I am doing a friend a favor, setting up her Tivo box, Dell wireless laptop and Netgear WGT624 Firewall Router. All of these are up to date via wire connection, then moved on to wireless connection. The Tivo folks won’t support WPA and I have been forced to downgrade to WEP. I know I want 128 bit encryption (it’s better than wide open in an apartment complex) but I hit a snag.
I chose a Hex compliant 26 alphanumeric password & have tested the password via online Web sites to make sure I wasn’t choosing a letter that wasn’t A-F, and 0-9. When I input the 26 character password, it doesn’t work but yet fits into all the rules.
What am I missing that I don’t see in front of my face???
It sounds like you may have a problem with how the Tivo box is using the WEP key vs. how the Netgear router is handling the key. I looked on the Tivo Web site and didn’t see a Tivo box that came with a wireless connection, so I will assume that the wireless portion was brought from Tivo as a separate item that plugs into the box externally. Going with the highest level of encryption and the strongest key possible is always a good thing. My favorite site for creating passwords for this type of situation is Steve Gibson’s GRC Web site. In going to the site you will automatically be changed over to a https connection.
The first thing I would look at is applying the latest firmware to your Netgear router. While I don’t think this is a problem, you could end up with a version of firmware that offers you an additional option or two that might make it easier to enter a stronger encryption key than what you have been able to work with so far. Some of the SOHO style routers seem to allow a device to link up with a passphrase being used instead of using an actual key. Some of the Linksys routers I have used in the past have allowed you to enter a phrase and click on a button to generate a key. See if that is an option that might create a key that works better for you.
The next thing to try is a different wireless adapter for the Tivo box.
You should be able to find a game adapter that plugs into the ethernet port on the Tivo box. You can also be able to use a USB based adapter that should also be able to give you the option of using WPA instead of having to make do with WEP. I would suggest using an ethernet based adapter as that should be a little more configurable and will also allow you to plug a laptop between the Tivo and the wireless adapter. This will allow you to use a laptop with a protocol analyzer to debug other problems that may present themselves at different times that aren’t resolved by other troubleshooting techniques.
