Anyone able to offer any input?

[Illumination]

I have a friend who has wireless internet through AOL. The windows pc works fine and all is good. However, they recently bought an Apple notebook and when they type in the key code to the wireless router it wont seem to take it. They think there must be a problem with the windows and apple systems trying to share the router. Is there an easy way to fix this other than splurging on a windows laptop?

 

[Gooner-fan-deano]

Re: Anyone able to offer any input?

I thought laptops nowadays come with wireless capabilities so that it just picks up a routers signal and uses it :S

 

[Illumination]

Re: Anyone able to offer any input?

I think that it would if the pcs werent windows. The Apple works at other wireless locations and the pcs work on the AOL wireless. There just seems to be a problem with Apple/Windows both trying to connect to the same AOL wireless. Im not sure why they would all work at a wifi place or Starbucks, but not on the AOL. There is definitely a problem though and Im trying to see if anyone has any input as to what it may be! Thanks

 

[f0xx]

Re: Anyone able to offer any input?

I can always visit you and fix the problem?

 

[Weeble]

Re: Anyone able to offer any input?

If the Mac won't actually connect to the wireless network then it's possibly the type of wireless encryption being used... I had an issue once with a friend trying to access our wireless router encrypted with a WEP key but the Mac wouldn't accept it. Ended up having to change it to WPA (which we were intending to do anyway but could never be bothered to).

Or have a I miss-understood the problem?
If it's the fact that you can't dial up to AOL with the Mac at the same time as the PC, can you dial up with each separately?

 

[Illumination]

Re: Anyone able to offer any input?

...I had an issue once with a friend trying to access our wireless router encrypted with a WEP key but the Mac wouldn't accept it. Ended up having to change it to WPA (which we were intending to do anyway but could never be bothered to).

That sounds like its the closest thing to the problem that I have heard (Im sooo not a computer person). Can you explain to me what the difference is between and WEP and WPA and what is entailed in making the switch?

Thanks!

 

[Weeble]

Re: Anyone able to offer any input?

Yeah, sure.
With a wireless network you have the option to encrypt all connections using a few different algorithms. The main one a few years back used to be WEP - "Wired Equivalency Protection" which has since been succeeded by WPA, or "Wireless Protected Access" which is a much stronger algorithm - it's harder to break.

Now assuming your friend set up their own wireless router they would've enabled some sort of encryption along the way; all you have to do to check is log in to the router (generally by heading to http://192.168.0.1/ or http://192.168.1.1/ depending on the setup. To discover which check the section down the bottom) and heading to the "Wireless"/"Wireless Security"/"Security" etc settings. There should be a few options there centered around wireless encryption - passphrases and such.
What type of router is it? Might be able to give some more detailed directions given the router make and model...



Discovering router IP
The easiest way to do this is to hit Start -> Run -> type in "cmd" and hit Enter; Once the new command prompt window has popped up, type in "ipconfig" and press Enter. The Router IP will be labeled as "Default Gateway".

Note: all inputs without quotes