Connecting laptop to internet with wireless card Help and advice on software, hardware, configuration and general computing issues and problems

[Joiner_Mike]

Hi
Ive just bought an oldish laptop for my daughter to use. It has a built in wireless card. I want to connect to my sky broadband though my netgear hub. When i search wireless devices it appears but i cannot put in my network key as it says there are an incoorect amount of charaters. My network key for sky is 8 charaters long. How can i change the network key format in windows xp do i can input an 8 charater password in.
Thank you all for your time

[ericmark]

There are a number of different protocols. For example:-
WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)
WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key)
WPA2-PSK(Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 with Pre-Shared Key)
WPA-PSK+WPA2-PSK
WPA-802.1x
WPA2-802.1x
WPA-802.1x+WPA2-802.1x
WEP Security Encryption is normally 10 characters long and auto generated by router in HexDec format. I know I had to change type in order to use my PDA you need to select one that both can use.

[seige]

Also be aware that choosing which TYPE of WEP can mean a shorter or longer key.

And also be aware of the difference between a *key* and a *password*.

If you know the IP address of the modem/router, you can access it's administration pages using an internet browser and change the security.

That might be the best place to start.


Remember: if you change security settings, you'll need to change ALL machines which previously used it to the NEW settings.

[plumbbob]

The administrator settings on the Netgear router are accessed by typing 192.168.0.1 into the browser address bar. The username is "admin" and the default password "sky"

You can check the router wireless settings from there.