Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Another IT question, re: WiFi setup and WEP

I've been using my Linksys WUSB11 v2.6 w/ my older Netgear 814 for a while, no problems. My XP PC has been since updated w/ it's built in wireless utilities, so I can't seem to get the specific Linksys utilities running. I changed the WEP password on the AP (connected to the DSL modem). But now I can't access my DSL connection via the WUSB11. The connection is active, I can do a wired connection and my other wireless laptop (w/ WEP) is fine.

The problem is that there seems to be 2 places where to set the WEP. One is from the control panel, where there is a Wireless Settings icon. This seems to be a Windows XP thing. The other place is the properties window, as shown in the quick install guide from Linksys. I changed both places to have the same WEP password but now luck. W/ no WEP, it works fine.

Where do I set the password?

I HATE Windows so much now. My Mac Mini is so much easier.

I feel your pain cus my (former) windows laptop would NOT keep the WEP key and always ask for it. I would place it in my copy buffer and paste it all the time but for some reason it just wouldn't store the WEP key. Pissed me off so much that I just decided to install Linux on the laptop and everything has been running perfect! Amazing that Linux actually surpases windows for me in terms of ease of use.

Sorry for OT...anyways WinXp recommends if your card is supported to use the built in Wireless settings in leiu of bundled software. I'm not totally sure but you will have to use one or the other, not both. Also, try placing the WEP key in your copy buffer to avoid any typo's (since the 128-bit or higher wep keys are pretty long).

Hope it works out for ya...

If you go into properties for the WUSB nic you should find a checkbox to "allow Windows to control your wireless connection." Try checking it. If it is checked, uncheck it.
Try either way. Also, do you get a message in your systray about your connection ("Your wireless connection has limited or no connectivity" or something like that)? Click Start->Run and type CMD into the box and hit enter. At the command prompte, type "ipconfig" and see if your wireless adapter had an IP address. You DON'T want to see 0.0.0.0 or 169.x.x.x. SP2 can be a pain with it's wireless security functions. Another thing to try is go to Device Manager and right-click the wusb nic and select "Uninstall." Then unplug the usb nic, reboot, then plug it in and let Windows reinstall the driver.

Mark
Thanks for the input. I figured there'd be some admins here who'd know what I was trying to do...or "redo".

1) If you go into properties for the WUSB nic you should find a checkbox to "allow Windows to control your wireless connection." Try checking it. If it is checked, uncheck it.
Try either way.
OSB: I'll have to find this. The PC is at home and I don't recall this window.

2) "Your wireless connection has limited or no connectivity"
OSB: Yeah, that's exactly it. W/in XP, I tried to renew the address but it always fails. I haven't tried it from the DOS prompt yet.

3) Another thing to try is go to Device Manager and right-click the wusb nic and select "Uninstall." Then unplug the usb nic, reboot, then plug it in and let Windows reinstall the driver.
OSB: Yeah, if the other things above don't work, I'll start from scratch. I have to download the s/w and then put them on a USB stick so I can get them over to the PC.

Thanks again. I can't wait till the new Macs come out. My wife gets an educational discount and I have friends at Apple. I'm drop kicking it out of the house and going full Mac by the end of the next Mac Expo in Jan 06 for sure. My only remnant will be Virtual PC.

If you try the uninstall, don't worry about new SW at first. Uninstall from Device Manager doesn't delete the driver. What happens is when you reboot it in essence re-binds the driver to nic. Actually (Mac users won't believe this) the best way is to uninstall, reboot with the nic out, reboot again, then insert the nic. If that doesn't work, go into Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs and actually remove the WUSB software. Then reboot and install the software you download.
I know this is a pain. I administer 35 laptops and 5 AP's on top of the 60 desktops and 15 servers. SP2 for XP really caused a bunch of problems. My fellow SysAdmin and I both run Slackware Linux on our main systems here.

BTW we got one of the Mac-on-Intel developer kits here. WOW. Love that BSD command line. Never thought I could mount a Windows share on a Mac from a command line. And the Mac GUI is beautiful.

oh, gawd, he's been seduced by the dark side.

"Now you will understand the full power of the dark side."

Nah, I'm a geek. A computer is a computer. I could list pros and cons for any platform. Personally, I can't live without a Wintel machine at home because most of the games I like are DirectX gameas as opposed to OpenGL. On the other hand, I use Linux for most everything else, because of the DIY factor more than anything else. It's fun! People blah blah about stability and so on but really we have 99.9% uptime on all our servers, Windows and Linux. I personally never have problems with my Windows machine and I believe this is because as an experienced user I know how to stay out of trouble. That's the biggest difference. Linux makes it pretty hard for an inexperienced/average user to mess it up.
Mac's are pretty. HW and SW. But for the price, what do they do for me that another platform won't for a lot less?

VERY cool, hope you're not violating your NDA...

Apple is my customer and I get some vision into their product line. (But don't ask me, I like my job...) I've become a Mac returnee after 15 yrs of my Mac Plus. I've definitely been re-assimilated. I have a 17" powerbook on my desk at work and EVERYONE loves it. But unfortunately it's for demos, I have to use an IBM T40. Soon...

You mean we can't even ask you what you do for a living?