The variables are the name of your WiFi network, your password, and one other piece of information… I’d have to look at the instructions to remember it all, but I’m pretty sure all the details were there somewhere. You’ll need them entered if you want it to connect!
For the timeout issue, I may have run into that as well and it took a few firmware flashes. There was another way to try to upload, I’m pretty sure @heythisisnate had another post somewhere here… Save files or some other permutation to upload?
Hang in there, it’ll all click one of these times, and you may not know what you did exactly. I had zero experience at all, and I eventually got it all sorted out!