The day I was leaving for California - see entry Murphy's Law - my home wireless network decided to suddenly stop working. I'm still not sure what happened there. My new laptop all of a sudden needed the security key for my wireless network again. And of course, I had no idea what I had used. In the hubbub and rush to get to the airport, I wasn't willing to figure out how to reset my network key or start over again. So for the past week, I haven't had a wireless network. It's amazing how quickly you get used to have one, and therefore how much I missed it!
Read the instructions carefully and found the instructions to set my router back to the original specifications. It was pretty simple really. Except that the instructions said to use the Reset key on the router. Which was supposed to be on the back of the router. Looking...looking...looking. Hmmm....there are no buttons on the back of the router. But then, I remembered one of my colleagues told me that it was probably a hole, not a button. Looking carefully at the plastic on the cover, I found it! Stuck a paper clip in the hole for longer than 10 seconds. Router reset. Whew!
Took my laptop over to the router, reconnected the internet, and put in the wireless configuration CD. Started the instructions again to set up the wireless network. Got it working on the first laptop. Whew!
The instructions said to try the other laptops before setting the security for the network. So I tried that. Couldn't get the network to connect on my old laptop. Hmmmm....What's going on?
Decided to skip to the security key step. Set up the security key (and wrote it down this time!). This time, I got the step that said "Copy this security key to a flash drive to put on other laptops?" I did not remember getting this message the first time. Good sign. Put in the flash drive. Information copied to the flash drive.
Went to the second laptop. Put in the flash drive. Nothing happened. Hmmm....
Opened the flash drive. Saw all the files I had backed up when I was moving files from the old laptop to the new one a while ago. But nothing that said anything about a security key for the wireless network. Hmmmm....
Disconnected the flash drive. Inserted it again. This time, the dialogue box said
"Copy the security key?" Yea! Copied. Done. Tried to connect to the internet. Worked.
Yea! All done. Right?
Picked up the new laptop from the floor where I had put it to set up the wireless network. Brought it over to the desk. Plugged it in. Opened IE. Couldn't connect. What?????
When in doubt, turn off the computer, right? There was an update for Windows that needed to be installed. Computer shutdown. Started it up again. For good measure, I put in the flash drive and installed the security key again.
Opened IE. Fingers crossed. Did it work?? Yes! Success. I have a wireless network again! Woo-hoo!!
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