Getting to know the Aircrack Suite

Let's get down to business.

Backtrack comes with the aircrack suite preinstalled. Aircrack is a suite of programs that will let us hack into a wireless network by getting the WEP key. The WEP key is just a fancy name for the password. Not really, but really.

The programs we'll focus on is:

ifconfig - we may need it to configure our network card
iwconfig - to configure our wireless network card
Airodump - to collect the wireless data floating around us
Aireplay - to create some wireless data to float around us
Aircrack - to use the collected data to obtain the password

There is also a program called kismet that does basically the same thing as airodump, but I find airodump much simpler to use

Before we begin, as is my style, let's get the software updated.

We'll use a program called FastTrack to update aircrack

Click the "Start" button, scroll to Backtrack-->Penetration-->FastTrack, click on it

Type : 1 - open update menu, then
Type : 2 - to update the aircrack suite

OOPS!!!! I forgot, we didn't connect to the internet yet. Well if you have cable wired in, then maybe you are. I have a wireless connection. Let's connect.

Start-->Internet-->Wireless Assistant

Click on the connection you would like to use, and click connect. If this is the first time you're using the connection, a window will pop up. Press Next twice, then fill in the WEP key for the connection. If it's not a 10 digit key using 0-9 and a-f, then it's probably an ASCII key, so check the ASCII box. You may have to try both ways if you're not sure. Click Next, then Finish. Wait for it to connect. I've found that I sometimes have to try more then once before it connects. Anyway, once it connects, follow the steps above to update the Aircrack Suite.

To be continued.....