[waytoosmall]

My girlfriend just recieved a Toshiba Satellite laptop from a friend. I reinstalled windows and all drivers. When I try to connect to my linksys wireless network which I have password protected it tells me I either need to enter an ascii key or hexidecimal key. My wep key was automatically given to me when the 'Secure Easy Setup' on the router, and it is 16 digits. None of the options have that many digits. I have a g4 mac that had no problem connecting to the network, nor did my friends Dell laptop. Do I need to download some other software and not use the windows utility? Thank you for any help.

[CompShack]

Originally Posted by waytoosmall

I reinstalled windows and all drivers. Do I need to download some other software and not use the windows utility? Thank you for any help.

What kind of windows are we talking about it? From a personal experiance, you are better off sticking with Windows utility.

[waytoosmall]

It is Windows XP. The utility has no option for a 16 digit WEP code!! My friend brought over his Dell and had no problem connecting. I enter the Key Code and it sais it isn't a valid code.

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

So you've tried entering in the 16 digit WEP key when prompted, and it tells you it's invalid / incorrect?

[waytoosmall]

Yes, when I enter the 16 digit code it tells me it is invalied and tells me it either needs to be ascii 13 or 24 digit, or hexidecimal 10 or 20 digit.

[BoysNightOut]

Is this laptop connecting via a built-in wifi? Or is it a NIC? If it's an adapter is it een compatible with that router you're connecting too that you know for sure? What kind of router are you connecting too?

Everyone else can connect by typing in the current key on the wireless network fine and they stay connected? It may be a hardware issue of your ladies laptop if it's built-in wifi. If it was working before though, it is unlikely it was damaged since then.

Perhaps try resetting your WEP key to something in a HEX format with a 64bit encryption or 128bit encryption and try the new key again.

[waytoosmall]

Yeah, it is built in Wireless. The router I have is a Linksys 802.11g. So you are saying i can redo the WEP key in a different format? How would I go about doing that? On the front of my router I just pressed the "easy secure" button and it assigned the wep key. How would I go about changing it to a hexidecimal key cause that is one of the options on this laptop. And will it then automatically work with the g4 laptop using airport, because as of now I have had no problems using that.

[BoysNightOut]

Okay so you just did the auto setup button. That's fine. Here's what you do. Login to your router's web interface management system. (Open up a web browser and type in your router's IP address)

For a linksys it is normally 192.168.1.1

It will prompt you for a password and login name. Login is "admin" and password probably should be left blank if this is your first time logging in. Or the password may be "password" as well.

Once you login. There's numerous tabs to look through at setting up various router settings. You can pretty much change anything there. Find the security tab. in there it should have options for setting WEP, WPA etc etc. types of security codes. Find where you can put a password in and make it whatever you want! There's diff options like 64bit, 128bit and 256bit. Those are all saying how many characters do you want the password range to be in between basically. 64bit is usuualy 8-10 I believe and most commonly used for home networks as it's easier to remember.

Just set your new password and click apply changes button at bottom of page and the router should instantly be reset to that password. Now anyone connected to the wireless network before that will be kicked off and have to enter a new PW to get back on the network. So if you're doing anything while doing this, like downloading, pause it or something.

If you need any more help I'll try to explain everything best I can. I think you can figure it out from this though. It's not difficult. Just make your way through the tabs and see what you can change. It's also a good idea to change your SSID (network name) away from just "linksys" by default, and make it "your name" or something like that, so it doesn't conflict with anyone else who has a linksys router and left it on "linksys" as default SSID as well.

One other thing. WPA is far stronger than WEP for security. So either one works, with WPA being better. They both work the same. WEP asks for a key which = a password. WPA asks for a passphrase which = a password. Essentially the same thing.

-Chris

[waytoosmall]

Wow Chris, thanks for the advice. When I get home tonight I will try all these changes and let you know once I have it all working.

[BoysNightOut]

Sure no problem. Let me know and I'll try to help the best I can.