How do I recover my wireless connection to my router?

On my laptop, I lost connection to my security-enabled connection from my router. When I tried to reconnect, it just completely disappeared. I do see other people's names and their networks but that's because I live in an apartment building. I still have solid internet connection from my modem and on my desktop computer but can't get any wireless connection.How do I recover my wireless connection to my router?
There's an option in the router to not broadcast the name of the network (the SSID). Normally, you'd set this yourself, but if someone got into your router's admin pages via wireless, they may have changed it as part of their hijacking operation. (Remote administration is EVIL.)



I suggest you log into the admin pages -- if you can -- from your desktop machine and see if that option has been turned off. If it has, you have pirates on board. The following instructions will help get rid of them.



Because routers differ as to details, I can't be specific about how to accomplish these steps, but they're almost all done from within the router's administration web pages. Note: It best to do them from a computer cabled (even just temporarily) to the router rather than wirelessly, especially since wireless administration will be deactivated by step #1.



Generally, to access your router administration pages, hook up a computer directly to the router and enter the router local IP address into a browser address window. See way below for details on finding your router's IP address.



1. Deactivate wireless access to your router's administration web pages so only a computer connected via an Ethernet cable can reach them. This won鈥檛 affect wireless use of the Internet, just wireless administration of the router. Even if you don鈥檛 want to leave a computer connected via a cable, leave the cable there for when you need it.

2. Turn off the SSID (network name) broadcast from the router. There's no need to advertise your network's presence. You're not running a hotspot; everyone who should be on your network should know its name.

3. Change your SSID from the default. Hackers know that routers come with default SSIDs and look for them. Even if the SSID isn't being broadcast, if a hacker knows its name, they can hop on board.

4. Set up encryption with an encryption key. The longer, the better. WPA (if your network and all your computers can support 802.11G) is better than WEP. WEP is better than nothing. Each of your wireless computers and devices will need this encryption key. Wired computers will not.

5. Limit access to only the computers you want on the network via MAC filtering. (MAC refers to unique NIC (Network Interface Card) addresses, not Macintosh computers, and not IP addresses.) This isn't a defense against hardcore freeloaders -- it's possible to fake MAC addresses -- but it keeps out casual interlopers.

6. Change the range of and/or limit the number of automatically assigned IP addresses (DHCP) to reduce the chance of extra users. Again, hackers know what ranges routers come from the factory with. Changing them makes it a little harder to hop on board.



Here how to find your router IP address:



1. Click on the Start-%26gt;Run button.

2. In the text box, type



cmd



and press Enter.



3. A black ';DOS box'; will pop up. In it, enter



ipconfig /all



A bunch of gibberish will fill the box. Next to ';Default Gateway'; an IP address will appear. This is your router's IP address.



That should go far toward hardening your wireless network.How do I recover my wireless connection to my router?
Hard wire laptop and reconfigure it ~