Wireless WPA-PSK

[Barb Bowman]

is the Linksys router set for security type WPA2+WPA or something
similar? many of the 'n" draft routers have that "dual" setting.

This is less clear. I now have a new Linksys WAG325N router and it
will connect to the problem Vista machine even using WPA-PSK & TKIP
(at least according to the settings displayed). So it looks like I had
a particularly unfortunate combination and the 3com firmware for WPA
in the 3CRWDR100A series is at least a part of the problem.

One or possibly both of the 3com router and the Intel driver must be
at fault, but since I have now seen a router that will work OK on this
protocol I am inclined to say that there is most likely a fault in the
3com router firmware.

Of course the new router will not talk over WiFi to my older XP
machine so network defect irritation number is conserved

Regards,
Martin Brown

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

[Martin Brown]

is the Linksys router set for security type WPA2+WPA or something
similar? many of the 'n" draft routers have that "dual" setting.

It is now set for WPA2, but AFAICT it worked perfectly well when
deliberately set to WPA/TKIP too. I did get a warning that these
settings compromise performance so I assume it was telling the truth.
I cannot be sure it was actually doing what it said in the user
interface - but it allowed WPA-personal and TKIP to be set in the
listbox (and grumbled about it).

Interestingly the problem with the old XP machine (with a 3com cardbus
card) appears to be that although they fixed the incompatibility of
3Com cards with the Linksys 54G it doesn't work at all with the 325N.
The card sees the network and gets the MAC address but then flickers
helplessly between the real G channel (default 11) and a phantom
channel 6. Latest firmware was not recent and identical to what I
already had (different timestamps though grrrrr).

My instinct is never to buy a 3com product again. YMMV.

The only criticism I have of the Linksys is that the LEDs are too
faint (invisible in a sunlit room).

Regards,
Martin Brown

 

[Barb Bowman]

I haven't tried a 3Com wireless NIC for many years. I was not
impressed the last time I tried one.

Interestingly the problem with the old XP machine (with a 3com cardbus
card) appears to be that although they fixed the incompatibility of
3Com cards with the Linksys 54G it doesn't work at all with the 325N.
The card sees the network and gets the MAC address but then flickers
helplessly between the real G channel (default 11) and a phantom
channel 6. Latest firmware was not recent and identical to what I
already had (different timestamps though grrrrr).

My instinct is never to buy a 3com product again. YMMV.

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

 

[Barb Bowman]

complete what thread? you are replying to something totally
irrelevant using some web interface that leeches off newsgroups.

go to the Dell download page for the D630 and download the latest
driver for the wireless.

To complete the thread I can tell my situation.

I've got a Dell Latitude D630 Notebook with Windows Vista and Intel
3945G wireless chipset.
No way to connect it to my wireless LAN at home (3com router updated
with the latest firmware) and to the wireless LAN of a friend (Zyxel
router updated with latest firmware).
Both the wireless LAN are set with WPA-TSK encryption and they work
well with any other pc equipped with Windows XP, Linux and also some
Vista (Sony Vaio notebook).

No problem with my same notebook (Dell Latitude D630) using Ubuntu (it
connects perfectly to my home wireless LAN).

I also tried WPA2, but without success.

Now... I can buy a new router for my home LAN, but what can I do
otherwhere??
I cannot believe Intel or Microsoft cannot solve this problem!!

Isn't there any way to adapt the Xp driver to Vista?

MB

--

Barb Bowman
MS-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
http://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.com

 

[Jack \(MVP-Networking\).]

Hi
Does it works if you temp. disable the the Wireless security in the Router?
Does the Wireless configuration in the device manager and the Network
connection look OK?
Does it obtains a valid IP, or tried with static IP?
http://www.ezlan.net/wireless.html
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking)

 

[William C. Comer]

I had a similar problem with my wireless network and a Xda Cosmos PDA. The
WPA key was 63 characters long and I kept getting a unable to connect and a
time out error on the PDA. When I changed the WPA key to only 16 characters
it connected right away without and I have had any problems since. Hope
this helps.

wccomer

 

[RalfG]

Still sounds like incompatibility in the encryption methods between router
and wifi adapter. Saw the same symptoms as yours trying to connect a
particular Linksys adapter with a Dlink router. The companies used different
chipsets in their hardware and their implementations of encryption weren't
entirely compatible, or at all. Did you try using hexadecimal keys instead
of text?