How to use a hex key/password on AirPort

Sep 04, '03 08:44:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

The short version: If you are given a hex key (password) for accessing a WiFi network (generally a long string of numbers and letters), just add 0x (zero x) in front of the hex key and insert it into the 'password' field. The longer version: I spent most of the day yesterday trying to get my iBook on our company WiFi. When I was asked for the password by the Airport Setup Wizard (or Internet Connect) to access the network (that was found right away), my engineers gave me a long string of numbers and letters (hex key). This is how it apeared in the Windows setup.

Now, usually you can convert hex to ASCII text (with an app like MacASCII Display X) and get the password in plain text. But knowing that AirPort will convert ASCII passwords to hex automatically, if you give it hex from the start, it won't work.

Anyway, seeing that the hex key that was given to me was equivalent to obscure text characters, I was told that if you add a 0x (zero x) in front of the hex string, it should work ... and it did indeed. In the AirPort password field, I simply added 0x in front of the hex string key, and it worked perfectly.

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