Positively cannot get wireless password to work, ARGH!

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So I got the AirPort card (original) for my daughter's iMac G3 last night and tried hooking it up to my router.

It sees the networks around me, and I can connect to my neighbor's unsecured wireless and surf the net just fine, so I know the card works.

However, when I try to connect to my router, it tells me I have the wrong password nearly every time. Once or twice I actually did get it to accept the password, but then it refused to get an IP address. (IMHO, the AirPort application is flakey and severely limited, it probably didn't really accept the password).

I have a Linksys WRT54GS and it's using 128 WEP. It has a hex key, but I tried the tricks I could find:

MYWEPKEY
$MYWEPKEY
$MYWEPKEY$
#MYWEPKEY
0xMYWEPKEY

I know I'm not mistyping the key, I copied and pasted it directly from the router configuration page.

Her computer has both OS9 and OSX (the first first version of OSX, sorry I'm new to Macs, I don't know which "cat" that is). Same result in both systems.

Is there something else I'm missing??? I'm going crazy here.
 

cwa107


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WEP keys can be notoriously difficult to get working, so I'll save you a bunch of needless headache. Turn off WEP on your router and switch it to WPA.

WPA uses standardized passwords that work across all platforms with no deviation in the standard. I should also note that WEP is essentially a dead encryption protocol as it can be easily hacked within just a few minutes with readily available tools. WPA was released as a replacement about 5 years ago. It's much simpler to work with and far more secure. So, if your router supports it, definitely switch over to WPA and pick a password. Then all you have to do is reconnect to the router and supply that password that you chose. If WPA is not an option, you may need to download a firmware update for your router - but if it was made in the past 5 years, it should already have it.
 
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Actually, all I needed to do was update to AirPort 2.0.2 (to support 128 bit), and THEN use the 0xMYWEPKEY and it worked.

One of these days I'll get around to configuring it to use WPA... it's been on my to-do list for a while. :)
 

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