[PreciousBbird]

I have read the threads on wireless security, but they are a little beyond what I need to do, but more importantly, beyond my current level of understanding...

I have my MR814, cable modem and my AirPort card (it is installed). I can hook up to the Internet fine, but I now need to secure my system. I tried doing the 128 bit encryption and setting keys, etc, but then I was locked out because I apparently needed to set up the AirPort card to be able to talk to my new settings?? Luckily I got someone at tech support for NetGear and they told me how to reset the router. (hold pencil in reset hole until test symbol displays twice)

Anyway, now I am stuck because I don't know how to do the AirPort card set up. The tech person said I would need to set it up from a wired computer, but I have only one computer and it is in a different room than the modem/router - I do not relish the idea of dragging it into the living room. Please help. Thank you.

[ghporter]

I'm not clear what your setup is, so I'm not clear where to point you for a solution. You have an AirPort card installed-in what? The tech at Netgear probably thought you meant you had an AirPort Base Station, which can require a wired computer for its initial setup.

The problem most people have with setting up encryption with AirPort and some other product is that most other products make it quite clear that they expect a hex key, while the AirPort Admin Utility has a bit too much flexibility-and until the most recent version did not make it easy (or intuitive) for you to enter hex keys.

Basically, set up a key in your Netgear router. However it generates the key, it should also display a set of hex digits in the form a1 b2 c3 d4 e5 f6...no letters past 'f' and all digits from 0-9 are allowed, and each pair needs to stay together. Copy these hex digits and open your AirPort Admin Utility. Find the place where it asks for a network "password" (the more recent versions may actually refer to WEP keys), and enter exactly what you copied. Here's the secret: start the entry with a dollar sign-"$" without the quotes. This tells the utility to recognize what you type as a hex key. As you say that everything else is working without WEP, if you copy that hex key correctly, you should now be able to turn on WEP and secure the link between your computer and the wireless router.

The final step is to go into the Netgear's setup and enable "MAC Address Filtering," which allows only specific network adapters to connect to the network. Your AirPort card's MAC address is printed on its label, so just open up the space for it and write down the set of six hex characters you see on the label, then enter them in the Netgear's setup for MAC Address Filtering.

Good Luck.

[PreciousBbird]

Thank you very much! I am now secure. I didn't end up using the Airport Admin Utility to do all this - I clicked on the Airport tab for
System Preferences > Network

That was the only place I saw to enter a password. I chose "Join a specific network', then followed your instructions.

I don't think it was intuitive at all and I really appreciate your help.

Thank you again!

[ghporter]

Glad I could help. So much about Macs is so simple, straightforward and obvious, you'd think Apple would have written the software for a product they popularized incredibly so that you wouldn't need a bunch of help to set it up. Sigh.

Anyway, I'm glad you're secure, and that I could help.