Updated but still need help... Ridiculously long ambiguous security passphrase preventing manual device add on WiFi

[idata]

Product is ID'd as Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250

I am deployed military and I do not have a router. I am trying to manually add a Logitech Squeezebox wireless music server to the WiFi card on my Sony laptop (VPCEA36FM). The "My WiFi" utility allows this but demands the device only be allowed access after manually inputting an unnecessarily long security passphrase (50 freakin' characters). While the length of the passphrase is inconvenient at best, apparently the font the message is given in is also ambiguous. There are enough ambiguous characters that I have not been able to "guess" the passphrase after multiple tries. I even tried applying some logic as to what each of the characters in question are based on the network name given in the same message. I'll save the rant on how ignorant this set up process is and how much time I've wasted based on trying to work through this unnecessary issue in the hopes that someone can help.

Ideally I would like to be able to create a passphrase so that I know exactly what it is. Outside of that I don't know what can be done but I'm open to whatever works.

[IMG]http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii99/Crsipy/WiFiscreenshotpic.jpg http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii99/Crsipy/WiFiscreenshotpic.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks

[idata]

I just uploaded an intelligible version of the passphrase message. Not sure if it will help matters but I figured it can't hurt. See link in original post...

Thanks again.

[RKell3]

Passphrase needs to be at least 13 characters for WPA Security.

Rick

[idata]

Rick,

Thanks for taking the time to try and help. However, the majorityof my problem isn't with the length of the password (I was just pointing out how it's length was complicating matters even more). The problem lies in the fact that the passphrase given by the WiFi (not selected by me) apparently has multiple characters that can be interpreted differently. Of couse a shorter password would allow for less cance of ambiguity, but that's a seperate issue. Unfortunately, I was not responsible for selecting the length or character choice of the passphase and as far as I know I have no way to change it.

Thanks.

[RKell3]

That_Guy

I have used these http://en.community.dell.com/wikis/networking_internet_wireless/recommended-wireless-router-settings.aspx Recommended Wireless Router Settings, I use channel 11, for many years. I have not had a wireless devices that would not connect to my wireless network.

I use my own special password, that is 13 characters long and I know what the password is. I do NOT use a word out of the dictionary, but a combimation of a word or two combined with numbers included, which makes trying to hack into my network very hard to do.

I leave my network on 24/7 and have not had anyone try to connect. I do monitor the network, so I can tell which children are online, including my printer, in case someone turns it off, they're not supposed to turn this off. If my network goes down, I get notified immediately on the laptop I'm using.

Rick

[idata]

What's your operating system? It might be simpler to configure the wireless right in the OS, rather than using that Sony (or Intel, but I think Sony) utility.

Here's a set of instructions for Windows 7, and Vista should be quite similar. http://www.kombitz.com/2009/02/09/windows-7-how-to-create-an-ad-hoc-network/ http://www.kombitz.com/2009/02/09/windows-7-how-to-create-an-ad-hoc-network/. If you use these instructions, in Step 5 you will be able to enter any passphrase you want. When you do this, consider that there's at least a small risk that someone nearby could connect to your PC, so at the least don't make the passphrase the name of your favorite team or the word "password."

I'm not familiar with the Squeezbox interface, so I'm not sure how you get the key into that device, but at least if you configure it yourself, you'll know what key to use.

For wireless passwords, I go to https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm and copy out a whole one or the part that I want, then paste it into the interface. Then I paste it into a document so I have it for next time.

[idata]

I have experienced this problem before myself, and it is very frustrating.

The only possible ambiguities I can see are the three characters that could be lower case L's, Upper case I's, or numeric 1's. I doubt the possibility of them being ones, so that probably just leaves the first two options. Take a look in Character Map and see if you can match the font, that can be a help in identifying subtle differences between letters and numerals. If you find a match for the font, increasing the font size can also show up slight difference in line thickness or character width.

By 'manually entered' do you mean that you must type them rather than copy and paste from a text file? Retyping is a bummer.

If copy and paste is an option, I type out the password in full in notepad, copy it however many times are necessary to include the possible variations, which is usually not more than 9, make those changes sequentially, then copy and paste each option in turn, adding a X to the end of every version that fails (don't immediately delete, it saves retyping again if you think of a new variation), and a Y to the end of the successful version if I hit the jackpot (the Y is removed after the others are deleted.

It sure saves you the hell of retyping that many characters for each attempt.

Cheers

Billy