Connecting dell laptop to Netgear wireless router

ads2608

I have a desktop pc connected to a Netgear wireless router.

I have just purchased a Dell laptop and am trying to connect this to the router.

I am asked for the corresponding SSID and Passphrase.

I have entered the SSID alright, but it will not accept the passphrase.

Can anyone help?

(I have contacted Netgear to see if the passphrase has been changed, but have yet to get a response).

Thanks in advance

espresso

You should log into your router, change the SSID to something unique e.g. not leave it as the default, Get a long random passphrase from here and save it to a notepad file. Copy and paste this into the WPA-PSK field in the router and again when prompted on the laptop.

ads2608 wrote:

(I have contacted Netgear to see if the passphrase has been changed, but have yet to get a response)

Why would they be interested in your passphrase?

cargo

Hi I have the same set up as yourself.
All I did was searched for wireless network on the new Dell laptop.
When it found the Netgear I chose connect, it then asked for was the wep key.
Have you logged into your router to check what settings are there?

On mine next to SSID it says NETGEAR{must be default as I never touched it}

In the wep security encryption passphrase is blank.
Under that is my wep key which is all that the laptop asked for.

IF friends call round with there laptop all they need is the key and they can connect.

Hope this helps.

Nikolai

But don't use WEP. Use WPA security which is much more secure, as long as you use a long, random, non dictionary passphrase, as per espresso's post.

ads2608

Why would they be interested in your passphrase?

Virgin Media, who I contacted first, said I would need to do this.


Anyway, the router actually has the SSID and passphrase written on the back of it.

When I log in to the router, the SSID is the same but can't see the same passphrase anywhere.

When I look at the security details, the passphrase is blank, and all that is under it is 4 manual keys?

espresso

ads2608 wrote: »

Virgin Media, who I contacted first, said I would need to do this.


Anyway, the router actually has the SSID and passphrase written on the back of it.

When I log in to the router, the SSID is the same but can't see the same passphrase anywhere.

When I look at the security details, the passphrase is blank, and all that is under it is 4 manual keys?

You should change your encryption from WEP to WPA-PSK as WEP is insecure. Just enter your own passphrase into the WPA box and then into the laptop as previously explained.

ads2608

Sorry, I don't know if I'm looking at the Netgear in the correct place because I can't find any option to change the encryption from WEP to WPA-PSK.

How do you log in to the Netgear router and change this?

Sorry to be a pain but don't want to mess up any of my other settings.

Thanks

espresso

Which router?

Try entering http://www.routerlogin.net into your browser.

ads2608

Which router?

It is a Netgear "mr814v2"

espresso

ads2608 wrote: »

It is a Netgear "mr814v2"

Connect to the router by typing http://192.168.0.1 into your browser.

espresso

It looks like you have quite an old 802.11b router that only supports WEP encryption. Manual available here. Using the longest possible random key is the best that you can do!