How di I kill off all wireless netowrks that we have in this house, and start over? Using Win xp, and a linksys "g" router, with RR lite service. Wired stuff is ok...the wireless drives me batty. I'd like to kill off the Linksys stuff and redo.. Suggestions?
Your Linksys wireless router will have a reset button on it. You can use that to reset it to factory "out of the box" defaults. Settings you should make immediately after reset: 1. Change the default ADMIN password. 2. Set the SSID to something other than the default "linksys" 3. Setup a WEP security key. After getting your wireless PC's connected and talking to the router, you should also turn off broadcast of the SSID, just as another level of security.
I hate to sound as if I'm dumber than a bag of rocks...but how would I go about following your recommendations?
The reset button should be on the back of the the router, in a recessed hole. Pressing the Reset button on the back of the router for 30 seconds will reset your router to its factory default settings. Any settings on the router will be erased and the router’s IP address will become “192.168.1.1” and the password will be “admin.” Your best bet is to use the "quick start" guide that came with your router, that would have included a setup CD. Normally you plug a PC into the router (with an ethernet cable) into one of the standard 4 ports in the back. When you run the setup CD, it will step you through the settings and allow you to change them. If you don't have your CD or documentation, you can find them on the Linksys site here. Here's Microsoft's generic help page for setting up wireless networking. Remember that once reset to an "out of the box" condition, the wireless router has virtually no security. It will easily allow you to connect to it, and anyone else within range. That's why it's important to read the documentation and learn what changing the admin password, changing the SSID, setting WEP keys and various other settings can do to help protect your network from being easily hacked.
