My servos are seizing

November 23, 2009 9:14 PM

Posting for a Roommate: His 802.11b USB adapter is unable to connect to our 801.11n network.

According to him, this adapter worked for him previously but as soon as he moved into our house it stopped working. The adapter sees the network but when you try to connect it fails.

His laptop is on the other side of the house so I tried it on my laptop (which is in the same room as the router) and ran into the same issue so I'm thinking it might be a hardware problem but I have very little knowledge when it comes to networks.

Some more details:
Driver obtained from Windows Update (Current)
Adapter only recognizes the network as 801.11g
Network is encrypted with WPA-PSK

If he's going to need to buy a new adapter I'd appreciate suggestions as well. Currently he is running a Ethernet cord through our hallway and into my room which is kind of tacky.

posted by cabbages to computers & internet (5 answers total)

Oh, almost forgot, my laptop is running Windows 7 and his desktop is running Vista.
posted by cabbages at 9:16 PM on November 23, 2009

Some routers have a setting for allowing mixed networks (B / G / N) or can only allow G / N (I believe older routers had trouble mixing networks and it would sometimes drop the speed of the whole network down. Check to make sure you're allowing B connections in router firmware settings?

Also: I'm not even sure if 802.11b adapters can do WPA-PSK. Is it even in the spec? Maybe someone else can comment on that.
posted by sharkfu at 9:18 PM on November 23, 2009

Try the latest driver from linksys, you could also upgrade the firmware on the router.
A new adapter would be the most sure fire fix, hopefully someone else can recommend something.
posted by tresbizzare at 9:23 PM on November 23, 2009

802.11b should be replaced stat. New adapters are dirt cheap, faster, and better. Tell him to live in the now, man.
posted by cosmicbandito at 9:24 PM on November 23, 2009

Thanks, I told him to get a new adapter and he seemed happy with that. I kind of figured that would be the case but I wanted to make sure I wasn't giving bad advice.

Thanks for your help!
posted by cabbages at 9:33 PM on November 23, 2009