Wireless Modem Problem

[hectichobo]

My wireless Belkin router won't connect to one of my laptops. My mom (who knows nothing about computers) decided to go try to secure our unsecure network so nobody tries to go on it illegally. Well, her plan backfired and now it won't connect to my laptop. I called my internet provider and they told me to contact a representative from Belkin. Everything was going fine until IE(which I needed to use) wouldn't work. So he made me contact Microsoft. Microsoft pretty much told me I was screwed unless I knew the password to go on Internet Explorer (For some reason it needed a password to use it) Then I quit with the useless reps and went online, I found nothing that helped. The Error Message my Vista is givng me when I try to connect to my network is, "The settings saved on this computer for the network do not meet the requirements of the network."

P.S.
I've been at this ALL day. If you help me fix this I will mail you cookies and $1,000,000. Like seriously. If you're wondering how I'm writing this to you, I'm using my wired internet connection for my desktop.

 

[Kirby King]

So there are some difficulties here with terminology.

Do you mean "wireless router"? As in, the box that your computers speak to wirelessly, that's connected to your cable/DSL/whatever modem? It sounds like your mother enabled either WEP or WPA/WPA2. You'd need to know which of those it was in order for you to be able to connect to the network wirelessly.

If you don't know which it was, you can probably connect to the router by going to http://192.168.2.1 in your browser (while connected to it via an Ethernet cable). If prompted for a username/password, try admin as your username and no password. (This is the default, I believe, for Belkin routers. It won't work if it's been changed to something else, obviously.) From there you need to poke around some and figure out where encryption/WEP/WPA settings might be stored, find the appropriate passkey, and set up the connection accordingly on your computer.

Vista should generally pick up if a wireless connection requires encryption, so it should give you a chance to provide the passkey when you try to connect wirelessly. If it asks, make sure you tell it whether you're using WEP/WPA/WPA2 or whatever the router's set up to use.

 

[AltF4]

1) You can connect via a wire like Kirby King is suggesting. Then go to your router's IP via HTTP. (Typing in "192.168.0.1" usually) Enter in your router username and password (different than your wireless password). If you haven't set this, then it's probably still default. You can go here to find what the defaults are for your model.

http://www.routerpasswords.com/

And then change the Wifi settings.

(We can help you out more specifically with this if you want)

2) Many models of routers have a "reset to factory default" button on the back of them. If you hold down on it for a couple of seconds, it will reset the router and get rid of that password.

3) Most routers will also let you reset them by leaving them unplugged for a long time. Like, try leaving the thing unplugged (no power) overnight or longer. It may reset to factory defaults, which means no encrypted wifi.

 

[Zolga Owns]

Do what AltF4 said.

 

[hectichobo]

(We can help you out more specifically with this if you want)

Could you do that please? I'm not very good with all this internet stuff. Terms like "[insert color here] cable in the back" help me out more than big words that I don't understand.

 

[hectichobo]

Sounds like your mother enabled either WEP or WPA/WPA2.
If you don't know which it was, you can probably connect to the router by going to http://192.168.2.1 in your browser (while connected to it via an Ethernet cable). If prompted for a username/password, try admin as your username and no password. From there you need to poke around some and figure out where encryption/WEP/WPA settings might be stored, find the appropriate passkey, and set up the connection accordingly on your computer.

Many models of routers have a "reset to factory default" button on the back of them. If you hold down on it for a couple of seconds, it will reset the router and get rid of that password.

Thank-you both so much^
What I did was change by settings back to having no security or encryption and letting whoever wants to go on it go on it. I live in the middle of no where (Maine). Who's gonna go on it?

Sorry but you're both gonna have to split the cookies and money.
[Sorry for double post too]

 

[AltF4]

Just curious: What worked exactly for you?

 

[hectichobo]

1.) First, I had to reset the router to get rid of the password. (Like you said).
2.) Then, I had to visit: http://192.168.2.1 (as Kirby King said.)
3.) Next, I went to Wireless>Security and left the Password blank. My "Security Mode" was set to WPA/WPA2 (Just as Kirby King had predicted).
4.) Last, I has to change the "Wireless Property Settings" on my computer to:
Security Type: No Authentification (Open)
Encryption: None

(^This is what my settings were originally set to, but I had changed them trying to fix my problem.^)

 

[Zolga Owns]

Next time when you encrypt it make sure you write the passkey down.