Problem enabling WEP on ThinkPad T40

[WonderfulLife43]

I'm helping a friend set up a wireless network in his house, and came across a frustrating problem.

Here's what is involved:
My ThinkPad T41, with wireless 'g' builtin, Windows XP Pro. Wireless has worked on several different wireless networks, including my LinkSys WRT54G at home.

My friend's ThinkPad T40, with wireless 'b' builtin, Windows XP Pro. Wireless has never been tested on this ThinkPad.

My friend's two older PC's, wired to the router.

LinkSys WRT54G wireless router (from Sam's Club).

My friend has been using a wired network for some time without any problems (shared hard drives, printer).

This past Saturday, we set up his new WRT54G from a wired connection, leaving WEP disabled until we got it working, changing the default password, SSID, mixed b and g access. At this point, everything looked good: Both wired PC's were able to connect to the Internet, his T40 connected at 11Mbps, and my T41 connected at 54Mbps.
I was able to : Right-clicking on the 'Wireless Connection' icon in the quick-launch area, select 'View Available Wireless Networks', select 'Advanced', select 'Configure',.... all without any problems.
Now for the strange part. On the T40, we right-clicked on the 'Wireless Connection' icon in the quick-launch, then select 'View Available Wireless Networks', ... nothing showed in the 'Available Wireless Networks' window, and the 'Advanced' button was dimmed. So, even though we were connected wirelessly, we couldn't see anything from his Windows.

Then, we tried to enable WEP, at both 128 and 64 bit encryption. After enabling WEP, I was able to get my T41 to connect by going into the Wireless Networking panels and refreshing the list (or Disabling and Enabling Wireless) and then was prompted for the key. On the T40, we still saw nothing in the 'View Wireless Networks' window, and the 'Advanced' button was still dimmed. We couldn't figure out any way to get around this, so the T40 was never able to connect to the internet with WEP enabled.

Disabling WEP was the only way for the T40 to connect.

Any ideas on what I need to do in order to be able to Enable WEP?
In the meantime, in order to have a more secure network, we're going to turn on MAC filtering, and only allow our 2 ThinkPads to access wirelessly.
Thanks, Rick

 

[wisdomtooth]

Hi Rick,

I also have the same experience. My Thinkpad T41 with the IBM 802.11b/g wireless adapter works fine with any network, but my sister's Thinkpad X31 with the full-blown b-only Centrino kit (Intel Pro2100b) also has issues with WEP.

Which wireless adapter does your friend's T40 have? If he has the full-blown Centrino kit, maybe he needs to get new drivers for it from Intel.

Personally I like the IBM adapter much better than the Centrino one... The IBM kit seems a lot more configurable.

 

[WonderfulLife43]

wt, Thanks for the info. My friend's T40 has an 'Intel PRO 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter'. I searched for updated drivers and found this page from IBM:

http://www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-50183

He downloaded and installed this driver .... with poor results. First, somewhere during the installation process he got a Blue Screen of Death. He rebooted, and Windows appears OK. However, he now seems to have lost all wireless ability (before the new driver he could access the Router/Internet wirelessly if WEP was disabled), the wireless adapter icon in the system tray is gone. According to Device Manager, the wireless LAN adapter is 'working correctly'.

I'm about ready to tell him to forget it, and try a PCMCIA card.
Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Kelemvor]

Could always just delete the wireless card from Device Manager and let the computer redetect it and see what it installs. Is there a client utility to manage the wireless that works with the card instead of using the built in Windows one? Could try that instead.

 

[Fardringle]

The Intel Centrino 2100 wireless adapters have been known to have connectivity issues with the Linksys G wireless routers. In most of the cases I have dealt with (I did wireless networking support for a large PC manufacturer for a few years), the only real fix to the problem has been to upgrade the firmware on the router to a version that properly supports connectivity with the Centrino adapters. I would recommend upgrading to the newest firmware on the router and maximizing output power on the laptop (set Power Output in the Device Manager properties for the wireless adapter to 100%) and you will most likely resolve the problem.