Earlier this year I bought a linksys WRT546 router and set it up. Everything worked fine when I started and I decided to go ahead and encrypt the router so no one else could do any damage to my computer.
This was the biggest mistake I ever made. I went though the process of encrypting and it worked fine UNTIL I came to the last step of setting the keys. The moment I hit the "Save Settings" button my internet connection was lost. I tried everything I could think of, including four hours of online chat support with Linksys and six hours of phone support with them. I couldn't get anywhere and finally took my computer to a local repair shop.
Whatever I did while encrypting uninstalled the drivers for the wireless card, the disk drive, and rendered the router nonfunctional. I returned the router and took the computer and router to the repair shop, where they reinstalled the drivers and encrypted the router for me. Everything worked great after that! My Dell, the one that crashed when I encrypted, is falling apart so I then got a Mac with my student loan money, which also worked fine with the router.
About a week ago, I lost my internet signal and was trying to get the router back online when I accidentally reset it. It's now unsecure and set back to the factory settings. I am near tears even typing about it. AFter the frustrating hours of customer service that went nowhere and the hundred dollars spent to get everything working again, I am terrified to try to encrypt the router again. I am out of loan money and just don't have another $100 to pay if everything crashes again, and am too scared to risk something happening to the new computer as well.
I have looked for encryption steps online, but I don't have the confidence to try them. They seem to assume a certain know-how; also, the menus on some look different than the admin Linksys menu I get when I go to the security feature page. Does anyone know of a set of instructions that is truly step by step? Or could provide them? I have Windows 2000 on the Dell and OSX on the Mac.
I am just heartsick about this whole thing and I don't know what to do. I am just too afraid to try anything that isn't very specific. I would appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Misschanel