Everyone has lots of internet connections around their house, and frequently these connections are wireless. Most of the time, it is possible simply to either have a laptop with WiFi or a PC with WiFi and connect to open networks with the Windows built-in WiFi client. Cheap, free, and easy wireless internet.

Sometimes people are smart and they like to secure their internet, and when this happens we have to use some toolz.

When people secure their internet using WEP (which stands for something long, it doesn't matter), they set a key with which all the people who want to connect need to input into their client software (which is most often Windows). If you have the key, you can connect, if not you cannot.

WEP is, however, very insecure. Using AirSnort anyone can obtain the WEP key of a network, and thus obtain access to it. Keep in mind you must have a supported card to do this, check the site for more information.

Of course, this is really mean to do to someone. This is probably most useful for people who have forgotten their WEP key, because it is not like the average joe computer user is going to know how to hack a WEP network.

But we do.

To start, you must have AirSnort installed correctly. Since it is a native Linux program, they developers never really targeted it towards newbies, so to install it you have to jump through some hoops. A really good guide on getting the program running in the first place is here: http://airsnort.shmoo.com/win_setup.html

After you have it all installed and running, simply leave it running in the background. It will capture and analyze network traffic, and eventually you will have a WEP key. If the particular network has lots of traffic, you will likely have a key in a short amount of time but if it is a light traffic network you will need to stimulate traffic or leave your computer on for a much longer amount of time.

Stimulating traffic is weird and probably not worth the time required to make it work. It is recomended to try another network if this does not work.

Hopefully you can get a connection, and eventually test out the potential of WiFi.

CREDIT:

• Authors of AirSnort, for making it possible to crack WEP keys using their network analyzation tool.