I recently decided to switch to using WPA from WEP with my new router, a D-Link one. I configured the router to be WPA2-PSK with a 19-digit key and TKIP. I know for a fact that the router is working because I can get online with my PS3.
Here’s the issue: I go into Wireless Network Connection Properties in windows and configure the properties of the connection and enter the new network key and hit okay. But I cannot get online, and when I go back to check the previous WEP key is always in the place of the one I just entered! It’s like the “Properties” dialog box isn’t saving my changes.
Why does it keep reverting to the previous key, and why would a PS3 be easier to get online than a laptop running XP?
I would suggest completely delete the wireless network from your laptops wireless settings and recreate the connection from scratch with the WPA2-PSK settings instead of trying to modify the existing setup. Thats what I do when working on pretty much ANY wireless setup.
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Some wireless devices do not fully support all wireless protocols, could be an issue there, especially if the laptop has a few years on it.
Thanks for your quick reply. My laptop is about 5 years old, and although it seems to know what WPA is, it won’t connect to it. I decided to revert to WEP again and now things work just fine.
Another possible issue is if something like Access Connections is enabled and is constantly overwriting your saved changes to the configuration that is set in there.
Really, XP’s wireless manager had a lot of problems. I found that I cannot even save WEP based security, and only an open connection works with my device.
You’re better off using a proprietary Wireless manager if your device has one. You can use the default it it’s good enough, but your situation indicates that it is not.
Hey, you’re apparently one step ahead of my dad’s crappy laptop…he’s got an Dell with XP of a similar age to yours and when he visited me he was unable to connect to my router at all…even if I turned off all the security on it (it works fine on the wireless I set up at home for him). Had to give him a ethernet cable so he could plug into my router directly and check his work email.
fiddlesticks’s problem sounds more like the wireless in the notebook not supporting the newer wifi. For best compatibility, make sure the router is broadcasting plain 802.11b, not just g or e. And make sure you are broadcasting your SSID, at least, until you get them connected.
This should never be a casual suggestion, this is a good way to turn a laptop into a brick if you dont know what you are doing. It will also have pretty much nothing to do with wireless functionality.
Modern applets for updating a notebook BIOS are not the same as in the DOS era and almost all have hardware self checks to make sure the BIOS and notebook are compatible. As long as you use some reasonable common sense in making sure it’s the right BIOS and have the notebook plugged into an AC source, in my personal experience across many brands and notebooks it’s not nearly the tightrope walk you describe it as.
Having said this I recognize and respect that you work with PCs for a living, so I will take you at your word that the real world hazard levels are higher than I might imagine.
Just thought I’d give an update. I am now, not able to connect, even using WEP. I get the same problem as with WPA (reverting to the previous key). This is even after I remove my network from the list of preferred networks and try to reestablish the connection. I just click on my network name in the list of available networks, hit “connect” and get what looks like (it’s all dots, after all) my previous key.
Hmmm…What is “Access Connections,” JSexton? I guess I’ll Google that and see what I get.
I can’t recall if it is the case with XP’s connection manager but the number of dots or stars that mask the password do not always reflect the number of characters entered. For example my saved wireless key (in Windows 7) appears as 8 dots, the password length is actually 17 characters.
Visit the manufacturer’s website and see if there are updated drivers available for your adapter. It is rare for a wireless adapter to stop working but it can and does happen. It might be worth investing in a wireless usb adapter that will definitely support modern wireless protocols.
Some wireless routers, and some notebooks sold in the XP era included CD’s that had wireless configuration software that overlaid XPs built in configuration parameters. Almost invariably these packages caused more trouble in wireless access than they solved. Is the wireless config applet you are using the built in windows applet or a separate piece of software?
I’ve been seeing this increasingly lately on desktops where a Linksys or Intel wireless card was installed and most recently w/ a mini w/ a broadcom card installed. We’ve tried updating drivers, checking for updates (windows and otherwise) and have had no luck and had to hardwire the pc’s. Our settings, however, are a little different - the machines are set to AES/ PEAP and the machine authenticates over the network to a radius server. What’s most frustrating is that they used to work and on some we’ve been able to change the settings back and they’ll stick. I was wondering if it was a windows update, but the dell machines w/ the intel wireless nics aren’t yet affected. Anybody else experiencing anything like this?
If you have SP3 or SP2, Symantec developed a tool - wlan.exe - for porting WLAN configs from computer to computer. That tool also gives you equivalent network interfacing options (through CMD) as Vista and 7. It’s a handful to get into, but it can help work around the horrible WinXP Wireless Zero interface.
I was aware of that Microsoft patch for the wpa2, but thanks for the reminder. All PC’s are on sp3. I was almost wondering if another microsoft hotfix or patch that had recently been released may have caused the problem, but since it’s not affecting any of the dell laptops w/ the built-in WNIC, I’m wasn’t sure. Why would a hotfix only affect Linksys/Broadcom and Intel PCI WNICs but not the built-in ones? :dubious:
I gotta be missing something. And the other weird thing is that I’m not seeing this issue anywhere else on any forums.
It sounds like the appropriate registry key is set to read-only. This may be because it’s been explicitly set, you have a policy which prevents changes in effect, or you do not have the access rights. Go into Regedt32 and check the permissions on the key.
You are setting up the connection as an admin-level user, right? Not as a normal user?
I like your thinking, but I don’t understand why this would have changed - we’ve been configuring the wireless on these machines for 3 years the same way. I’ll definitely give it a shot and reply back - thanks!