Thank you so much to everyone who replied to my security questions earlier this month...you convinced me to get an 800. I connect my laptop to the internet through ethernet at my house, but I forgot that my linksys router is also wireless and my 800 picked it up. Too cool - I thought I was going to have to go to Panera Bread just to see if my 800 would connect. However its asking for a WEP key when I choose my connection...no clue. How do I find that out? Also in reading other posts, it was recommended to someone else who had just bought a new 800 to download and upgrade the new "firmware" right away. How do i do that one and what is firmware exactly...something like the os for a pc? Once agian thanks for everyone's input in advance. Really appreciate this website and everyone's generous help!!!

Turn the router over. The password is on a sticker on the underside (most of the time).

If it isn't there, then you will need to get out the owner's manual for the router. You will need to learn how to access the router from your laptop. Then you can set a new password for the wireless.

Linksys's usually are

admin
admin

Google helps. If not, linksys docs are on their web site. They likely will have a method for resetting the config to factory new.

Is your wireless network at home secured? If it is, then that is the key that they are asking about.

If the N800 is your only wireless device, I'd suggest you reconfigure your Linksys router to use WPA-PSK encryption instead of WEP (which is very insecure).

I wouldn't recommend you update the firmware unless you experience a problem - if the router is working fine, leave it as it is! How long have you had the router - the firmware may be current, you can determine the current firmware version once you have logged in (it should be visible on the web page somewhere). Also, what model is it as this may help get you setup.

I have a Linksys router but it's not running Linksys firmware, however I hope the following info will prove useful.

You should be able to login to the Linksys router using a browser and the instructions above - the IP address of the router could possibly be http://192.168.1.1 (I thin that's the default for Linksys) - click the link and see if you are prompted for a username password (by the way, you should change the password from the default once you have logged in!)

Then go to the Wireless setup section and change the encryption type to WPA-PSK (with TKIP if it's an available option). Choose a channel - probably a good idea to avoid the default channel (6?) try Channel 1 or Channel 3 instead. Then type in the SSID - anything of your choosing, eg. HomeWiFI (this is what appears in the list of networks when the N800 performs a scan). Leave it set to "Broadcast SSID", and then enter the Passphrase (this is the phrase you enter into your N800 when associating it with your network).

what is the thinking behind this statement?
I left mine with the default channel 6.

My logic is that just about everyone leaves their wireless router on the default channel (which seems to be 6 for pretty much every manufacturer) and if you're in an area where there are several wireless networks you'll all conflicting (interfering) with each other if you remain on the default channel.

If you install wireless-tools (apt-get install wireless-tools) on your N800 you can see the details of any surrounding wireless networks (including channel numbers) by running (as root) the command "iwlist wlan0 scan".

When choosing a wireless channel, it's best to choose a channel with a seperation of 3 from any other channel (ie. choose channels 1, 3, 6, 9, 11) - channel 2 will continue to receive interference from channels 1 and 3 etc.

Quick follow-up question: I wanted to copy of the information about my wireless AP that I have set up profiles to from my MMC card to flash. Where is that file located? I thought it would have been in /etc/network, but not there... I want to same profile on both the MMC and flash...