I think I found a person on in My Finder sharing my network. I'm not too happy. When we set up our router
it didn't ask for a password, so we don't have one. I'm not too computer savvy, but can do the basics.
Help..not sure what I can do ? I'd like to have a password so people can't get onto my network.
Thanks for the help
April
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Trying to restore my lost data
Is it an Apple device? If not, look to the manufacturer for instructions.
Years ago manufacturers use to have a special place to plug-in just for configuration.
With almost everything today, you connect a cable or make a wireless connection as if going to the Internet, open a Web Browser, and enter the physical address of the Router in the Address Bar at the top of the Browser window. The Router responds with screens formatted for display in a Web Browser, and you "fill in the forms" to configure it.
If it is an Apple Base Station, it uses a separate program (Airport Utility) to do that set-up, so that it can be more trouble-free.
Now you need to "dig in the manual" for your specific device and find out what to enter in your Web Browser or Airport Utility to talk directly to the Router.
Yes it's a MacBook laptop.
Dig in which manual...for my router or my Macbook??
Not sure what you mean about talking to the router?
Sorry, still not sure what to do, thanks for your help tho.
April
I was asking whether the router is an Apple device, such as an AirPort base station.
Linc Davis was asking, "Is your Router an Apple Airport Base Station, or something else like LinkSys, D-Link, Cisco, or other."
It is a D link, I found directions online at You Tube,
but after I followed directions and typed in
what I thought was my password, it didn't
work. So I reset it and I still don't have
a password on my network. 😟
To get access to your Router as Administrator, you need to enter the administrator password. If you do that correctly, you will gain administrative access, and additional configuration options will become available.
? Did you gain administrative access ??
Once you have adminstrative acess to the Router, you will want to enable WPA encyption, and specify a user connection password (as long a password as possible). This password is what you will need to connect as a User the next time you connect. Some Routers throw you off when they establish WPA encrytpion, and insist that to get back on, you must now enter the password you just set.
Thanks Grant. Yes, I did gain Administrative access,
and typed in a password. I guess I don't know
which password is the one that you use to
gain access to my network. So is it called
User connection password? Thanks for your help,
you are very speedy too 🙂
This was much simpler in "the old days" when there was a special place to plug in a terminal used only for configuration. It is more complicated today because you are both connecting as Administrator and as a Wireless user.
If you have gained administative access, the password you use for that has nothing to do with gaining acess to use the Router on a daily basis.
The menus to specify a password for daily connection to the Internet will be under something like encryption or proteced access. There you will usually specify WPA (personal) should be turned on, and that to allow users to connect to the Internet, the password you specify there should be entered -- a new (and different) password.
This connection password [not the Admin password] will be entered on your computer under
System Preferences > Network > WiFi/Airport...
... when you choose to connect to your home Network. Then your Mac will remember and use it when needed.
There are two different passwords at issue here. They aren't necessarily the same, and shouldn't be the same.
One is the password you use to get into your router settings. If you don't know what that password is, you'll have to reset your router to its factory default settings. I can't tell you how to do that. There's probably either a button to press or a pinhole into which you insert a paper clip. After you reset the router, it will have a default password, which you must change immediately. The default password is in the documentation somewhere. Find that documentation on the manufacturer's website.
Do not leave the default password set.
The other password is the network password, which you set within the router's web interface. I can't tell you how to do that either. Make sure you select WPA2 Personal as the security standard, not WEP. If the router doesn't have that setting, recycle it and get a newer one.
See this support article for the possible formats of wireless network passwords:
how do I get a password on my wireless router?
