help with laptop security

espresso

You can log-in to your router and see the pass-phrase that you have actually used if you want to add another PC wirelessly to your network.

albertross_2

you would just hook it up to the router and copy and paste it again if you forgot it, or just regenerate a new one.

gem4

Phew......bit of a scary moment there when I couldnt get a webpage up. So i had a less than blonde moment and rebooted the whole lot, router, modem, pc. It works now. Thanks to you guys for your patience. I'll go try the laptop now and keep my fingers crossed.

espresso

If you need to re-boot, power up the modem first followed by the router a few minutes later i.e. give the modem chance to sort itself out.

gem4

Well.........when I turn the laptop on and search for a network it picks up the name I gave as my SSID and it says its a secure network which needs the key.
But when I try to connect it says its unable to connect to the network it might be out of range. Well, I know its not out of range so is there something else obvious that I should have done, with the laptop maybe?

Should I have used 'set up a wireless network' on the laptop? I think I need to have a look back over these posts to see if I've done summat daft.

albertross_2

check that the key matches. Put a simpler one in to test.

gem4

albertross wrote:

check that the key matches. Put a simpler one in to test.

you mean go back into router and change the key?
On the laptop, I cant find where to type the key except when I click to setup a wireless network, and the wizard opens. It asks for the SSID name and if I want windows to choose a key or if I want to do it manually. There's also an option to choose WPA instead of WEP. I've not tried that yet. I just thought I could connect to the network that was listed. Oooh my head hurts....

albertross_2

If you have told your router to encrypt the wireless using a key, you can't connect to it unless you tell your laptop what the key is, otherwise the whole exercise would be pointless..

Start , run, control panel,Wireless network settings

Click next, click setup a new wireless network, enter the Network name (SSID): that
you chose earlier

change the network authentication to WPA-PSK, data encryption to tkip

Tick WPA encryption, tick manually assign a network key, paste the 63 character key into the Network Key, and Confirm network key boxes, click next, click setup a network manually, click next, click finish

(this bit will be slightly different if you chose hex key)

Do you have a little PC icon with }} at the side, in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.. click on them

right click on your wireless network icon, view available wireless networks, change advanced settings, wireless networks, highlight your ssid, properties, connection. Make sure "connect when this network is in range" is ticked. Click OK, advanced, make sure Access point (Infrastrucure) networks only is selected, and automatically connect to non-preferred networks is unticked.

gem4

i think i got to that in a round about way. Painstakingly typed the random 63 char code and pasted it into the spaces, but when I clicked continue it said I'd selected WPA but my laptop doesnt support it.
Does this mean that I have to go thru the whole lot again, starting with router and change it to WEP instead??

On the laptop there are two pc icons in the tray. one is for the wireless network and the other is for wired. It's the wireless one i'm trying.

albertross_2

XP? have you installed service pack 2?

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

if not, attach the laptop to the router with a wire, and download/install it, then go to https://www.windowsupdate.com and patch it.

if it's not XP, you'll probably have to use wep instead.