D-Link Wireless Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joe Rynerson
  • Start date Start date
J

Joe Rynerson

When I try to connect using the wireless network, the icon will
intermittently show it available then unavailable. When is shows as
available then another icon will say a cable is not connected then the
wireless icon will say the wireless is unavailable. If I connect the wired
connection from the router to my laptop both the wired connection and the
wireless work. This is an hp pavilion ze5375 running windows xp. The network
is using a motorola cable modem and a D-Link 2.4 ghz wireless broadband
router. Thanks in advance for your help.
Joe
 
I'm assuming that you have the same built-in wireless that I have on
my pavilion laptop. I ran into a similiar problem, and found a post
that solved the issue.

If you pull up the properties for your wireless connection, click on
the Wireless Networks tab, click on configure for the network you're
trying to attach to, then click on the authentication tab, you'll see
a checkbox for

Enable IEEE 802.1x Authentication for this network.

Uncheck this box.

It is my understanding that this type of authentication usually
entails authentication to a radius server, something the average home
user doesn't have setup :). Every couple of minutes your laptop tries
to authenticate to a non-existent server, and then drops you from the
wireless network. When it's all setup correctly, this type of
authentication goes a long way toward improving the security of wi-fi,
as it dynamically changes wep keys on a frequent basis.

For the home user, this does not affect your use of wep. For a
business, it is something you want to consider implementing. Here's a
link to a tutorial about it:

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1041171

Just an afterthought, it's a good idea for a home user to assume that
their wireless network isn't very secure. You should setup WEP
encryption, and change the keys frequently. You should also set the
SSID not to broadcast. This will at least cut down on the casual
hacker walking down the street and poking onto your network. I have a
PDA with wi-fi and am always amazed at the number of wireless networks
I can see just walking down the street, all with fresh "out of the
box" default settings of no security. Even with WEP and broadcasting
of the SSID turned off, a person who wants onto your network can get
there with airsnort or similiar software. With enough packets of data
sniffed, it can identify your WEP key and at that point the person is
on your network. This is why changing your keys at least once in a
while is a good idea. Bottom line though, it's best to assume that
you're not secure with just WEP.

Hope this solves your problem.
 
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