Router was set to WEP? Figured out why my wifi speeds sucked....

[Converge]

So just randomly doing some checking of the settings on my router and I saw that my encryption was set to WEP. Why this was I have no idea as the router supports WPA2. I'm not a big network guy but after seeing all the other wifi's my PC sees were secured with WPA2 I did some reading and realized WPA2 is far superior. I only switched it because of the security benefit of WPA2. I had no idea it would benefit my speed too. Awesome!

Saw at least a 1mb/s speed boost for downloads. I wonder why the router came configured for WEP? It was set up 4 or so years ago... maybe that's why.

In any case..... awesome!!!! Just felt like saying something.

 

[Quix]

It shouldn't affect your speeds, but WEP is basically like having no password. There is a flaw in the algorithm that allows pretty much anyone to hack your password in a few minutes with only the power of a cell phone.

Why would it come configured to WEP? Same reason a lot of them come pre-configured to no security, to limit the number of support calls from users who can't connect to their new router. Companies do this all the time, it's not a good solution but it saves them money so they'll keep doing it.

 

[evilsofa]

The router probably got reset to default settings at some point, and the default setting is likely to be WEP.

According to this video, WPA2 is faster than WEP or WPA on a 802.11n router because the 802.11n standard specifies that you only get the higher speeds when using WPA2 and AES; otherwise, all devices are throttled back to 802.11g speeds of 54 Mbps.

 

[yehness]

The router probably got reset to default settings at some point, and the default setting is likely to be WEP.

According to this video, WPA2 is faster than WEP or WPA on a 802.11n router because the 802.11n standard specifies that you only get the higher speeds when using WPA2 and AES; otherwise, all devices are throttled back to 802.11g speeds of 54 Mbps.

Agreed.

 

[Mackintire]

Video is incorrect.

WPA2 is much more complex and difficult to calculate, so much so that manufacturers enabled/designed a hardware acceleration engine into the AP/router's CPU to accelerate WPA2 type encryption. WEP encryption is still calculated in software. So yes WEP runs slower on modern WiFi APs.

The video IS a little misleading when they state: " WPA2 is faster than WEP or WPA on a 802.11n router because the 802.11n standard specifies that you only get the higher speeds when using WPA2 and AES"

In reality the 802.11n specification states that you must use WPA2 and AES to adhere to the 802.11n spec. But most consumer product vender's don't enforce the 802.11n spec in a ridged fashion. So we see compatibility/performance and all sorts of seemingly strange issues reported by users.