can WEP keys be set without resetting a wireless interface?

[Phillip Crumpler]

Hi hackers,

Can anyone tell me why setting WEP keys on a wireless interface must 
result in the interface being reset?

I have a wireless authenticator that wants to set random WEP keys and 
send them out to connected stations. Setting a key results in the 
interface being reset () the ioctl handler return ENETRESET), which 
kicks off all of the stations and forces them to reassociate.

Trying to get around this I just updated the keys directly:

  wk = &ic->ic_nw_keys[nkidx];
  arc4rand(wk->wk_key, wk->wk_len, 0);

But the moment this happens everyone goes off the air. Of course, that 
is the short answer: the interface gets reset because it doesn't work if 
it's not :-)

Can anyone provide a bit more detail or suggest a way around this?

Thanks,

Phillip Crumpler