WPA Networking Basics

[Gardener]

I have an unsecured network of 1 PC and 3 laptops, running 2 XP Home and 2 Vista, which I would like to make secure via WPA encryption.

I have enabled WPA encryption of the router using the configuration interface, however the User Guide of the router is very poor in explaining how I am then supposed to reconfigure the client computers with the WPA key. It just says to reconfigure them, but gives no instructions as to how this should be done.

I know this is probably a simple thing, but I just can't figure it out, so any help would be much appreciated.

The router is a Speedtouch 585 v6 if this is of any relevance.

[cszeto]

That depends on which wireless client is being used on your systems. If each system is using the OEM wireless client, then you need to configure based on the instructions/procedures specific to the OEM client. It has nothing to do with the wireless access point/router at that point.

[y2ken]

I'm no expert but I believe that as long as the wireless card on your 'client' supports WPA all you have to do is attempt to connect to your WPA enabled router and you will be prompted for the WPA key that you entered into your router.

[Gardener]

Thanks very much for the replies. You'll be happy to know that I have managed to do the job, and my network is now secured, however the method of getting each 'client' to accept the WPA was slightly different on all 4, so it's probably not surprising that it was so confusing.

[cszeto]

Glad that everything worked out for you. Thank you for sharing your outcome.