How do i find my security key after i "named" the network?

[harliibabii88]

I had to reset my roughter after a hurricane. when i did this a whole bunch of boxes popped up on my computer, one asking me to name it. after i named it i was able to go on and i wrote down the security key but i think i got something wrong. now i cant hook-up anymore computers to the network and mine is running very slow. i want to take this network off my laptop and onto another. how do i find the new security key?

 

[Saga Lout]

Hello and welcome to Tom's Hardware Forums.

It's odd how you renamed the network name but can't get back in. What did you name it - surely you rememmberand it will show in the list of available networks.

Use the cable that came with your router to connect to your computer then go Start then Run in XP - or use the Windows key plus R in Vista and Windows 7, then type in the following into the Open box, including all the spaces:-

cmd /k ipconfig /all

then press Enter and from the black form that shows up, take a note of the numeric code beside the Default Gateway icon - something like 192.168.0.1.

Type exit to close the black form.

Open Internet Explorer and enter that code into the URL address bar as though it was a website. You're then at the login page to the router's settings utility and admin will usually be the login with either admin or password as the password but your router's instruction manual will help you there.

If you're in, seek out Wireless and then Security and take a note of the key. Sometimes it may be a passphrase, some a simple set of letters and others a hexadecimal code. You also may as well note which level of security it is - WEP, WPA or WPA/PSK 2 and then either AES or TKIP. Your computer will already know this but it's handy information to store. Note also that hexadecimal only contains numbers from zero to 9 and letters a to f so there's no confusion of I and O with 1 and 0.

It's adviseable to keep a note of that security key in your Documents folder and also outside the computer.

 

[steimy]

Yeah, what he said LOL

In the US usually all you have to type at a command prompt (Start-> Accessories ->Command Prompt) are ipconfig/all to get the default gateway. Everything else is the same.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/31382-43-find-security-password-wireless-router

 

[Saga Lout]

Yeah, what he said LOL

In the US usually all you have to type at a command prompt (Start-> Accessories ->Command Prompt) are ipconfig/all to get the default gateway. Everything else is the same.

Strangely that way into the Command form works in my country as well as in the rest of the world, in fact. It's the /k switch that makes it possible to call the ipconfig from the Open box. It's a speed of typing that makes lazy beggars like me do it this way.