diff --git a/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8 b/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8
index 3c40e1c2c7b..a17c4be174c 100644
--- a/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8
+++ b/sbin/ifconfig/ifconfig.8
@@ -597,6 +597,9 @@ capabilities of the adaptor.
 It may be specified either as a plain
 string or as a string of hexadecimal digits proceeded by
 .Ql 0x .
+For maximum portability, hex keys are recommended;
+the mapping of text keys to WEP encryption is usually driver-specific.   
+In particular, the Windows drivers do this mapping differently to FreeBSD.
 A key may be cleared by setting it to
 .Ql - .
 If WEP is supported then there are at least four keys.
diff --git a/usr.sbin/wicontrol/wicontrol.8 b/usr.sbin/wicontrol/wicontrol.8
index c1e49103421..260b3933009 100644
--- a/usr.sbin/wicontrol/wicontrol.8
+++ b/usr.sbin/wicontrol/wicontrol.8
@@ -314,7 +314,11 @@ which means the key can be specified as either a 13 character text
 string or 26 hex digits in addition to the formats supported by the
 Silver cards.
 .Pp
-Note: Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP have been broken.
+For maximum portability, hex keys are recommended;
+the mapping of text keys to WEP encryption is usually driver-specific.   
+In particular, the Windows drivers do this mapping differently to FreeBSD.
+.Pp
+Note: Both 128-bit and 64-bit WEP encryption have been broken.
 See the
 .Sx BUGS
 section for details.