7 ms·

HP laptop can't connect to WiFi with letter 'p' in the password (2018)

93 points by louiechristie 4y ago

ndsipa_pomu 4y ago
Well, that's just taking the iss
- hahalolha 4y ago
  What a ain
s_dev 4y ago
This seems to be just a support thread with two comments? Was kinda expecting a full bug explanation or something with a bit more substance as to why this is happening beyond 'it's just very odd'.
- namdnay 4y ago
  The title isn’t even correct - the problem seems to be entering the letter p, not authenticating if the password has the letter p
  - nolok 4y ago
    And the second comment seems to imply it's an issue with password input fields, not wifi in particular
- witcher 4y ago
  Same feeling. Yet, it is on top of HN (: Humans are interesting!
  - politelemon 4y ago
    Agree, this isn't a story, issue, or interesting at all. Flagging.
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  You're asking a bit much from an HP support forum - this is the same level as the Microsoft support forums, aka the blind leading the blind. Frankly I'm amazed that the reply, despite smelling of useless first-line tech support by wasting an entire paragraph to repeat his question pretty much verbatim, managed to actually offer a useful suggestion of testing with an external keyboard.
amelius 4y ago
This must be to prevent users from using "password" as the password (and instead making them use the less likely to be guessed "assword", assuming of course that the attacker doesn't have a HP computer).
- sorokod 4y ago
  "assfrase" should be more secure.
  - owl57 4y ago
    Joking aside, this exact misspelling is probably way down any brute-force list. So, if your threat model is spammers stealing accounts with common passwords and nobody really trying to hack you in particular, it may be secure enough.
nickpeterson 4y ago
Well what do you expect from a company whose acronym stands for “Hates P”?
- phendrenad2 4y ago
  Must be a regional pronunciation!
dzdt 4y ago
Read the comment from the other user who chimed in with the same issue: it occurs in other obscured password boxes as well, has the problem typing 'p' either with physical keyboard or onscreen keyboard, but accepts 'p' input via copy and paste. If this is really an accurate bug description that is a doozy!
Jamie9912 4y ago
I absolutely loathe those condescending corporate fluff responses "Welcome! I understand you're having issue with x, try doing y and z, all the best!" So much bullshit in one paragraph, why aren't they trained to type like human beings?
- azalemeth 4y ago
  Why? Because corporate boilerplate is quite a lot quicker and requires infinitely less thinking.
- nolok 4y ago
  My personnal pet peeve is the one where every thread on Microsoft support forum gets answered by a long response telling the person to do a scandisk. > So much bullshit in one paragraph, why aren't they trained to type like human beings? I'm pretty sure this is because most of the message is copy pasted and they just have a line here and there where they need to reword the users' issue to pretend its personnal.
  - V__ 4y ago
    Hi, I'm Kudrapali, an Independent Advisor and Microsoft Expert with 999 years of experience and knowledge about 'your problem'. Have you tried the obvious solution, which you already mentioned didn't work? If you did, and it still doesn't work, have you tried reinstalling the system or buying a new computer? Do let me know if you require any further help on this. Will be glad to help you.
    - tpoacher 4y ago
      Thank you for your response. It seems like restarting your computer has not yet fixed your issue. I have escalated this to the correct department. ... Hi, I'm Septapali, an Independent Advisor with 1007 years of experience. It seems you are having trouble restarting your computer […]
- behringer 4y ago
  Some customers get rude if you don't talk to them a certain way. While I'm not particularly impressed with the response either, especially repeating what the customer said back to them like that somehow makes the customer believe you actually understood the problem, the rest is kind of mandatory to set a professional tone so that emotions don't get involved so quickly.
tapland 4y ago
This is a Windows issue and not unique to this case and only relevant like 4-5 years ago.
- ece 4y ago
  Longer thread: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2234758-specific-letters-not-working-at-windows-10-login-screen https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2234758-specific-lett...
katzgrau 4y ago
When I was a teenager I wrote a simple visual basic app to globally detect the letter 'e' and immediately send a [backspace] to whatever application the user was working in. It was a background app and named something like system32.exe which I installed on my girlfriends computer. The frustration she endured while trying to write an essay for school was next level. I faked trying to help her :D She eventually resorted to copy and pasting 'e' every time she needed one. For the record, 18 years later she's my wife so she did eventually see the humor in it.
- donohoe 4y ago
  Perhaps it would have taken less than 18 years to get her to marry you if you hadn’t played that joke on her.
  - connordoner 4y ago
    Dare I say it, I'm not sure it's that deep.
    - tpoacher 4y ago
      *dp
  - fendy3002 4y ago
    Because the text will be "will you marry m?"
    - jyooru 4y ago
      Ys
      - temprose 4y ago
        Si
        4y ago
nickpeterson 4y ago
Some hp intern: if (password[0] == ‘p’) { return -1; }
- smallstepforman 4y ago
  Most likely: if (password[0] == "Password") return -1; if (password[0] == "password") return -1; ...
IgorPartola 4y ago
I had a similar problem with Belkin Wemo smart plugs. They didn’t reject a specific letter but some passwords just didn’t work so I had to create a separate SSID and then trial and error a password that would work. Never figured out what the issue was.
fancyfredbot 4y ago
Two customers with the same malware?
- Kwpolska 4y ago
  The same malware called HP SuperDuperSmartThing™, of course. Laptop manufacturers tend to install a lot of shovelware, and one of them might prevent making "password" your password.
  - swarnie 4y ago
    I recall another HP shovelware product acting as a keylogger a few years back... Found it: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/keylogger-found-in-audio-driver-of-hp-laptops/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/keylogger-fou... > This file is registered to start via a Scheduled Task every time the user logs into his computer. According to modzero researchers, the file "monitors all keystrokes made by the user to capture and react to functions such as microphone mute/unmute keys/hotkeys." I was in support at the time and can confirm 1-2-1 recording of all keystrokes to the file mentioned, utterly baffling.
    - behringer 4y ago
      Sounds like a rookie programmer making something that just worked and then not being able to go back and do it properly. Remember programmers, sometimes it's better just not to complete the task at all than it is to end up with a keylogger that management won't give you time to remove.
  - fancyfredbot 4y ago
    There would probably be a few more users complaining if the responsible malware shipped with the laptop.
- cellularmitosis 4y ago
  It could also just be buggy firmware. I had an HP 4530s and anytime I quickly typed the sequence “oun”, the chrome developer tools would pop open (something low level was translating that sequence into F12). Turns out this was a known issue and there was a bios update which specifically fixed it. https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/f-keys-activate-from-typing-please-help.260862/ https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/f-keys-activate-from-ty...
TonyTrapp 4y ago
It was probably a third-party p. Should have bought a genuine HP p instead!
- ilkke 4y ago
  Well played, sir.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
zaxomi 4y ago
Something similar has happened to me. When it has happened to me I press each modifier key (shift, alt, ctrl, FN, win, menu, etc...) and it usually fixes the problem.
- dole 4y ago
  Holding down the Ctrl Alt Shift keys on both the left and right side on the keyboard for 3-5 seconds used to be a (low/BIOS-level?) keyboard reset, at least on Windows.
xattt 4y ago
I’ve got a Neato vacuum that won’t keep a connection because my wifi key contains an asterisk. All other devices are fine, but the Neato will routinely disconnect after several hours. This led me down a rabbit hole to first set up a virtual SSID (which worked but impacted apparent throughput), and then a separate AP for low-bandwidth IoT devices. I don’t have the time in my life to raise enough clout to get this addressed.

