Connecting to Wireless After Wiped Harddrive

[FrankieG]

Ok so, a while back I had to get my computer completely wiped. I didn't really notice any major problems with this afterwards, as I wasn't using my wireless. Now that I'm home..I've noticed a few things are different. First, the window that comes up when I want to see the status of my wireless networks, what's in range, etc, is much more generic now. I'll attach a screenshot at the end of this. I used to have a window come up with a list of the wireless network's within range, and the option to connect or disconnect to 1 of them.

With this new one..there is no option to either disconnect or connect to a specific network, as far as I can tell. The only way to control it is by turning my wireless either off or on. Obviously, this is causing me problems. Do I need to download a specific wireless driver or whatever to fix my problem? If so, can someone point me in the right direction? If it helps, my computer is a laptop, a Compaq Presario v5000.

Also..my friend isn't entirely sure what his password is, though he did have it written down in bad hand writing. Every time I managed to get to a point where I could try connecting to his wireless, I'd get an error saying I needed a password with 5 to 13 ascii characters (what is this?) or 10 to 20 hexidecimal characters? (are these numbers) The password he gave me had 3 letters in it...is that why I'm getting an error?

Anyways, thank you for all the help you can provide.

[johnwill]

You need to know the exact type of encryption and the real password. If you don't have it, the option is to reset the password for the encryption on the router.

You need to get the proper wireless client and drivers from the Compaq site for your specific machine.