Router won't connect to internet after enabling encryption

Question

This family was paying me to do various computer jobs for them, and one of them was to enable encryption on their wireless network. I thought this would be easy and simple because I had done it before on my very own router. So I went to the router options page, enabled a 6 letter key, and clicked save/restart. After the router restarted, it wouldn't connect to the internet. When I clicked on the status page, it showed that the computers connected to the routers fine, but there was a red X over the line from the router to the internet, indicating that the router wasn't connecting to the internet. All of the computers could connect to the router with a very good signal, but none could access the internet. I made sure they had the correct key. Anyways, it was getting late, and I thought I'd finish the job the next day, so I was just going to set things back they way they were so they could use their internet. So I went back to the encryption option page, disabled the key, and clicked save/restart. After the router restarted, it still was having the same issue of not connecting to the internet. Even though the settings were the EXACT same as before, it still wouldn't work. If I plugged the modem directly into the computer, the internet worked fine. Whatâ€™s going on here? Why isn't the router connecting to the internet? This is a dell wireless router, but I can't tell you any more information on the model number and such because I am not at the people's house.

boppo · Answer

hope you kept your day job. well you need to give us more info on what type of system and so on. make sure you have the latest drivers for everything. good luck

RWilliams0545 · Answer

I think it was a True Mobile. The part that I don't understand is that I enabled encryption, it stopped working, so I disabled encryption, and it still wouldn't work even though things were the same as before. The internet connectoin is a comcast cable modem.

RWilliams0545 · Answer

Yes, I tried everything. I am interested in information regarding the comcast issue now.

RWilliams0545 · Answer

Yuck, I can see, after reading through pages of topics, that comcast recently implemented a change which caused problems between a certain dell router and comcast cable internet. I see that many other people have the problem, of 'I can plug the internet straight into my computer, and it works fine, but if I plug it into the router, the router won't connect to the internet.' Someone said that comcast told them that a fix would be implemented within a few days, and I'd like to know if that came through? Are any of the people who had this problem still having issues?

boppo · Answer

on my router i have a rest button in the back that clears it all out. also did you unplug it from the wall power, that also reset the modem and or router.

priku · Answer

Hi...

This is w.r.t the question you had with the wireless router that it would not connect to the internet after you enabled encryption on it. If I'm not mistaken, you have mentioned that you had enabled a 6-character password. I dont think that you can enable a 6-character encryption code either in ASCII or Hexadecimal in the DELL router or for that matter any router. If you select 40-bit / 104-bit ASCII characters you can speficy only 5 /13 characters respectively. Had you selected the same with 40-bit (64bit) / 104(128)bit HEX you can go for only 10/26 characters respectively. The router would show that the system is connected to the router even when you really don't enter an encryption code in the wireless card/clent. But if you go back and check the IP address of the wireless client, it would give you an auto configuration IP / or the IP would be all set to 0s. Hence, it is important that you enter the right encryption in the router and also enter the right code in the card/client, and then check the IP address of the wireless client, you should get the valid IP and I am sure you will be able to go online. Dell routers do not support passphrase as a Linksys or Netgear would do. You need to enter the encryption code manually, selecting the right mode and bit (either ascii or hex). I think you might have just entered a passphrase.

And when you select ASCII you can use only alphabet. But when you select hexadecimal mode, the character can be only number, only letters or a combination of letters and numbers, BUT the letters what you use (again this is only applicable to HEX) while encrypting using the HEX key should range only from A-F. If you take care of these basic, but very important things, you can configure any router.

Good Luck!!!

jumpingfrog · Answer

Hey,

Regarding the Comcast ordeal. Well I just want you to know that nothing has been fixed. After going to Staples and buying a new router, its not the "Router" issue. So the new router has been returned.

In the mean time I'm waiting for my second Dell computer to arrive to get the network back up and running hopefully. Right now I'm connected directly to Comcast modem. Let me tell you I'm not happy about this. I have a Dell Inspiron 8500. I purchased this so I can be anywhere in my house, right now I'm stuck in one room to be connected to the internet. I'm hoping that the Dell Truemobile 1184 wireless broadband router will work soon. I've tried many things to get it to work, but nothing yet.

I had to hear that Comcast was updating their ISP's from Dell Tech support. Why couldn't Comcast tell me this? Its a huge "Merry-Go-Round". Its rather frustrating. I hope Dell Tech support can help me network the new computer if I can't figure it out, cause I know some about computers, but Its not totally in my blood line!

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Router won't connect to internet after enabling encryption

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