Wireless with MacBook

Trying to get my neighbor's macbook connecting through wireless router, he has an older linksys router BEFW11S4 and his macbook is only a couple years old. I was able to get into the router and set either 64 bit or 128 bit WEP (nothing else available) and it computes and shows us the key.

When we get on his macbook running something called airport, it asks for "password" which does not seem to be the same thing as "key" which is linksys-speak. Never got it to connect.

It does connect with the security disabled.

Should we just get a newer router? Or can that one be used and I am not doing the right thing? Not a wizard here (obviously).

thanks, Don

For some reason, Macs tend to have a bit of an issue with WEP. Unfortunately, since you said the router only supports WEP, there isn't really much you can do besides take the encryption off or upgrade the router to a model that features WPA.

Indeed, a "key" is not the same thing as a "password."

You need to add a dollar sign --'$'-- before a key when you enter it into the AirPort connection dialog.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106250