router settings----and maybe try the key lengths that I mentioned. It is possible that the Ubuntu wireless manage does something like truncate a code that is too long.