Help securing network

Hi all hope someone can help I have two computers on my network the main one has a linksys wifi router connected to it I tried to follow these instructions to secure my network with my laptop both running win XP the main or lets say server will get online but I can't get connected on the laptop I get a message limited of no conductivity any help would be greatly appreciated
Thank you
Phil

.Access the router’s web-based setup page. use 192.168.1.1
2.When the router’s web-based setup page appears, click the Wireless tab and select the Wireless Security tab.
3.Select WEP under Security Mode.
4.Select any number on the Default Transmit Key field to determine which key you’ll be using.
5.Select 64 bits on WEP Encryption.
6.Type a wireless network password of your choice such as “MySecretKey,” then click Generate. NOTE: You should come up with a password that is unique for your network and is a combination of numbers and letters up to 16 characters.
7.The result will be a string of random characters. Copy the resulting string since this will be the key to your wireless network.
save settings

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so you typed the wep key in the laptop when you were prompted for it and you get nothing? try rebooting the laptop and doing it again. your wireless access point SSID should appear in the wireless networks area as always, given you have it set to broadcast the SSID. click your access point and a window should pop up asking for your wep key. copy and paste it or type it in and you should get connected.

 

Ok so I am doing everything I need to do? I will try again if this is the case and try to reboot thank you for responding I'll thank you now in the event this isn't my only problem. Also To copy and paste it your saying do it from the laptop not the computer connected to the router is this correct?

 

One thing i usually do when inputting my network password, since it is really long, I first type it out in notepad and copy/paste it into the password fields.

Yes you should be trying this with the laptop when you attempt to make an initial connection to your wireless network.

 

I just tried to secure the network again and still got the error little or no conductivity I did an ipconfig and saw that I had no default gateway and was unable to get on line what am I doing wrong? this is driving me crazy my wife pays bills and I need to secure this somehow there are a lot of people in my area with wifi and I know one is using my connection please help.

 

I really hate to be a pain in the butt but can anyone tell me why when I try to secure my network on the router I lose the ip and default gateway on my laptop it's an HP 9xxx series I tried to copy and past one of the 4 keys in the box but just comes up little or no conductivity this would seem to be a simple task but it just isn't happening for me any suggestions where or what I did wrong.
Thank you
Phil.

 

Well there is one sure fire way of securing your network. Remove all security: wep wpa. Then access your routers control panel navigate to the wireless MAC address filter section. Input the mac address for each computer you would like to grant access wirelessly to your network all others will be denied access.

I assume you have a linksys router based on your default gateway if so see the image bellow, this section is where you would add the mac address.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_T8R8Yz-B2...A/wGJJoKBH6lo/s1600-R/Wireless+MAC+filter.JPG

To get the mac address from your machines in XP:
1. click "Start" on your task bar
2. click "Run"
3. type in "cmd".
4. Once in command prompt type "ipconfig /all". This command will list information for each network adapter on your machine. For your purposes you should look for the wireless adapter.
5. look for the "Physical Address" Field this tells you the mac address for that particular network device.

You can alternately view your mac by:
1. double clicking your wireless try icon or navigating to your "Network Connections" folder.
2. Click the support tab.
3. Click details.
4. Physical Address, at the top, is your mac address.


Based on what you said, paying bills online, you should also take steps to secure your communications to websites. Always utilize SSL, https rather than http.
Installing a good antivirus can help protect your computer from trojans and viruses which can farm your passwords: avg, nod32, avast are all good options. Also you should not store any sensitive data on your computer for example passwords, cc data, billing address, SS numbers this practice makes it way to easy for people to grab your information.

Simply securing your network is not good enough to protect your most valued data.

Hope you can benefit from this.

GL