iPhone 1.0.1 Wi-Fi Problem Explained

after reporting on the iPhone 1.0.1 Wi-Fi Problem (where, after the 1.0.1 software update, the iphone would no longer be able to join Wi-Fi networks using a hex WEP key), i was surprised by the small number of people experiencing the same problem. thanks to doug, there now is a workaround for the problem. and now it is also clear why there were only relatively few people affected by this problem, it seems to be caused by some decidedly semi-smart improvement of the iphone's Wi-Fi configuration in the 1.0.1 software update.

apple decided to remove the password/hex checkbox in its never ending quest to remove user options. unfortunately, it is impossible to look at a string that is a legal hex number and say whether this indeed is a hex number, or a password that just happens to look like a hex number. so if you remove the user option to select what it really is that the user meant, you have to choose one alternative, and at the same time disable Wi-Fi access for all users who were actually using the other alternative. because apple was the one coming up with the idea of WEP passwords (technically, there is no such thing) in the first place, they decided to support this concept, deciding that WEP users with a hex key cannot use Wi-Fi anymore.

it is hard to believe that apple really is so utterly clueless that this kind of thing happens by accident. but it is also hard to imagine that the Wi-Fi team has a group meeting and at the end decides that yes, we know this will disable Wi-Fi access for all hex WEP key users, but so what? anyway, at least apple seems to have realized there is a problem, and hopefully they will simply rollback this part of the code to the 1.0.0 version, which worked just fine. no good news so far, though, 1.0.2 is as broken as 1.0.1, but maybe 1.0.3 will make things work again...

doug reported that apple added some (undocumented) hack, so that as a hex WEP key user, you can enter $4242424242 for your hex key 4242424242, and because of the leading dollar sign, the iphone should then recognize this as a hex key. while this seems to have worked for him, it did not do the trick for me (i have a hex key which uses only digits).

so any reports about success or failure when using the $ hack would be very welcome, i am really wondering why it worked for some networks, but not for mine. please specify whether your hex key contained letter or was digits only. thanks!

Comments

[New iPhone Owner]

This worked for me. I've got a WEP and MAC Address secured network. The $ worked, however, I don't know if it is going to remember the hex code, which is long.

This worked the first time for me as well. I have letter/number hex key

[John Dude]

It did also work for me!! :) Hex key contained both digits and numbers. I just needed to add a "$" at the beginnig

[Devek]

This article is the first thing that shows up when you search on google for iphone hex wep key.

The $ doesn't work for me. I was able to get my hex key in by entering 0xb72d110b5e2c3c0e1a7e36e23b in the password field.

[Frank Bonono]

The $ worked for me!!! Thanks!!!

[Hansha]

I just wanted to say thanks for this article. My iphone has been outright restarting itself over and over again whenever it connected to the home wireless network since I got it. I used the dollar sign and it's all fixed and working now.

Thanks for the help!

[Darryl]

Worked for me, with a key containing digits and letters. Thank you!

[J]

I got mine working by making the letters lower case, weird as the phone always displays upper, so needed to press the little up arrow before each alpha charactor. Didn't need the $

[dret]

thanks, J, for your comment. but the thing that really seems to confuse the iPhone are hex passwords consisting of numbers only, in which case lower- or uppercase does not apply. my Wi-Fi still does not work, and i don't think that Apple will ever bother to fix that problem. but having a number-only hex key places you in a very small group, so it's probably just not worth for Apple to clean up the problem they created in 1.0.1.

[James]

For those who couldn't get it to work.... just use a WPA password and make it strong. WEP is not needed for a lousy home network. if your WPA has upper/lowercase and alpha/digits. it won't be cracked unless you are uber-hacker of the planet. Wake up people!

[Donal]

I tried with the dollar sign and no good. So I thought what if try the Euro sign?Now tells me it is connected but it isn't. I can't use the Truphone internet phone application and it automatically gors on to the phone company's data server.