HELP! Touch Won't Connect to Home Network

[piperpilot]

I just got a new 2nd generation iPod Touch 32GB yesterday. I turned on the WiFi and it found my home network. It asked me to put in the 26-character encryption key, which I did. There were no error messages and I checked the settings to make sure the DNS and MAC addresses were present. Everything is cool. Touch says it has full signal. However, when I went to access the App Store, I got an error message saying that it could not connect. Same with all other functions that require connection to the network. Does anyone have any idea what's wrong and what I can do to fix it? Just to make sure the WiFi radio was working, I tested it this morning at a Starbucks and was able to connect without a problem. I am using a Linksys a/b/g router with 128 bit encryption (26 character key).

[doogald]

I've heard that sometimes a WEP key needs a "$" character in the front of the key (no quotes - it would look like this: $16A34BD4F....) in order to recognize it as a hex string of characters rather than a series of ASCII characters and numerals; I'd try that first.

If there is any way to switch your network to WPA2 rather than WEP, though, that might be the smartest thing.

[Vincent Ferrari]

I just got a new 2nd generation iPod Touch 32GB yesterday. I turned on the WiFi and it found my home network. It asked me to put in the 26-character encryption key, which I did. There were no error messages and I checked the settings to make sure the DNS and MAC addresses were present. Everything is cool. Touch says it has full signal. However, when I went to access the App Store, I got an error message saying that it could not connect. Same with all other functions that require connection to the network. Does anyone have any idea what's wrong and what I can do to fix it? Just to make sure the WiFi radio was working, I tested it this morning at a Starbucks and was able to connect without a problem. I am using a Linksys a/b/g router with 128 bit encryption (26 character key).

I'm assuming you're using WEP encryption? If so, put a Dollar Sign in front of the key and try again. That should do the trick ;-)

[Vincent Ferrari]

I've heard that sometimes a WEP key needs a "$" character in the front in order to recognize it as a hex string of characters rather than a series of ASCII characters and numerals; I'd try that first.

If there is any way to switch your network to WPA2 rather than WEP, though, that might be the smartest thing.

Damn... Beat me to it :-)

[piperpilot]

Thanks, guys. Yes, I am using WEP. I will give your suggestion a try tonight when I get home. Will let you know what happens.

[piperpilot]

I tried your suggestion last night but it didn't work. I read on some other message boards that the problem might be my Linksys router needing a firmware update. I will try that one tonight and let you know how it goes.