Wireless network woes

[mr clive]

Yesterday evening I tried to help a friend set up his wiresless network but I failed miserably.

He has a BT Voyager 1091 wireless router and is trying to connect to the network via a Netgear MA311 wireless PCI card.

The network card can see the router but cannot connect to it due to the wireless encryption key. We know the key the router is using (its printed on the bottom) but we cannot enter the key into the settings for his network card. The card requires the key in hexadecimal format and the router's key isnt hexadecimal (it has an "x" and a "j" in it).

There does not appear to be an option to change the code via the router's set up menu.

Any ideas on what to do next.

[TheExcession]

Yup, highly unlikely that the WEP key is printed on the bottom of the box. Imagine, millions of these units coming out of the factory, all setup with a unique key for the encyption - don't think so!

Some where in the Router's administration GUI there will be an option to setup a WEP key, often you can seed the key generation with a pass word, sometimes you have to create the key manually, it'll usually be a 64 or 128 bit key.

So, invariably, when these routers come out of the box there is no security scheme or key configured, you need to go into the administration pages and tell the router to use a specific type of encryption, once you have done this you then need to specify the encryption key - or generate it with a pass phrase/word.

There should be somewhere in the router's GUI to change this key and then you should be able to see the Hex version of it, then (as you know) you need to enter it into the clients config.

It really does have to be there somewhere!

[lonny]

Had to do a hardware reset to get round a similar problem for a friend (he set a password and then forgot it...) - there's normally a little button you press with a pen or something and then start from scratch.

[roop]

The WEP kep for my brother's ADSL WiFi router was printed on a lable on the bottom of the unit, so it is feasible. If you are *sure* that's the encryption key, then it could well be that it is either WEP or WPA passphrase and you need a client unit that will support the input of a passphrase or hex key to connect (as opposed to a hex key only). If you haven't already, get the latest drivers for the client adapter which may now support passphrase input.

TheExcession said:

Yup, highly unlikely that the WEP key is printed on the bottom of the box. Imagine, millions of these units coming out of the factory, all setup with a unique key for the encyption - don't think so!

[pallison]

It's more likely the data on the bottom of the box is the MAC address. WEP/WPA security is usually disabled by default on most routers, and needs to be configured during the initial setup. It's also best to use a wired connection when setting these things up, as it's possible to lock yourself out of the wireless connection! I assume the router has at least 1 RJ45 port and you have a patch lead handy?

[k50 del]

That particular netgear card doesn't support WPA-PSK out of the box, you need to go to the netgear site and download the updated drivers IIRC.

[aldi]

I set up a BT wireless router a while ago and the default WEP key is indeed on a little sticker on the base. It's hardly a security risk, if someone can pick your router up and look at he base then WEP hacking is the least of your problems Also, just change it? Surely it's better than it being off by default?

You can change a passphrase to a hex WEP key at this page:
www.powerdog.com/wepkey.cgi

[mr clive]

I didnt get a chance to look at it last night but he spent quite a lot of time on the phone to various people, all to no avail. He is able to plug the router into his computer via the USB port to change the settings and access the net but its only a temporary solution so we can get it working properly.

The sticker on the bottom of the router is the WEP key but we cannot access the menu in the router config to control the wep settings. I thought we had the latest drivers for the wireless card but I will check to make sure.

[aldi]

mr clive said:

we cannot access the menu in the router config to control the wep settings.

You could try connecting to the router via a network cable then configuring the wep that way?

[thepassenger]

You might well find that access to WEP/WPA settings has been disabled due the firmware installed by the OEM at the behest of BT (it stops engineer callouts and long winded calls to the CSA's when people play with them and from my readings of USA based support forums it seems quite a common thing out there), so regardless of how you try connecting to it your going to be skuppered.

Looking on the Netgear site it seems that the MA311 is a 802.11b card, might want to check to see if other card is a 11g and if it's connected at a rate faster than 11mpbs, if it is then the router will probably not like talking to the slowever card whilst the faster one is connected (again, work stinkpad is 11b, home is 11g, I have to kill everything before the stinkpad can pull an IP usually).

I am going to assume that your running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 for this little escapade. As I had hells own game getting a Netgeat WG511T and a Belkin 'thing' using WEP/WPA-PSK here's what I did, I'm also assuming the 11b/11g thing isn't an issue.

1. Make sure you have the latest and greatest drivers.
2. Make sure you have everything set for Windows to control the cards settings and not any cute control panels that the cards driver installs.
3. Go Start > Control Panel > Configure Wireless Network
4. Enter the SSID in the space prompted & select the "I will enter network key manually" radio option.
5. Squint at routers sticker, if it's WEP we're ok. If it's WPA-PSK tick the "this is a WPA key" tick box (they are different standards). Click Next.
6. Enter the network key in the spaces provided making sure that you use the CoRrEct CasE where appropriate.
7. Tell Windows you will configure the other machines manually and not to make any cute disks.
8. Windows will now get horribly confused as the WiFi card springs in to life.
9. Annoy random people online with your new working WiFi system.

See if that works.

[mr clive]

Appologies for the delay in replying. I still havnt had a chance to look at it. I should be able to try your ideas tonight.