wireless help

Dazi

Hiya

I am at my parents house and trying to access the internet on my laptop via their wireless connection, it asks for the WEP key, which I have entered but will not connect, what am I doing wrong? What else do I need to do?


Thanks

totalsolutions

The WEP key is located on a label on the back of the router Is that the key you are using. You can remove WEP/WPA encryption as a temp measure to test the system and apply a new key later. HTH

DwainDibley

Try entering the key either using capitals or not using capitals, whichever you haven't tried. They're often case sensitive, it took me a few attempts to enter the WEP key on our Sky router until I realised I had to enter it in capitals!

inamabilis

totalsolutions wrote: »

The WEP key is located on a label on the back of the router

I've never found this to be the case - What router have you seen this on? It seems a bit of a silly idea - either all routers will be manufactured with the same initial WEP key (which is a bit of a security risk) or every router will need to be created differently, making firmware upgrades/restores a bit of a problem.

If you're still having trouble connecting to the network and are sure that you're entering the WEP key correctly then I would suggest going though the control panel of the router looking for other security options - the first one that jumps to mind is a MAC address restriction, meaning that you will have to add your MAC address to the 'allowed' list before the router will allow you to connect to the network.

Also it seems a bit stupid but just check you are deffinatly trying to connect to your parent's network (maybe the neighbours have a similarly named network with a different WEP key)?

amcluesent

>What router have you seen this on<

BT homehubs are like this, and yep they are all suppplied with unique keys.

Sput2001

amcluesent wrote: »

>What router have you seen this on<

BT homehubs are like this, and yep they are all suppplied with unique keys.

Yeah, BT Home Hubs have the encryption keys printed on the base, a bit like a serial number. I've never known any other routers do this, though.

Presumably you can change the key on a Home Hub...

DwainDibley

Our Sky wireless router's got it's ID and key printed on the back of it too, as did a friend of ours with the same router from Sky.

Dazi

Thanks everyone, we've got it working now

Domokun

FWIW, o2 Broadband boxes also come with a printed WEP.

totalsolutions

Dazi, What was the problem, go on tell us and dont be embarrased

Thanks for the support from the others, the wep info is on the router like I said, hopefully to stop all those calls to service admin.

Look and learn.

ormus

the wep info is just there to tell you what the OEM/factory setting is. BT and SKY use it, but not all routers have it.
and the owner/user can change it. so theres no guarantee that the info is valid anyways.