Airport Network Key LOST - Need HELP resetting or finding it.

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Airport Network Key LOST - Need HELP resetting or finding it.

Hi,
I'm new to the APPLE World. I had a roomate who had a mac and left her wireless router for me to use with my PC. She enabled the Security feature while she was living with me. She gave me a 6 digit PW that is not the '13 digit' Network Key that I need to allow my PC laptop on to the Airport Express Base Station.

I don't know what to do. I have a Windows based PC and am not familiar with Apple at all. I have this cool little 'router' that worked fine with her computer when she was here and I'd like to be able to get my laptop on the Secure network as well. But I am totally lost.

I understand that with a Linksys router I have at the office, I had to open a Linksys Utility in order to see the Network key that it had generated to add my laptop to the secure network at work. Since I don't have a Apple I'm not sure how to get into any Utility for the Airport Express Base Station. I hope it will be fairly simple.

Airport Express Base Station
Model No.: A1084

PLEASE HELP! ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Julie

A1084 Windows XP Pro

Posted on Apr 13, 2007 11:20 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 13, 2007 11:35 AM in response to juliem247

You should get on the Apple Support website and download Airport for Windoze. As you correctly suggest, a utility is needed to display the password. The utility is here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120273

Install that on your PC, connect an ethernet cable between your PC and the LAN port of the ABS, then crank up Airport Admin Utility.

First potential problem: You may not be able to configure it if roomie put a password on it. However, the 6 character PW she gave you MAY be the password for the ABS (not the WEP password, but an administrative password.

If the planets are aligned, you want to display the Equivalent Network Password.

It may also be that the 13 ASCII character string she gave you is, in fact, the 128-bit WEP password. Passwords of exactly 13 characters map directly to the Encryption key. Try that when you attempt to connect wirelessly, checkng the radio button (if present) to indicate you have specified an ASCII password rather than the 26 char hex key.

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Answer 2

Apr 13, 2007 3:52 PM in response to juliem247

Hi,
I'm new to the APPLE World. I had a roomate who had
a mac and left her wireless router for me to use with
my PC. She enabled the Security feature while she
was living with me. She gave me a 6 digit PW that is
not the '13 digit' Network Key that I need to allow
my PC laptop on to the Airport Express Base Station.

I don't know what to do. I have a Windows based PC
and am not familiar with Apple at all. I have this
cool little 'router' that worked fine with her
computer when she was here and I'd like to be able to
get my laptop on the Secure network as well. But I
am totally lost.

You can easily reset the AE password to "public", by using a clip on the reset hole for 1-2 seconds max. If you keep it for 5 seconds or more you will reset the AE to the initial configuration, i.e., NOT configured.

The "network key" is either the WPA, WPA2 or WEP key. There is NO way to retrieve that key. If you find it, reset the AE, create a new WPS/WPA2/WEP key and enter that same key in the PC Wireless GUI.

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Answer 3

Apr 13, 2007 4:15 PM in response to neptune2000

The "network key" is either the WPA, WPA2 or WEP key. There > is NO way to retrieve that key. If you find it, reset the
AE, create a new WPS/WPA2/WEP key and enter that same key in > the PC Wireless GUI.

neptune2000,

The above is not a true statement. The hex equivalent and the ASCII password are easily retrievable using Airport Utility or the older Airport Admin Utility. Shows when you select the Equivalent Network Password.

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Answer 4

Apr 13, 2007 10:49 PM in response to Bruce Thomson

The "network key" is either the WPA, WPA2 or WEP

key. There > is NO way to retrieve that key. If you
find it, reset the

AE, create a new WPS/WPA2/WEP key and enter that

same key in > the PC Wireless GUI.

neptune2000,

The above is not a true statement. The hex equivalent
and the ASCII password are easily retrievable using
Airport Utility or the older Airport Admin Utility.
Shows when you select the Equivalent Network Password.

I was referring to his Windows notebook PC Wireless Setup. In Windows there is no such thing as displaying the WEP or WPA key once it is entered. Itt will always be shown as a bunch of ******.

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