I hope this is the right forum for this question on wireless setups.

I have been using my new laptop wireless on a friend's wireless router. There is no password so I just connect and logon.

Now am at another location and attempting to operate wireless with another friend's passworded wireless router. When prompted I enter the password but receive the following message: "The network password needs to be 40 bits or 104 bits depending on your network configuration. This can be entered as 5 or 13 ASCII characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal digits."

I am told that the wireless connection I am trying to make has WPA encryption and that my machine must have WEP encryption and that I need to buy a WAP wireless card for my computer. Then someone else tells me BS...my computer being as new as it is should be WAP capable and it is just a matter of adjusting my settings properly.

None of this makes any sense to me so hopefully someone in here understands and can advise. My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite P105-6114 and I bought it new about 2 months ago. Thanks to anyone who can help out!

Jim

Moderator Edit: Moved topic to more appropriate forum. ~ Animal

Yes I would say that this laptop should support WPA. I would make sure you have the correct drivers for the laptop as sometimes in default the drivers are setup with standard ones that don't support WPA. Try going to the manufacturers site and download the drivers for the wireless NIC. This should enable a WPA encryption unction.

Thanks for the reply! SInce I posted, I went to the host computer and tried to find setting for their wireless router. I looked everywhere but found no mention of encryption or "keys" or the like. When I went back to my laptop, it automaticaly connected to the host computer where it had demanded/required a "key" before. This without making any changes in the host computer or my laptop!! Weird! I just don't understand these machines.....

Jim