How do I hide my router's password? Windows 7 'Starter'__

Anonymous
2010-01-01T23:23:29+00:00

Hi,

We just got a Lenovo S10 Netbook with Win 7 'Starter' version for my daughter and I have a question about configuring the Wifi access.  This is my first exposure to Win 7, so I'll describe things as best I can.

I clicked on the "Internet Access" icon in the tray and up came the list of Wireless Network Connections.  I selected the one for our WPA-PSK encrypted router and cut and pasted my ~30 character 'Network Security Key' (passphrase/password) and, bingo, I was connected to the internet and websurfing just fine.

Here is my question.  How to I permenently hide my router's 'Network Security Key'? 

When I go back to the Wireless Network Connections and right click my router and select 'Properties" and go to the "Security" tab, there is a small check box labelled "Show Characters" that will toggle back and forth between a string of dots and the 'plain text' 'Network Security Key' for anyone to read.  I'm not willing to keep her set up to use our network if anyone with access to her Netbook can look up my router's WPA password. 

I have quite a few devices connected wirelessly to our network, but this is the only one where I can see the password in plain text.  The others only show a string of stars or dots to 'encrypt' the display of the password.

I will appreciate any help and so will the daughter that hopes to keep accessing the internet.

many thanks,  BDT

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Internet and connectivity

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Anonymous
2010-01-02T11:36:17+00:00

AFAIK you can't override that, although I could be wrong about that.

As far as others getting your wireless key from her netbook make sure your daughters account is astandard user account and that she does not have administrator permissions. That way if she tried to see the wireless security properties for your wireless network she can't unless she enters the administrator password. In the example screen shot if I am logged in as a standard user and try to check the Show characters checkbox UAC pops up and requests my administrative user password.

http://cid-25ab668da65c8fbe.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Windows%20images/Showcharacters.png

In all cases make sure the administrative user accounts are password protected with a strong password and access to those is severely restricted.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Why-use-a-standard-user-account-instead-of-an-administrator-account

FWIW I run as a standard user 99% of the time on my Windows 7 laptop. My wife runs as a standard user 100% of the time on her XP Pro desktop. When I setup my PCs I create an administrative user, ie. Root in my case, and the required number of standard users for each machine. All are password protected. Root is only used to install programs, change system stuff, security settings, etc...etc...etc...

MS-MVP Windows Desktop Experience, "When all else fails, read the instructions"

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  1. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2010-01-02T18:35:38+00:00

    The best solution is likely to set her account to a standard account, so that she can't see the characters.

    However, please note that XP wasn't any more secure, it just took a few extra seconds.  If her computer was running XP, and she let a friend use it for a moment, they could easily open regedit and see the wifi code.  And it didn't have any standard user blocks to prevent it, unlike XP.

    I might recommend an alternative or suppliment:  use MAC address blocking in your router's configuration to only allow devices you know and have.  Anyone else will get blocked from your network, even if they know the key.

    If this was helpful, please vote. If it solves the issue, please click Propose as Answer. Thanks!

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-01-02T19:06:32+00:00

    The point is that as a standard user your daughter will NOT be able to see the network encryption key irregardless of design considerations made by MSFT in Windows 7. Only you as the administrator or anyone else with admin permissions will be able to see it once its been configured.

    Additionally you might also consider using Windows 7 Parental Controls to control when your daughter can use the machine and what she can do with it. That may also ease your risk threshold a bit.

    Good luck...

    I guess I wasn't clear.  My daughter is an adult and will be the Admin of her own computer.  I don't want to give her the keys to my network and I don't expect her to give me the keys to her netbook.  This just works so much better with Apple OS 10.5, Win XP, various music clients and wireless bridges that I've used.

    thx anyway.

    One additional solution, and one that I currently use, is a dual Wireless LAN [WLAN] router. I segregate guests on a different wireless network than the WLAN my wife and I use. In my case I use a ZyXEL NBG334W router.

    http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/LAN/CurrentHomeLAN.png

    Guests can only access the internet. With that scheme you could, if you wish, give your daughter or any other guest, temporary access to your guest WLAN. When they leave simply change the encryption key. FWIW I use Windows Connect Now [WCN] and save off the guest WLAN settings on a flash drive that guests can easily plug into their laptops for fast configuration. If your wireless access point/router or clients do not support wcn you can easily copy-n-paste the network key by opening the flash drive and navigating to the \Smrtntky\Wsetting.txt file and copying the key to the wireless access point/router or client.

    If you have supported router I believe third-party firmware like DD-WRT provides VLAN functionality.

    MS-MVP Windows Desktop Experience, "When all else fails, read the instructions"

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-01-02T23:10:29+00:00

    The best solution is likely to set her account to a standard account, so that she can't see the characters.

    However, please note that XP wasn't any more secure, it just took a few extra seconds.  If her computer was running XP, and she let a friend use it for a moment, they could easily open regedit and see the wifi code.  And it didn't have any standard user blocks to prevent it, unlike XP.

    I might recommend an alternative or suppliment:  use MAC address blocking in your router's configuration to only allow devices you know and have.  Anyone else will get blocked from your network, even if they know the key.

    Hi Shawn,  I always figured MAC address blocking is more like security through obscurity rather than true security since the MAC address is broadcast and can be sniffed pretty easily and spoofed by another user.  Still might be a good thing to do, but not something I would count on for much protection.  Might keep away the people looking for the easy targets.  Kind of like not broadcasting you SSID - can't hurt, but not the basis of good security either.

    I opened Regedit in my Win XP (Home version) laptop and did a search for the first few characters of one a wifi password that's set up on that PC.  Nothing turned up.  That seems to indicate that there is NOT a plain text version stored in the registery, but I'm probably missing something here.

    thanks for the input

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  4. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2010-01-02T23:30:31+00:00

    This just works so much better with Apple OS 10.5, Win XP, various music clients and wireless bridges that I've used.

    None of those were any more or less secure, because anyone could still view the key.  It just wasn't quite as easy.  But using XP or MacOS won't encrypt the key, so all you're really getting is security-through-obscurity.

    Having said that, it would certainly make sense for it to have an option such as "don't display" when you first connect to the network.  Such as if you have a guest over at your house and you don't want them to know the key, you just want them to be able to connect while they're at your house.

    If this was helpful, please vote. If it solves the issue, please click Propose as Answer. Thanks!

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