93 points by louiechristie 4y ago

ndsipa_pomu 4y ago

Well, that's just taking the iss

hahalolha 4y ago
What a ain

s_dev 4y ago

This seems to be just a support thread with two comments? Was kinda expecting a full bug explanation or something with a bit more substance as to why this is happening beyond 'it's just very odd'.

namdnay 4y ago
The title isn’t even correct - the problem seems to be entering the letter p, not authenticating if the password has the letter p
- nolok 4y ago
  And the second comment seems to imply it's an issue with password input fields, not wifi in particular
witcher 4y ago
Same feeling. Yet, it is on top of HN (: Humans are interesting!
- politelemon 4y ago
  Agree, this isn't a story, issue, or interesting at all. Flagging.
Nextgrid 4y ago
You're asking a bit much from an HP support forum - this is the same level as the Microsoft support forums, aka the blind leading the blind. Frankly I'm amazed that the reply, despite smelling of useless first-line tech support by wasting an entire paragraph to repeat his question pretty much verbatim, managed to actually offer a useful suggestion of testing with an external keyboard.

amelius 4y ago

This must be to prevent users from using "password" as the password (and instead making them use the less likely to be guessed "assword", assuming of course that the attacker doesn't have a HP computer).

sorokod 4y ago
"assfrase" should be more secure.
- owl57 4y ago
  Joking aside, this exact misspelling is probably way down any brute-force list. So, if your threat model is spammers stealing accounts with common passwords and nobody really trying to hack you in particular, it may be secure enough.

nickpeterson 4y ago

Well what do you expect from a company whose acronym stands for “Hates P”?

phendrenad2 4y ago
Must be a regional pronunciation!

dzdt 4y ago

Read the comment from the other user who chimed in with the same issue: it occurs in other obscured password boxes as well, has the problem typing 'p' either with physical keyboard or onscreen keyboard, but accepts 'p' input via copy and paste. If this is really an accurate bug description that is a doozy!

