password

I have a XP professional deskop, Belkin router. My wife has a XP Home
notebook, connected via wireless using the Belkin. During the install,
she got a message that wireless security is unsecured. We tried to set
up WPA security. We have a problem with the step, "Enter your pre-shared

key". What is this key? How is it defined? We just tried entering
something in the password box, and then we could not get to the Internet

at all! We had to uninstall, reset, and install again. What is this key
or password?

Thank you very much.

Sanford Aranoff

Generally when you set up WPA (or WEP) on your router, you normally
have to enter a Passphrase. This then gets converted into a pass-key,
which should be visible to you from the router configuration screen
(I'm not sure of your particular setup so can't be any more specific).


Anyway, make a note of this key and enter it into the 'password' box
when you try and connect.

HTH,

John.

John

John wrote:

> Generally when you set up WPA (or WEP) on your router, you normally
> have to enter a Passphrase. This then gets converted into a pass-key,
> which should be visible to you from the router configuration screen
> (I'm not sure of your particular setup so can't be any more specific).
>
> Anyway, make a note of this key and enter it into the 'password' box
> when you try and connect.
>
> HTH,
>
> John.

After speaking with customer support, I think I understand the issue. I
have to first set up WPA or whatever (which do you think is best?) on my
computer which is connected with the router via a wire. Then we set up the
WPA on the other computer connected with wireless. The problem we had is
that we started connecting via wireless. I'll try it out.

Sanford Aranoff

WPA is your best bet as part of a security strategy. Look into things
such as MAC filtering for further 'layers' . There are lots of threads
about wireless security but it's generally accepted that WPA is better
than WEP (provided you enter a suitably long and complex passphrase).

You'll need to set up WPA on your router. There should be a
configuration page accessible from your wired machine (might be an IP
address such as 192.168.1.1). Look for the WPA settings on this.
Enter your passphrase and make a note of everything and then setup your
two PCs. These will need to be set to connect using the same WPA
settings as you set on the Router (you'll need the pass key). Check
the properties under the connection settings or just try and connect
(it might ask for your pass key).

All being well, it's a five minute job.

C.

John