Wireless connection difficulties, one works, one doesn't

[mariner2]

I have two laptops (conveniently one's black and white) the black one comes in to my office and connects wirelessly automatically every time I turn it on, but the white one won't connect, even though it can 'see' the full-strength signal. I put the password in and it fails to connect.
When I take them home, the exact opposite is true, ie the white one connects automatically, but the black one doesn't, even though it can see the full strength signal from the router, and is sitting next to it. It does say its connected, but its 'local only' so can't get online.
There's another PC upstairs that connects without a problem as well.
Any ideas?

[rojash]

Do you use the same passkey for both your home and your office router?

[mariner2]

No, different routers, different passkeys.

[rojash]

Have you maybe got different security protocols selected on the two routers (eg WPA on one and WPA2 or both on the other)?

[mariner2]

Yes, the black one is WPA-2 personal and AES (works with the offfice router) but its set to WPA personal and TKIP for the home network, but doesn't work with that. If I change it is says it doesn't match the settings.

[rojash]

Change the settings on your Home router to WPA-2, set a new passkey, then configure both machines with the correct passkey.

You can probably access your router setting sy clicking here:

http://192.168.1.1

or here:

http://192.168.2.1

You will need to enter the username and password for access to the router settings.

[mariner2]

192.168.1.254 is the one for the thomson gateway router at work, but I don't know what it is for the netgear one at home.

[ChuckFickens]

Netgears tend to be http://192.168.0.1

[mariner2]

Yes it is thanks, but I don't know the password!

[ChuckFickens]

username: admin
Password: password

[mariner2]

No good I'm afraid

[mariner2]

If 2 computers are working with things as they are at home, shouldn't I bechanging something on the laptop that doesn't work?

[rojash]

At the moment, the settings are incompatible between your home and office networks. If you change the Black one so that it connects at home, it won't work at the office. If you change the white one so that it works at the office, it won't work at home.

So, you need to change the home network so that you can then have settings on both computers that are compatible with both office and home.

Older netgear routers had a password of 1234

[mariner2]

Ah, I see, I'll keep trying to get into the netgear settings then.

[mariner2]

Got in at last, it was 'admin' and 'sky', now for the next bit . . . .

[mariner2]

OK, my options are WEP, WPA-PSK (which its set to) or WPA-802.1x

[mariner2]

Do I change it to WPA-802.1x then set a new passkey for the router, do I just make one up?