WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy. As the name speaks it is a security feature in wireless networks to make it as secure as wired networks. Sneaking into wired networks is very difficult because you have to make a direct cable connection with the router to do that, but in wireless networks if proper security measures are not taken then anyone can connect to your wireless router if he or she is within the range of your router. This is the reason why security keys like WAP and WEP are so important and there has been lot of advancement in them since the day they were introduced. WEP works as an authentication media for any computer to connect to the wireless network and if you do not have the WEP key, you cannot connect to the wireless router. This key is stored in the router while configuring the wireless network and is known only by the router admin and other authentic users of the network. But what if you land up in a situation where you forget this key and are not able to connect to your router. If this happens in your office then it is pretty simple because you can ask for the key from your IT department, but if you are at your home where you yourself are the administrator of your wireless network then it will cause problems.
In this post I will deal with the same situation and will let you know how to tackle it and get your WEP key back.
To fix this issue, you would need some extra hardware along with your computer, and that would be an Ethernet cable, long enough to connect your computer and the wireless router together. Please note that WEP works only for the wireless signals and if you connect you computer directly through a cable, then WEP will not at all come into the picture and you can easily connect to the Internet. Let us go into the detailed steps now.
Step 1: Connect your computer with the router using an Ethernet cable.
Step 2: Open Command Prompt. This can be done by opening ‘RUN’ box and executing the ‘CMD’, command depending upon your Windows version.
Step 3: In Command Prompt type and execute the ‘IPCONFIG’ command. This will give you the default gateway of your computer. This default gateway is actually the IP address of your router. Note it down please.
Step 4: Open any web browser and type the default gateway’s IP address in the address bar of the browser. This will take you to the console of the router.
Step 5: Go to the WLAN section in the console and then in to the security settings page.
Step 6: Over here you can easily view the WEP key and can take a note of it.
Now you can close the router console and try connecting your computer wirelessly. Enter the WEP key which you just noted down to connect to the network and that would be all.
