Encryption Disabled

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I have a neighbour with a Linksys WRT54G wireless router with five computers networked (all Dell laptops) and a hardwired network AIO printer. Two laptops running XP, two with Vista Home Premium and one with Windows 7. She wants all computers to work wirelessly even tho she always has at least one of them hardwired. I set up a WPA2 network and it worked fine for a few months, then one, by one, first the kids computers would not connect (Vista) then dad’s XP.

Went back and did some housekeeping on all computers (the kids are Limewire deaf…I keep telling them, but) and then reinstalled the network as before, except, I thought I would try Linksys included Network Magic. Good thought, mebbe, but I wish I had thought to do the Win 7 unit first instead of last. When I tried to install NM on the Win 7, it had a hissy fit. No help on Linksys site for this, so I uninstalled NM on all computers and set them back to a Windows network again.

A month goes by and they call me again. No one could connect on the encryted network. I logged on to the admin page and discovered that encrytion was disabled. Trust me when I say that no one in that house would know how to do this. No one even remembers where I put the user name and password info. How else could the save settings be changed like this? Could Network Magic do this? I thought I had uninstalled it in all computers, but I may have forgot one. Is there a virus that can bypass login? The computer that is hardwired in is an XP Vostro and I know I uninstalled NM on that one, but windows can’t see any wireless networks (there are other nearby, mine for instance) because it says another network manager is controlling the network (naturally, being a MS product, it doesn’t tell me the name of the program, or what to do about it. One would think that there would be a simple menu command to re-establish Windows network supremacy, but no….)

So, as for NM, I see threads on other forums that tell me that NM does not uninstall completely but has to be scaped out with a sharp knife. I hope this will solve the problems with Windows control, but I still can’t see how encryption got disabled on the router. ?

Ideas??

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Hi Dennis, and welcome to the Lounge!

Did you see any evidence that somebody may have reset the router to its default settings by using the reset button on the rear of the unit? In other words, were the router admin name and password still in force like you left them, or did you find them with the factory default settings? I have never used Network Magic, but I have not heard any good comments about the software. Maybe it had something to do with the encryption being disabled…seems strange though. Maybe the router has developed some real problems and might need to be replaced. Perhaps another lounger can shed some more light on this.

As for the Network Magic installations, it may take a while, but have you considered reinstalling it on the computers and using the free edition of Revo Uninstaller to remove NM? Revo should remove all traces of the software so you can start clean with Windows managing the networking.

You can download Revo Uninstaller here.

If you can rid the network of Network Magic’s influence, perhaps you can set the encryption back on the wireless and monitor it for any unusual behavior.

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Gerald is right on with his question about if the router is back to full default settings. I have used a bunch of wrt54g’s and out of maybe 2 dozen have a couple that will go back to default on their own. (the only solution I can find is to replace them) This does not explain why your friend’s computers do not see ANY wireless networks though…..

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No, the router was not reset. Admin page still loaded with the user name and password I had installed previously. When I went to the Wireless section, the Security section said Disabled. When I changed it to Enabled, all the encrytion settings and code were still there. But, again, I would swear that no one there had either the motive or the knowledge to disable it. When I told them what had happened, everyone was mistified so I doubt if it was a friend who did it (besides, everyone had fogotten where I had recorded the User and Password).

I did try Revo, thinking that if I just put the name in the search bar, it would hunt down traces of it, but I never thought of re-installing and THEN sicing Revo on it. I also found some advice on how to hunt down the dregs manually which was going to be my next move. Thanks for the hint.

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As for not seeing any wireless networks, only the Vostro so far has had network control hijacked. The others could see networks but no encrypted ones that they could connect to. That’s when I checked the router and found encrytion turned off. The Win 7 is working fine. I was unable to successfully install NM on it, so it wasn’t poisoned. I have so far re-installed Vista on one of the kids machines but had to go home before it was finished. The other XP machine can see networks and is using a free unencrypted connection. Havn’t had time to look at it to see if it is a default ssid of their router or a neighbour’s connection.

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