Question

Unmasking Windows Passkey for Wireless

Asked by: WavyGravy

Alright, it seems I have a bit of a conundrum on my hands.

At my friends office, they have a wireless connection that they use to do their work.  As of right now they have one desktop connected to it, and nothing else.  The problem is that they recently purchased several new laptops and would like to work on the wireless connection as well.  However, the problem is the previous IT guy left the router under lock and key in a cabinet.  He still has the key, and my buddy hasn't been able to get it back yet.  Otherwise it would be as simple as logging into the router and resetting the password.

My question is if there is any way to unmask the passkey on the computer that is already connected to the network.  This seems like this would be a lot easier than busting the lock off of the cabinet which my friend really doesn't want to do.  In the meantime he's trying to get they back, but any advice here on how to get the rest of his computers up would be great.

Thanks in advance.

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Asked On
2008-06-04 at 13:47:46ID23458334
Topics

Wireless Technologies

,

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
3
Points
500
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: TsTbBPosted on 2008-06-04 at 17:06:02ID: 21715471

You should be able to recover the key if the router has been configured as WEP not to sure whether it's possible to recover WPA. Here's a link to some commercial software which claims to be able to recover WEP keys http://www.filedudes.com/Wireless_WEP_Key_Password_Spy-download-41359.html
I have used a similar program before to recover a password successfully however I don't remember the name.

 

by: SysExpertPosted on 2008-06-04 at 19:18:45ID: 21715938

Even if it is in a cabinet, it should be possible to login from the PC that is already connected to it. I would try tht first.


I hope this helps !

 

by: WavyGravyPosted on 2008-06-04 at 20:25:13ID: 21716164

Unfortunately he had a password set on the router, which none of us know.  Otherwise I would log into it and get it taken care of.

I guess we could reset the router by cutting power to the cabinet, but for the time being it sure would be a lot nicer to hook up everything with the settings still intact.

 

by: TsTbBPosted on 2008-06-04 at 21:03:30ID: 21716295

Here's a freeware application which supposedly recovers all types of wireless passwords. Haven't had a chance to test it yet.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wirelesskeyview.zip

 

by: oconnork00Posted on 2008-06-09 at 05:31:58ID: 21742638

TsTbB,

Nice resource, thanks for sharing.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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