setup wireless connection speedtouch 585 help.

Using wired ethernet at present,what should the interface settings be in router for wireless setup,i have just been given a buffalo 54mbs usb adapter to use as i have no pci card.Do i install adapter drivers with wired ethernet enabled?,any help to get me started,Its just to learn how to setup wireless before we get another pc and after advice on here will buy another usb adapter.

If your using windows when you plug in your USB wireless dogle you should be prompted to load your drivers.
If everything else is set up correctly your wireless connection should then work, don't forget to set up security, preferably wpa 2 if all your components support it.

Yes using XP,

Yes it supports wpa, and after installing drivers do i set the security up in the router wireless interface page.Does the lan driver in device manager have to be disabled when i setup the wireless connection.Also the dongle has a client manager i will have to install?.

LAN Device Driver - Upto you, if you plan on using the LAN connection in the future, might as well leave it, only you will have the icon in the systray saying it's not connected to a network.
3rd Party Wireless Client Manager - Windows XP has a built in wireless manager, but usually the one that comes as part of the drivers might give you a few more options and information. But some can be a bit too complex. Give it a try first, you can always revert back to the Windows Wireless manager at any time, without having to uninstalling the drivers or 3rd Party Client Manager.

Better to configure your security on the router first while connected via LAN
Select WPA or WPA2 (if your wireless dongle supports it, check the box or manual), you can always use the WPA+WPA2 option, which will support both, which uses WPA as a fallback if WPA2 is not available.
Don't forget to set a passkey (PSK) that you can remember, longer the better (i think)

Change the "Network Name(SSID)", and maybe after you set it up correctly and are connecting with no problems:
Set "Broadcast Network Name" to "No"

I also found it better to set "Channel Selection" to "Manual", and set your own channel Number.
If there are other wireless networks in the area, Avoid using Channel numbers close to the neighboring networks, by 5 (again, I think, going by memory here) to avoid interference
E.g
Neighbors - 6
Set yours to either - 1 or 11, but try other numbers if you have problems.


EDIT:
The reason for hiding the SSID, is one layer of protection from anyone trying to use your Network / Internet without your consent. You need to know the SSID of the router in order to try and connect. So anyone else can detect their is a wireless signal around, but not the name of your router.

According to the Buffalo website, I don't think your USB dongle supports WPA2 (could be wrong).

Edited by Clovis (Thu 11-Oct-07 23:38:49)

Ok thanks thats good information,i will try to follow the advice and see how i go on.

I have connected but so far can not find the option to set a passkey,i have wpa encryption ok,another thing when i changed the SSID in the router i lost the connection and had to connect back to the router interface using wired lan,i then set the SSID back to default and the wireless came back on. I unticked the broadcast network name box.but there is another tick in a box about broadcast multi network names?

Allow multicast from Broadband Network - I've never looked up what that actually does, best to leave it on.

If you haven't already figured out how to sort it...

You lost connection cos your PC was setup to connect to the "SpeedTouch" Named router still when you changed the router name (SSID) and hid the SSID. You would need to re-scan / setup the settings in the "Wireless Client Manager" to connect to the new settings (Name).


Easiest thing is for you to do in this order:
- Connect to the Router (Wired)
- Do most of the Changes to the "Channel", "Interface Type", "SSID", "Encryption", and "WPA-PSK Encryption Key" (PassKey), Leave "Broadcast Network Name" ON, at the moment.
- Overwrite / Remove the Current Settings / Profile on the PC/Laptop in the "Wireless Client Manager" with the new settings (if you want to re-scan then do so)
- Wireless connection is should be working.
- Now turn "Broadcast Network Name" OFF
- Done


In the future, all you need to do to connect any new PC's / Laptop's to your router is to know the following:
- Encrytion Type (Can be detect anyway)
- SSID / Route Name
- PassKey / Encryption Key
And in put the manually into the "Wireless Client Manager" / Device (e.g. Wii, PS3...)

Ok thanks again i will give it a try.

Just a few points if you can help,
I have set encryption key to wpa-psk-tkip,there is the option to use Aes instead of tkip.
Is the encryption key the same as the passkey.
Also in the router a drop down list of

new stations allowed automatic
new stations allowed via registration
new stations not allowed.

which is best setting for just 1 pc at the moment.

Another thing [sorry to be a pain] is the encryption key in the router shows up,.not like in the client manager which just shows a bunch of dots.

Edited by deleted (Fri 12-Oct-07 15:20:22)

I think the 585v6 router can only support "WPA-PSK-TKIP", as I can't find anywhere in the documentation to say it supports the AES method.

Encryption Key = Pass Key, should just be different terminology. If you have the encryption set the same on both ends. I.E. "WPA-PSK-TKIP"

The dots / stars / hashes / ***** - It called a password mask, built into most software / secure websites that require as security password, so that someone can't look at your screen and see what you just typed.
____________________________________
____________________________________

Allow New Devices:
You can find this in the manual. Here in Chapter 2, Section 2.2.4 (Adobe Acobat Reader Required).
The "Registration" of devices is another layer of protection for wireless on this router.
The router keeps a table of record of devices that are / have "Registered" to the router at one time or another. See Here
From there you can allow or deny access of each already registered device on the router, in the Local Device List.

But in order to "Register"/connect the Device to the router, you may have to do a intermediate step before you can.

... Automatically - As long as you have the settings to connect to the router, you can connect to the router automatically, without having to do anything else in or to the router.

... via Registration - You will need to setup up your New PC/Laptop/Device ready to connect, but don't yet hit the connect button.Then you have to either:
- Hold down the "Registration button" for about 2 seconds, a round button to the left of the row of LED's on the router.
'or'
- Initiate the "Search for wireless devices" from within the router Here or Here.
You then have 2 minutes (according to the manual) to register / connect your New PC/Laptop/Device to the router within this time.

... Not Allow - Is similar to the "via Registration" option, but you can only register by the "Search for wireless devices" option Here or Here, as the "Registration Button" on the router is disabled.
Again, you have to connect your New PC/Laptop/Device before the time is up.


If your not planning on putting any new devices on the network at the moment, maybe set it to "Via Registration" or "Not Allowed", to stop others connecting even if they do manage to get / crack / hack your settings. They will need access to an already connected device, VIA LAN or the router itself to add their own.
But then the same also goes for you.
Hopefully you have already setup your connection to be secure enough to hopefully stop anyone else, but this will make it a bit harder.


Hope it all makes sense, but any other questions, maybe try looking in the manual first. Most things can be found there, the rest is knowledge and experience.

Hope this all makes sense

Yes its all very helpful and makes sense thanks.

Iwill try to follow as much as possible.

Just going back to one point is the encryption key on the router it still shows the key in full ie fatherxmas545 instead of ************ like it does in the client manager,maybe its meant to be like that as i have a password to get into the router as well.

In the user guide it says the speedtouch client supports Aes,is that meaning the usb adapter and not ST585 V6 version of the router?

Edited by deleted (Fri 12-Oct-07 20:55:57)