Getting online!

[luvnyorkie]

Please help!  My husband bought me a nook as a surprise gift since he couldn't watch me reading books on my Droid for another minute.  I cannot get online, in other words, no internet connection.  It keeps asking me for passwords, and there are so many networks listed, I am completely confused.

[apetit]

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luvnyorkie wrote:

Please help!  My husband bought me a nook as a surprise gift since he couldn't watch me reading books on my Droid for another minute.  I cannot get online, in other words, no internet connection.  It keeps asking me for passwords, and there are so many networks listed, I am completely confused.

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From your description, it sounds like you were using the phone carrier data network to get access to books, etc.  The Nook is trying to connect to a WiFi network.  Check with your personal geek husband to learn which network is yours and how to connect to it.

If you do not have one you may need to go to a B&N store or somewhere that has free WiFi available.  

[bklvr896]

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luvnyorkie wrote:

Please help!  My husband bought me a nook as a surprise gift since he couldn't watch me reading books on my Droid for another minute.  I cannot get online, in other words, no internet connection.  It keeps asking me for passwords, and there are so many networks listed, I am completely confused.

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Ok, assuming you are at home, you're referring to the New Nook Simple Touch and you have WiFi at home.

When it finds the WiFi's in your area, you need to know which one is yours.  Then when you try to connect with it, you will need to know the passphrase that was set up on the WiFi for security.  This is not the password to get into the router settings, it's the passphrase that goes with the security.

Who set up your router?  This is the person who should have that information.

[Byteguy]

Which Nook?  Color or Simple Touch?

B&N has classes for the Nook.  You might want to take one.

Your Nook is going to list all wireless networks in range.  That's going to include a lot of your neighbors' wireless routers.  They have put passwords on so you can't just use their connection for free.  They will say "Secured with XXX" on the list and you can't get in without the password.

Networks that don't say that are open.  You'll find those at Starbucks, B&N, McDonalds, and such.

[luvnyorkie]

To add more confusion, I do have a wireless router in the house, which was set up by the Comcast guy.  He put the password in and we cannot remember what it is.  Is there any way to get in without resetting the router to factory defaults?

[apetit]

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luvnyorkie wrote:

To add more confusion, I do have a wireless router in the house, which was set up by the Comcast guy.  He put the password in and we cannot remember what it is.  Is there any way to get in without resetting the router to factory defaults?

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At this point it might get a bit confusing.  A number of questions:

1) What brand and model wireless router was installed?  This becomes important later.

2) Are you able to connect to the router?  You might try http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1 as an address in your browser and let us know what it says.

Once we know what kind of router you can try the default passwords to check the configuration.  For Netgear it is (user/password) admin/password and for Linksys (also now called Cisco) I think the user is blank and the password is admin, or it could be admin/admin

Knowing the make and model and if you can get access to configuration we might be able to help.

If your provider is comcast, a reset might work, but be aware that your computer configurations will also have to be changed. 

[bklvr896]

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luvnyorkie wrote:

To add more confusion, I do have a wireless router in the house, which was set up by the Comcast guy.  He put the password in and we cannot remember what it is.  Is there any way to get in without resetting the router to factory defaults?

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See if you can find the receipt or work order the comcast guy left, he may have written it on there.

Also, having just dealt with this with my mom, unless the comcast guy changed it, the user ID for the router is Admin and the password is "password" (Not sure about capitalization on that).  This is what the comcast folks told us on the phone, not that it worked as ours had been changed.

If you can get into the Router, you may be able to find the passphrase.

Comcast is going to be no help, they weren't to us, unless we were willing to pay for some type of premium service, they wouldn't even send out a tech.  And if you can't get into the router and can't find the passphrase, you're only option at that point is to reset the router and start over.

We were fortunately, although I don't remember doing this, I apparently printed a txt file of the router information and stored it on my computer.  I stumbled across it looking for something else.

[LarryOnLI]

Just a suggestion, look on the bottom or back of the router for a sticker with the network name (SID) and passphrase on it.

[apetit]

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LarryOnLI wrote:

Just a suggestion, look on the bottom or back of the router for a sticker with the network name (SID) and passphrase on it.

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And if you find something like that, remove the label and put it somewhere quite a bit more safe!  No need to leave the keys around where anyone can grab them.

[Big_Dave_H]

luvnyorkie,

Let's make sure we are all dealing with the same things. 

All those WiFi network names you see are called SSIDs.  Hopefully yours is something unique and not just "linksys". 

These networks can be unsecured or they can be secured with either WEP, WPA, or WPA2.  Hopefully yours is secured with WPA2. 

If your networks is secured, to connect you will need to know the passphrase or passkey.  A passphrase is a full alpha-numeric (and symbols) code.  A passkey is generated from the passphrase and only contains numbers 0-9 and letters A-F.  These ARE NOT the same as the login & password you need to log into the configuration screens of the WiFi router.  I know the Nook instructions call the passphrase/passkey a "password" and I really wish they didn't, because it confuses people. 

So, here is a hypothetical:

SSID = MyHomeNetwork

Passphrase = 1963Stingray!

Passkey =  7c4d6aa4293074b14f97ff9ef5e81cc41cc06e8fe02da5aba5eff4450e261233

Configuration login/User Name = admin

Configuration password = password

I know all of this probably sounds very confusing.  If you have a computer which connects to the WiFi, you probably have an icon, usually in the lower right corner of the computer screen which shows if you are connected and to what.  That will give you your SSID.  You can also try standing near your WiFi router and it should show up at the very top of the list of SSIDs, since it will be the strongest. 

Then, you will have to figure out the passphrase or passkey.  That may be a little more tricky, but again it will be the same as what you used for any WiFi connected computers.