Hi conniesb1 - if it’s not solved and you haven’t binned the printer, perhaps some confusing terms have been throwing you off track (like they do for me!).
I’m no networking expert, but have Googled a lot of info re my similar problem. My Canon printer doesn’t have a password of its own, and I can’t remember reading of any printer that does (though you may well have a Canon password for other purposes, e.g. registration/support). I think your printer’s wifi setup was asking for the password of your wireless network. Just as people can’t casually join your private wifi network without being given the password (unless the network is unsecured), devices can’t either, for the same reasons. (It also makes sure the printer’s joining your network, not a neighbour’s).
I felt for you when I found this topic. When trying to get my head round networking.te my own printer, I’ve found a lot of search results confusing. The point of technical terms is to have a short word/phrase for a precise meaning (which can always be looked up). The deeper you go into networking the more complex it gets. And just to make it even more fun, there’s usually a choice of words for the same meaning. And what’s worse is different people using the same word to mean different things. I’ve even noticed it sometimes with the Canon Mods here, and in some of the official instructions for Linksys routers. (End of rant!). Anyway, this networking confusion’s been sending me round in circles too, and I’ve been tinkering with computers since the 1980s.
Sometimes people call a network password the ‘router password’, which I find confusing. To me, a router password is the one needed to access and change the settings in the router (but please correct me someone if that’s wrong!). That’s just one example.
Perhaps you already know that a password for a wireless network is set in the network’s router? And that the type of password depends on the type of security the router’s set to? (If WAP, the password’s often called a passphrase, as it can be as long as a whole sentence, and can have spaces between words. If it’s WEP, the password’s often called a PIN, as it’s (I believe) a number with not many digits). Maybe the number sequence your printer showed was for selecting the digits to give the printer the network PIN - who knows? (Not the Canon Product Experts here, it seems).
It seems the more expert people are on something, the fewer of them are able to remember what they needed to know as a novice. If a fellow novice can be any help just give me a shout!
