Unsecured Wireless Network

jasmin10

I really need some help please. I have had to set up a new wireless connection as I upgraded my PC etc and Virgin have done zilch to help. I have finally managed to get my WGR614 Netgear router setup so that I can connect my desktop PC to the interest through it . I have gone the the instructions on the sticky and chose the WPS-PSK option typed in a password and left the 'Key Lifetime' as the default as there was no mention of this in any of the instructions. I have now turned on my laptop to see if I can connect but it has a red x saying my laptop settings saved on this computer for the network do not match the requirements of the network. Can anyone help me on this bit please. so far on my laptop I have only right clicked my ssid in the connect to a network and seletected properties. The security type says WPA2-Personal, the encryption type has defaulted to AES and the network security key I have entered is the passphrase. Is there anything else I need to do to get it connected. Any help is appreciated.

thomas01155

Does your laptop support WPA2? Whats the make and model number?

posted_2

Are you using wpa-psk\AES on the router, or tkip?

jasmin10

Right I have been trying various seetings on the connect to network and I have chose WPA-Personal instead of WPA2 and it has worked. I would lik to check that it is secure. but when it lists the networks it just says connected. I have inssider installed on my laptop and it does say security WPA-TKIP. Does this mean that it is now secured.

Edit. One question I have noticed in the list of network connections is that my sayd xyz1 and it has a 2 next to it and public network which I am a bit concerned about

Unstoppable_2

OK..I assume you used to have Wifi and have changed the router but used the same SSID and WPA key as the old one?
Basically, Windows has stored the connection information for the old one which used WPA2-AES whereas the new one uses WPA-TKIP. Even though the SSID and WPA keys are the same, the stored wifi profile for the SSID in Windows is expecting to use WPA2-AES but is finding WPA-TKIP instead so is telling you the stored configurationit expects for that SSID doesn't match what it's detecting.

To solve this, delete the connection on the laptop (manage wifi networks in Vista) and redetect the network and reconnect to it.

As to your followup post, yes it is secure and the "2" next to it in Windows merely means it's an entry with the same SSID name of the original.

jasmin10

On the Netgear Wizard it says "WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key"

On my laptop in network connections I chose WPA-Personal and TPKI

jasmin10

Thomas, I have no idea I'm not much of a techie Its a Gateway, only a year old and runs vista.

I have found out that it does support WPA2

thomas01155

Yes your network is now secure you are using a WPA-PSK TPKI encryption.

jasmin10

Is there something free online I can use to test it as I'm worried that it says public network

jasmin10

Right I have found a thing that I can test it on. It says it is all secure except that I am using the default MAC address. When I change this to "use Computers" MAC and then apply it I can then no longer get on the internet. And I still have the it saying public network next to my connection. Please any help

posted_2

You are getting confused, forget the MAC address thing.

If it says wpa-psk in the router settings, it's secure. Remove your password from one of the pc's, and you won't be able to connect.

I assume the public network thing is in Vista, which uses confusing terminology.