Diggging Wi-Fi Password out of a laptop?
December 18, 2010 11:02 AM Subscribe
Is the Qwest Wi-Fi password retrievable on Daughter's MacBook?
I was staying with my daughter for the night and wanted to hook up with her Wi-Fi, which is Qwest DSL. Someone else set this up and although at one point she entered the password into her computer, she no longer remembers it, and we could not figure this out.
So, is there some way to mine this password from somewhere in a computer? I can't seem to do it with my macbook here at home, although I have the pw written down and stored in a drawer.
I was staying with my daughter for the night and wanted to hook up with her Wi-Fi, which is Qwest DSL. Someone else set this up and although at one point she entered the password into her computer, she no longer remembers it, and we could not figure this out.
So, is there some way to mine this password from somewhere in a computer? I can't seem to do it with my macbook here at home, although I have the pw written down and stored in a drawer.
Try running the keychain app on her computer. It should be in there listed under the SSID of the wireless network. Once you find the entry, there's a checkbox to show the password in plain text.
posted by hammurderer at 11:09 AM on December 18, 2010
posted by hammurderer at 11:09 AM on December 18, 2010
Response by poster: The Show Password option only comes on when I highlight the hidden password (the line of dots) in that box. When I highlight it the dots go away, leaving a blank line.
Working on it, though. Thanks for the responses.
posted by Danf at 11:18 AM on December 18, 2010
Working on it, though. Thanks for the responses.
posted by Danf at 11:18 AM on December 18, 2010
Alternatively, just find the entry for this in the keychain app and right click(control click) it. Should get a dialog option to "copy password to clipboard" or something like that.
posted by Patbon at 11:20 AM on December 18, 2010
posted by Patbon at 11:20 AM on December 18, 2010
Are you sure you're looking in the Keychain Access app? I have never seen hidden password dots anywhere in Keychain Access, and you can't highlight the password line when it's not showing--it's just a blank field that won't even accept your cursor.
posted by bcwinters at 11:22 AM on December 18, 2010
posted by bcwinters at 11:22 AM on December 18, 2010
You don't highlight anything — just tick the box to the left of the blank field entitled 'Show password', enter the administrator password for the computer when prompted, and it'll appear in the field. If a line of dots or stars appears then, then it could be that that's actually the password.
posted by jaffacakerhubarb at 12:33 PM on December 18, 2010
posted by jaffacakerhubarb at 12:33 PM on December 18, 2010
Response by poster: Got it! Thank you all very much for your forbearance. I am a native PC guy and even though I have been on a mac for a year and a half, I am still fumbling around some.
posted by Danf at 1:13 PM on December 18, 2010
posted by Danf at 1:13 PM on December 18, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 11:06 AM on December 18, 2010