Connect Damn You
August 25, 2011 4:52 PM Subscribe
Issues connecting to a wireless network. I have one particular laptop that cannot connect to a specific Wireless network.
I've got a ThinkPAD T42 running XP attempting to connect to a WRVS4400N CISCO router. No encryption and WEP get me on the network just fine, however changing to WPA-Personal on the router and WPA-PSK on the laptop gets me nowhere. The wireless card is perfectly capable of connecting to my at home WPA wireless network, there's just something hinky at work. I know I'm typing the password correctly, because I've simplified it enough. I'm using IBM Access Connect not Windows as it generally works better. I've tried turning my anti-virals and firewalls off and still no luck. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Other computers and mobile devices are fine getting on the network.
I've got a ThinkPAD T42 running XP attempting to connect to a WRVS4400N CISCO router. No encryption and WEP get me on the network just fine, however changing to WPA-Personal on the router and WPA-PSK on the laptop gets me nowhere. The wireless card is perfectly capable of connecting to my at home WPA wireless network, there's just something hinky at work. I know I'm typing the password correctly, because I've simplified it enough. I'm using IBM Access Connect not Windows as it generally works better. I've tried turning my anti-virals and firewalls off and still no luck. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Other computers and mobile devices are fine getting on the network.
Response by poster: I've got the N putting out B/G/N mixed. When I try it with just G it still fails at the Connecting to Wireless access Point stage.
posted by edbles at 5:26 PM on August 25, 2011
posted by edbles at 5:26 PM on August 25, 2011
You've installed this? WPA2 Update to Windows XP. My old computer running XP couldn't attach to my WPA2 networks. For some reason this wasn't in the service pack. After installing, the computer connected to the network just fine.
posted by birdherder at 5:52 PM on August 25, 2011
posted by birdherder at 5:52 PM on August 25, 2011
The update that birdherder linked to is part of XP Service Pack 3. If you're not already running SP3, you should be, and updating will fix your WPA2 issue.
posted by flabdablet at 7:15 PM on August 25, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 7:15 PM on August 25, 2011
Response by poster: Service Pack 3 is already installed Yo!
posted by edbles at 11:59 AM on August 26, 2011
posted by edbles at 11:59 AM on August 26, 2011
Have you already tried letting Windows manage the connection, purely to rule out an Access Connect issue?
posted by flabdablet at 4:54 AM on August 29, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 4:54 AM on August 29, 2011
Response by poster: Yes but didn't have the WPA option at all through Windows, which was odd.
posted by edbles at 7:53 PM on August 29, 2011
posted by edbles at 7:53 PM on August 29, 2011
Windows doesn't tell you specifically that a network is secured by WPA(2). If working as expected, it just says it's a secured network and asks for the key. It automatically figures out whether it needs to use that key with WEP or WPA or WPA2.
posted by flabdablet at 9:21 PM on August 29, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 9:21 PM on August 29, 2011
One more thing about Access Connect and similar fancy-schmancy network managers vs. Windows inbuilt wireless support: if you need network access in order to log on (e.g. if you're using domain credentials to log on at work) then you actually need to let Windows manage your wireless connection, because Access Connect doesn't actually run until after logon.
posted by flabdablet at 9:36 PM on August 29, 2011
posted by flabdablet at 9:36 PM on August 29, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Rubbstone at 5:15 PM on August 25, 2011