Jamie9912 4y ago

I absolutely loathe those condescending corporate fluff responses "Welcome! I understand you're having issue with x, try doing y and z, all the best!" So much bullshit in one paragraph, why aren't they trained to type like human beings?

azalemeth 4y ago
Why? Because corporate boilerplate is quite a lot quicker and requires infinitely less thinking.
nolok 4y ago
My personnal pet peeve is the one where every thread on Microsoft support forum gets answered by a long response telling the person to do a scandisk. > So much bullshit in one paragraph, why aren't they trained to type like human beings? I'm pretty sure this is because most of the message is copy pasted and they just have a line here and there where they need to reword the users' issue to pretend its personnal.
- V__ 4y ago
  Hi, I'm Kudrapali, an Independent Advisor and Microsoft Expert with 999 years of experience and knowledge about 'your problem'. Have you tried the obvious solution, which you already mentioned didn't work? If you did, and it still doesn't work, have you tried reinstalling the system or buying a new computer? Do let me know if you require any further help on this. Will be glad to help you.
  - tpoacher 4y ago
    Thank you for your response. It seems like restarting your computer has not yet fixed your issue. I have escalated this to the correct department. ... Hi, I'm Septapali, an Independent Advisor with 1007 years of experience. It seems you are having trouble restarting your computer […]
behringer 4y ago
Some customers get rude if you don't talk to them a certain way. While I'm not particularly impressed with the response either, especially repeating what the customer said back to them like that somehow makes the customer believe you actually understood the problem, the rest is kind of mandatory to set a professional tone so that emotions don't get involved so quickly.

tapland 4y ago

This is a Windows issue and not unique to this case and only relevant like 4-5 years ago.

ece 4y ago
Longer thread: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2234758-specific-letters-not-working-at-windows-10-login-screen https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2234758-specific-lett...

katzgrau 4y ago

When I was a teenager I wrote a simple visual basic app to globally detect the letter 'e' and immediately send a [backspace] to whatever application the user was working in. It was a background app and named something like system32.exe which I installed on my girlfriends computer. The frustration she endured while trying to write an essay for school was next level. I faked trying to help her :D She eventually resorted to copy and pasting 'e' every time she needed one. For the record, 18 years later she's my wife so she did eventually see the humor in it.

donohoe 4y ago
Perhaps it would have taken less than 18 years to get her to marry you if you hadn’t played that joke on her.
- connordoner 4y ago
  Dare I say it, I'm not sure it's that deep.
  - tpoacher 4y ago
    *dp
- fendy3002 4y ago
  Because the text will be "will you marry m?"
  - jyooru 4y ago
    Ys
    - temprose 4y ago
      Si
      - 4y ago

nickpeterson 4y ago

Some hp intern: if (password[0] == ‘p’) { return -1; }

smallstepforman 4y ago
Most likely: if (password[0] == "Password") return -1; if (password[0] == "password") return -1; ...

IgorPartola 4y ago

I had a similar problem with Belkin Wemo smart plugs. They didn’t reject a specific letter but some passwords just didn’t work so I had to create a separate SSID and then trial and error a password that would work. Never figured out what the issue was.

fancyfredbot 4y ago

Two customers with the same malware?

Kwpolska 4y ago
The same malware called HP SuperDuperSmartThing™, of course. Laptop manufacturers tend to install a lot of shovelware, and one of them might prevent making "password" your password.
- swarnie 4y ago
  I recall another HP shovelware product acting as a keylogger a few years back... Found it: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/keylogger-found-in-audio-driver-of-hp-laptops/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/keylogger-fou... > This file is registered to start via a Scheduled Task every time the user logs into his computer. According to modzero researchers, the file "monitors all keystrokes made by the user to capture and react to functions such as microphone mute/unmute keys/hotkeys." I was in support at the time and can confirm 1-2-1 recording of all keystrokes to the file mentioned, utterly baffling.
  - behringer 4y ago
    Sounds like a rookie programmer making something that just worked and then not being able to go back and do it properly. Remember programmers, sometimes it's better just not to complete the task at all than it is to end up with a keylogger that management won't give you time to remove.
- fancyfredbot 4y ago
  There would probably be a few more users complaining if the responsible malware shipped with the laptop.
cellularmitosis 4y ago
It could also just be buggy firmware. I had an HP 4530s and anytime I quickly typed the sequence “oun”, the chrome developer tools would pop open (something low level was translating that sequence into F12). Turns out this was a known issue and there was a bios update which specifically fixed it. https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/f-keys-activate-from-typing-please-help.260862/ https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/f-keys-activate-from-ty...

TonyTrapp 4y ago

It was probably a third-party p. Should have bought a genuine HP p instead!

ilkke 4y ago
Well played, sir.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

zaxomi 4y ago

Something similar has happened to me. When it has happened to me I press each modifier key (shift, alt, ctrl, FN, win, menu, etc...) and it usually fixes the problem.

dole 4y ago
Holding down the Ctrl Alt Shift keys on both the left and right side on the keyboard for 3-5 seconds used to be a (low/BIOS-level?) keyboard reset, at least on Windows.

xattt 4y ago

I’ve got a Neato vacuum that won’t keep a connection because my wifi key contains an asterisk. All other devices are fine, but the Neato will routinely disconnect after several hours. This led me down a rabbit hole to first set up a virtual SSID (which worked but impacted apparent throughput), and then a separate AP for low-bandwidth IoT devices. I don’t have the time in my life to raise enough clout to get this addressed.