Netgear wireless, trying to set up second laptop

[wottonb]

I have been using Netgear wireless router for a year after a Dlink adaptor crashed my wired network. I still have three computers cabled to router, and have been using the wireless on one laptop only. But bought a new laptop with wireless card installed, and can't get the second laptop online, as I can't connect due to the secured connection that was created when I installed the new router. The passkey is not being accepted. The error message says the key must be a set number of letters/numbers, and not the one that came up when I first get the message box asking for key and confirmation. I thought i remembered what was there before, which is a password, but it doesn't work. The other laptop is still working fine on wireless and I have tried finding out what the passkey is there, but of course it comes up as a series of *'s, and has not crashed or asked for the password/key on the first, already working laptop. WELL, basically I stumped as to where to go from here....any suggestions would be helpful. Can I find out what the passkey is on my original desktop that router and modem were installed on. Do I need to download something from Netgear on the new second laptop......so many questions, I guess I will see where the thread starts or develops.....thanks

[johnwill]

First off, you don't need anything extra to connect additional machines. What you need is to access the router's web based configuration and assign a known encryption key, then use it with both of the wireless machines.

Also, if you use WEP encryption, you should ONLY use the HEX keys, not the passphrase option, which is interpreted incorrectly on some brands of hardware. I recommend WPA encryption unless the equipment doesn't support it.

[wottonb]

thanks for the reply but the main issue is that it is asking for a key and I don't know what it is. Would you recommend turning off the router, and re-installing from netgear website, and trying to have both computer hard wired to laptop while doing this so they both recognize the router and accept or use the same passkey. If you would advise this, please consider me a 'layman' and talk me through this, I would appreciate that very much. Just an old man who learned about computers on Commodore 64's and well I just spend money to upgrade and buy new ones, not tech knowledgeable at all!! LOL

[johnwill]

You should ALWAYS configure the router with a wired connection.

Please supply the following info, exact make and models of the equipment please.

Make and model of the broadband modem.
Make and model of the router.
Version and patch level of Windows on all affected machines, i.e. XP-Home (or XP-Pro), SP2, Vista, etc.




Let's start by resetting the router and getting a wired machien working on it.

Reset the router to factory defaults by holding the reset button down for 15 seconds with power on.

• Turn off everything, the modem, router, computer.
• Connect the modem to the router's WAN/Internet port.
• Connect the computer to one of the router's LAN/Network ports.
• Turn on the modem, wait for a steady connect light.
• Turn on the router, wait for two minutes.
• Boot the computer.

When the computer is completely booted, let's see this.

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

Type the following command:

IPCONFIG /ALL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.