You should be prompted to enter a user name and password. Again, this tutorial is for NETGEAR branded routers, and the default user name and password for these are Admin and Password. If that fails, try Admin and Admin, or Admin and nothing. If that does not work, then you might need to talk to who sets your router to begin with, as they can have selected a different password. You should now be in the belly of the beast. There’ll be a zillion choices in the left menu. You should now be presented with various choices in the right hand window.
There are two main options we should consider for your home network. The first is Wired Equivalent Privacy, which is best used whether you’ve a very old wireless card. Otherwise, we should look to use WPAPSK. Remember, if you change it to an option that’s not compatible with your wireless card, you might need to connect to the router directly through a cable to change the setting back. You can generate keys with a passphrase, or just enter a key in. The peculiarity of Wired Equivalent Privacy is that you must use hexadecimal characters. Essentially this means you may use the letters A-F and the numbers 0-9.
If you select a 64 bit key in the Encryption Resources option, then you must use 10 characters. If you select 128 bit, then you must use 26 characters. It is much more secure and easier as you can set a normal password and are not limited to hexadecimal characters. Make sure to select WPAPSK. Then you just need to select a passphrase of 8-64 characters. Once you’ve filled out your security options, scroll to the bottom and click Apply.
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