Wireless network security issues

[Fardringle]

I'm not a newbie to networking (wired and wireless) by any means, and I'm sure I'm missing something simple here, but this has me stumped and I hope you folks can help me out.

My router is a Linksys WRT54G with Sveasoft's Satori 4.0 (v2.07.1.7) firmware installed. I know there are newer versions but I haven't had a need for any of the new features of the newer versions so I haven't wanted to risk frying the router by doing unecesary firmware flashes.

My desktop PC is running Windows XP Pro with SP2 and it has a Hawking HWU54G USB wireless adapter. My laptop is running XP Home with SP2 and it has an integrated Broadcom mini PCI wireless adapter.


Anyway, the problem is that the-PSK laptop will not connect to any wireless network (I tried three that I know are working) that has WEP enabled. It will see the network and say that it is connected, but no matter what I do it will not obtain an IP address. I have made sure the WEP key is correct for all networks and I have also made sure I have the newest drivers installed for the Broadcom card but it still won't connect. However, if I turn on WPA-PSK with AES encryption on my Linksys router (other networks I tested don't have WPA capability), the laptop connects flawlessly.

The Hawking wireless utility on the desktop connects to WEP networks just fine, but it will not connect when I enable WPA-PSK/AES. With WPA turned on, the desktop does the same thing that the laptop does with WEP. It says it is connected but it will not retrieve an IP address. I think that this may be an issue with the Hawking software utility since it asks for a Protocol (PEAP or TLS), a user name and password, and a Certificate authority, along with the WPA PSK key. There isn't any place to add protocol and user name/password information to the Wireless Security fields on the router so I'm not sure where this information would be coming from. I can leave those additional fields blank and just enter the PSK key but it won't connect. I've tried putting in the user name and password for the router itself as well but it didn't make a difference.

I really would prefer to use WPA-PSK/AES on my home network if I can get the desktop computer to attach to the network using WPA, so I'd appreciate any suggestions you can give there. However, regardless of how I end up configuring things at home, I still need to be able to use WEP on the laptop as well since the two other networks that I tested it with today are networks that I need access to for work purposes. So, if you can even just help me get WEP working on the laptop I'll leave WEP on my home network and be done with it. Of course, fixing both would be best, but WEP is the first priority for me even though WPA is better overall.

 

[spidey07]

not being able to get and IP or communicate is 99 times out of 100 a bad WEP key.

make sure you set the correct key length and enter the key as hexidecimal on each side.

If you associate but can't communicate, it is most always a disagreement on encryption.

It really doesn't get much more straight forward than "the AP and the client must have the exact same settings as far as encyption and key management is concerned"

so, first set your AP to use the encryption of your choice and then make the clients the same.

 

[Fardringle]

I'm aware that by far the most common cause of the problem I'm seeing on the laptop is incorrect WEP keys, but I'm also 100% certain that the WEP key was correct on all three networks, which is why I'm asking for additional suggestions. I had thought it might be a compatibility problem with the Broadcom card in the laptop and the first network I tested it on (an older Netgear B-only router) but it appears to be something internal to the adapter or the drivers (or possibly something odd with XP Home on this machine) since it will not connect to any WEP-enabled network, even when I create the WEP on this laptop with no security set on the router, copy the key to the router, then turn on encryption on the router using that key (i.e. absolutely 100% certain it's the right key).

 

[Fardringle]

Feel free to slap me for being stupid. I've already done it to myself, but I deserve more. Right after I posted that last reply, I realized that I should have known the cause of the problem the entire time. I told Windows to use the Broadcom wireless utility instead of XP's Wireless Zero Config and it's now working perfectly with both WEP and WPA. I had thought it was already using the Broadcom utility instead of the Microsoft wireless tool (that doesn't like newer Broadcom cards) but I guess I was wrong. Anyway, it looks like my problem is solved so let's just pretend this thread never happened. 😉

 

[Fardringle]

Actually, instead of just ignoring the whole thread (unless you really want to), I'm still looking for suggestions how to get the Hawking USB adapter to connect to my Linksys router using WPA-PSK/AES. It's not nearly as critical of a problem as WEP not working on the laptop, but I'm still feeling sheepish about missing something as simple as I did on the laptop so I'm looking for yet another stupid little setting somewhere on the desktop that's keeping WPA from working there.. 🙂

 

[RebateMonger]

n.m.

 

[yukichigai]

Usually USB adaptors will not be able to use WPA if they aren't connected at full 2.0 speeds. If the Hawking adaptor isn't giving you that message about "high speed device not in high speed port" then I suspect it's a problem with the configuration utility you're using. Try using Windows to configure the USB adaptor, rather than the software it came with. You may have to uninstall and reinstall the drivers or something, but I'm pretty sure that should clear up your problems. Believe it or not, in most cases XP is better suited towards configuring a wireless network than third-party software running on XP.