Getting ERROR: You need to send a valid key to execute this file when running Cron
Without quotes around the URL, your shell may interpret the '&amp;' character as a request to run a command in the background:

$ wget -O - -q -t 1 none.such/wp-content/plugins/civicrm/civicrm/bin/cron.php?name=XXX&amp;pass=XXX&amp;key=XXXXX
[1] 9887
[2] 9888
$ jobs
[1]-  Exit 4                  wget -O - -q -t 1 none.such/wp-content/plugins/civicrm/civicrm/bin/cron.php?name=XXX
[2]+  Done                    pass=XXX
$


Here it uses the URL up to but not including the first '&amp;', thus missing the pass and key parameters. Enclosing the URL in quotes should resolve this:

$ wget -O - -q -t 1 'none.such/wp-content/plugins/civicrm/civicrm/bin/cron.php?name=XXX&amp;pass=XXX&amp;key=XXXXX'
$


You say this didn't work for you, could you provide details of what command you tried and what the result was?