Wireless G issue

[Bateluer]

I recently picked up two SFF towers, 1 a Dell Optiplex and 1 an HP Evo.

My router is a Linksys WRT54G, little old, but effective. I bought two USB Wireless Pen NICs, made by Encore.

Since the Dell arrived first, I set that machine up first. There wasn't an issue. I turned on the Wireless network in the router settings. Setting it to Mixed, Frequency 1(channel1, lowest freq), turned on WEP 12. I entered the passphrase and generated 4 keys. I wrote down the first two and took them to the other machines.

The Dell connected to the wireless network on Key1 and it hasn't had a problem since. The HP can see the wireless network, along with several secured others. When I try to connect to my wireless network, it fails to acquire an IP address every time. I've used the second, third, and fourth keys generated by the router, tried changing the key index in the windows wireless settings to match and keys and I've left it at 1.

Nothing seems to work. Odds are, its just some setting I've overlooked, but they all seem to be identical to the Dell. I don't want to mess with any settings on the Dell though, its working fine.

Any ideas for me to check out?

 

[jlazzaro]

First off, why use WEP when the wrt54g supports WPA? WEP is very unsecure ;x

Have you update your wrt54g firmware and wireless card drivers?

After making sure everything it update, try to connect with the HP again. If it still fails, turn off all authentication/encryption on the AP and try again.

 

[Bateluer]

I was able to detect and connect to an unsecured network without a problem, but its signal strength really low. Its probably far away from my apartment.

The WRT54G is running on the latest firmware that Linksys makes for it, its old. The USB NICs were using the drivers available on the CD, I didn't bother searching for updated drivers because the Dell connected without a problem.

I'm going to try WPA, see how that works out.

 

[jlazzaro]

id update them anyways...there could be some caveats that are only present when its connected to certain devices. always worth a shot, if it doesnt work at least you eliminated a possibility.

edit: what client are you using? WZC or the Encore software? if your STILL having problems, try the other client.

 

[Bateluer]

I've never set up a Wireless network using WPA. When I set the router for WPA Personal, TKIP, and enter the single 'shared' key. I actually entered one of the WEP keys that was generated before, I had them written down in txt files on the local machines so I can copy/paste them.

The machines see the WPA secured network, and when I try to connect to it it asks for the key. I enter the key, then it enters a loop where it trys to acquire an IP address, disconnects, tried to acquire, disconnects, repeat.

 

[spidey07]

you're keys are mistmatched.

Try WPA pre-shared key and just use an ascii key to test with like 'thisismykey'. configure this this on the access point and client.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: spidey07
you're keys are mistmatched.

Try WPA pre-shared key and just use an ascii key to test with like 'thisismykey'. configure this this on the access point and client.

DING DING DING....

not getting an IP because you can't encrypt/decrypt the packets.

I would....

1. Turn off all security, and try it again, to verify basic functionality
2. Turn on WPA-PSK and enter an ASCII key, and test again

 

[Bateluer]

Thanks for the help, I got it working.

Wireless in convenient but sure can be a PITA.

 

[ktwebb]

In the grand scheme the VERY minor setup you have to do to get WLAN secruity working well is worth it, since the medium lends itself to non existent security out of the box. Reading the manual will generally answer most if not all the questions an inexperienced user would come across.