Problem connecting to internet

[larryoke]

Hi all, I've just reincarnated an old packard bell easy note about 3 years after it died, it's running xp and I'm having problems connecting to my existing wireless router. When I try to connect it's asking for a network key (WEP) for this router I've only ever used a password, when trying this a pop up says
"the network password needs to be 40bits or 104bits depending on your network configuration.This can be entered as 5 or 13 ascii characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters"
what the hell does this mean & how do I overcome it.I have 2 other laptops running vista which connect without a problem. Hope I've explained this ok & thanks in advance.
Cheers Larry

[dasteph]

you will need to access your router and look for the wireless settings, there you should find the network key or passphrase which you need which will be a series of numbers and letters depending on the strengh of the encryption will determine how long the key will be, copy it and enter it when you next connect your laptop.

[larryoke]

Cheers dasteph, I'll give it a go in the morning.

[larryoke]

you will need to access your router and look for the wireless settings, there you should find the network key or passphrase which you need which will be a series of numbers and letters depending on the strengh of the encryption will determine how long the key will be, copy it and enter it when you next connect your laptop.

Thanks for that dasteph, I'm now online with that laptop, it seemed to remedy itself & I only had to put my password in this morning.I can only assume that because it had not been online for a few years, after I connected via ethernet and windows did some updates all was fine.
Thanks again,
Larry