Question: How do I generate the encryption key for my D-Link wireless device?

Answer: 

You make up the key yourself. As a rule of thumb, always use Hex as your key type, especially if you are using a mixed environment with other manufacturer?s products.

To make a Hex key, simply use numbers between 0 and 9, and letters between A-F.

For example, for a 64-bit encryption key, you will enter 10 characters for your key. (i.e. A137F8AD89). It is recommended not to use a repeated character such as 2222222222.

Make sure you use the same exact key on all your wireless devices.

Please note that some manufacturers count the key length without the 24 bit Initialization Vector. This means that they would refer to a 40-bit key instead of a 64-bit key, these mean exactly the same thing however.

Below is a table for your reference.

Key Length Including Initialization Vector Key Length not Including Initialization Vector Number of Hexadecimal Characters Number of ASCII Characters
64-bit 40-bit 10 5
128-bit 104-bit 26 13
152-bit 128-bit 32 16
256-bit 232-bit 58 29