lost encryption key

[lucia21]

my dad bought a belkin wireless router a few months ago and now i have my own laptop so wanna connect. i have bought a wireless network adaptor to speed up my connection but when i try to connect it asks me for the encryption key in order to log on to his internet. the only problem is that he says he doesnt know where it is. is there any way i can log on without it or get it from somewhere? please help!

[sparkyharky]

You will need to do a factory reset on the router, details how to do this will be in the manual.
This will put ALL the settings back to the day it came out of the box, so you will have to start all over again with everything...this includes the encryption key.
Passwords will all be set back to default too.

[Ethel]

No need for that yet.

Go the admin set up page for the router - usually by typing

192.168.1.1

into the address bar. If that doesn't work, change the last digit to 0, and if that doesn't work - the last two digits to 2.1.

Go to the wireless security page and you will find the network key - it is usually the first in the list that you use.

[CushtyFred]

Ethel, they could just do an ipconfig on a machine already connected to the router to get the IP.

[Ethel]

Does that show all the security WEP keys and so on though?

[Llamatron]

No but it'd show the gateway which is most likely going to be the wireless router.

[lucia21]

thanks for all ur feedback. i have the encryption key now but it still doesnt work!! i can only get online by pluggin my laptop direct, to the router. when i open my options for the wireless network adapter it says the connection is at full strength but i cant actually get online. there is a picture saying: my computer-------router--------internet but the lines connecting them r always red when they r supposed to be green! i dunno if ive explained myself properly but if you understand wot im saying plz help! lol!