If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
Wireless network
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
Can someone please help me.
We stupidly have an open network.
Only i am not quite sure on what i need to enable.
I have network auth - open, shared, wpa and wpa-psk. Which shoud it be on?
Then i have data incription, disabled or WEP. No idea what this means? Should i have it on WEP?
It also has network key if you select a cerain option. Do i need this?
Please help as i don't know about wireless networks, i just know we need to secure it.
Also do i need to do this on the main computer before i do it on my laptop?
Any help REALLY appreciated.
We stupidly have an open network.
Only i am not quite sure on what i need to enable.
I have network auth - open, shared, wpa and wpa-psk. Which shoud it be on?
Then i have data incription, disabled or WEP. No idea what this means? Should i have it on WEP?
It also has network key if you select a cerain option. Do i need this?
Please help as i don't know about wireless networks, i just know we need to secure it.
Also do i need to do this on the main computer before i do it on my laptop?
Any help REALLY appreciated.
0
Comments
Your laptop (and any other wireless things) will lose their connection, you'll have to reconnect them, and you'll be prompted for the password you provided the router.
Sorry sound really dim
Also if you see an option for an SSID, change that (on router and computer.)
Also change the default password to access your router if you haven't already.
I hope i don't balls it up!
I set the router, but i can't get my laptop to work on it. I can view it but it won't connect to it.
The only time it gives me the option to put a key in on here is if i change it to
WPA-PSK but thats not right is it?
Argh it's doing my head in.
Edit - make sure you use a long passphrase.
Edit - look here for info - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/bowman_03july28.mspx
The only reason I ask, is becuase when I did mine, I just clicked on the system tray where the network was, on the screen that came up it said 'linksys - wpa protected' or something like that (I couldnt be bothered changing the name
We also have linksys though.
When i change it, it wont connect, so i click view network connections and click ours and click connect, but it never does. It says it can't connect.
Do you think i should re run that?
Do you want to post that steps that you've took so far (obviously excluding any IP's, Passwords, phrases etc...)
And the status of your problem, which PCs can/cannot connect etc...
And we'll try and see where you've gone wrong.
Don't worry, for something that should be soooo simple, setting up wireless networks always seem a right pain in the arse.
Took me a couple of days to get my girlfriends working properly, i'd do something and it'd stop the whole thing working and i'd have to start again, then i'd do excatly the same thing again and it'd work fine, or do something out of frustration and despair that i know should stop me connecting to it, and it'll work perfectly :banghead:
I then clicked on network connections, selected the one i want and clicked wireless network tab.
Clicked linksys and properties, next to network authentication I have tried both WPA and WPA-PSK.
For the WPA i changed to to WPA and DATA incription TKIP.
Wouldn't connect
For the WPA-PSK changed it to WPA-PSK Date incription to TKIP i put the network key in as the passphrase, is this right?
I think that was about it. It won't work!
If you set the wireless security on the router to WEP, then on your PC network connection you also need to set it to WEP (WPA is more secure, but some older routers won't give you the option for it, and even so WEP is a better than no encryption). Basically you just need to mirror all the options on the router to the network connection properties.
Once you have entered your passphrase and generated your keys, some routers allow you to select from a number of possible keys, which again you need to ensure which ever selection you make on the router is mirrored on the network properties.
I haven't changed any settings on the pc as its directly connected and didn't think i needed to?
I am not sure what i am doing tbh.
Can you help?
On the laptoo I can change the data incription to wep, but do i need to change the network auth thing to? My options are open, shared, wpa or wpa-psk.
I'd reset the router.
Go on to the router, set a password on the router (unrelated to your problem but just stops people playing with any settings you make)
Turn on wireless encryptions (WEP) enter your passphrase say "BurgerK1ng" and get it to generate the keys, and if prompted select key 1.
If your not using DHCP set the IP that you will be using for the laptop
Save all changes and allow it to reboot if it needs to.
On your laptop enable your wireless, go to the network properties;
If your using DHCP set it to "obtain an IP address automatically" if you're not then assign the laptop the IP, and set the default gateway to the IP of the router.
the set the wireless encrpyption as shared, enter the passphrase from earlier and select key 1, if theres no option for that then you will need to enter the long seemingly random key that the router generated for you.
Sorry im awful at explaining things, especially if i've not got them in front of me to work though, i'm sure somebody else will come along and give better instructions or point out where i've gone wrong!
It means Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
Its basically where (in this case) your router tells your PC / Laptop what IP address it has.
You may not have to worry about this, if you were able to use the network fine with your laptop previous this shouldn't be an issue.
If your router is set to us DHCP then under the properties on your laptop just set it to obtain the IP address automatically.
If it's not, then you can either set it to us DHCP, or you have to define a range of IPs you want to use, or set a specific IP address to the machine.
However, like i said it sounds like this shouldn't be an issue for you, and by mentioning it i've probably just complicated things further!
If your still having no joy with setting up the WEP keys etc... you could go about it a different way, again not the most secure, but it's better than no protection at all - Set the router up for MAC filtering.
Should just entail making a note of a couple of long numbers (MAC address - these are unique to each network card) and typing them in to your router (again works perfectly on my network yet on my girlfriends won't :banghead: )
This then only lets those machines talk to your router.
It means each time you get a new machine you need to enter that machines MAC address in to the router, but that will only take a few minutes.
I'm sure somebody can say why this method isn't ideal, i can't see any flaws in it for a simple home network, and like i say it's better than no protection at all.