Cussedness

Windows Mobile 5 WPA Key Input

I just acquired a new smartphone, with all the bells and whistles, including WiFi capablility, and upon trying to connect to my office network I discovered a particularly stupid piece of GUI design: it is impossible to paste a network key into the wireless key input box. You are forced to type it in manually. If, like me, you have a stupidly long and meaningless 63 character key for security and paranoia purposes, this is rather a pain. In combination with the fact that the input is completely replaced by asterisks it’s borderline impossible. After about four attempts to input my key manually, I gave up and formulated an alternative solution.

You can duplicate the desktop of your Windows Mobile gadget using Remote Display Control. Once you have that installed (which might take a while), you can open a connection to your device, navigate to the wireless settings dialog, select the key input box, and run the following WSH script (suitably modified, of course):

' Save as sendkeys.vbs or something like that
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Dim wpaKey
Dim rdcWindowName
' Type the name of your RDC window between the quotes here
rdcWindowName = "Qtek9100"
' Paste your WPA key between the quotes here
wpaKey = "ridiculouslyLongAndHardToType128BitKey"
WshShell.AppActivate rdcWindowName
wScript.sleep(100)
WshShell.SendKeys wpaKey

That should input the key correctly. I say “should” because it turned out that I didn’t need to use it after all, so I don’t actually know for certain that it works.

I would really like to say that I solved my problem using the above code, like a proper little hacker, but in the time it took me to type that little bit of code the wireless card picked up an IP using the key which I had, incredibly, typed in correctly on the fourth and final attempt. I’m sure I’ll need to use this little hack to get other keys onto my phone, though, so I’m making a note of it for future use, and throwing it out here on the off-chance that it might help someone else.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say: “WTF Microsoft? Sort your damn WM5 WiFi Key input boxes out!”

2 comments • 2007-02-08 11:54 • Categories: Computers, Geek Stuff, Rage • Tags: Fix, HTC Wizard, Qtek 9100, Scripting, Security, WiFi, Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile 5, Wireless, WPA