New XP laptop can't access wireless home network

[John T]

I have a home wireless network (Airport Extreme router on a cable modem) supporting three computers, a Mac G5, my wife's G4 and daughter's Windows 98 laptop. Our daughter is getting a new laptop running Windows XP Home for Christmas. It can see our home network and is set up to access it automatically upon bootup, but it can't get past the firewall. Windows shows the network by name, then says "Network requires a WEP key or WPA key." We enter the 26 character (numbers and letters) key we use for the other Windows machine (and alternately the 13 character plain language password used for the Macs). It says "Wait while Windows connects to network XYZ." but it then times out with the network still red X'ed. We know the computer works; we took it back to the store where they used our machine to enter their own wireless network using their own 26 character key. The Airport is only two years old, so the firmware on it should support Windows XP as well as Windows 98. This is driving us nuts and threatens to ruin my daughter's Christmas. Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks. John T

[renegade600]

did you verify that the network name and key is exactly numbers are numbers and letters are letters for example 0 or O. Same cases, etc...

But then again, when your daughter gets it for christmas, she might solve the problem first try. Kids still seems to know more about computers than their parents these days.

[bAdWaYz]

You might want to update the firmware on the wireless adaptor for the laptop. I know that with a lnksys usb wireless adaptor once I couldn't get it to use WEP correctly untill I updated its firmware.

[John T]

Renegade: I was very careful to copy the numbers and letters (and used an 0 with a line thru it for zero vs O for Oh). This is the exact 26 characters entered in the old Win 98 laptop (which works). The two Macs are both using the 13 character plain language password instead of the long jibberish version. I tried both versions on the new Win WP Home, and tried upper and lower for both, although the new Compaq blanks out the characters as they are typed so I have no idea what is being sent. I did wonder if the 13 character password is going thru with all caps, while the 13 character network password is actually all lower case. But everything I can find out suggests the Win XP wants to use the 26 character version anyway.

Badwayz: You could well be right about the firmware--the machine is brand new but may have older firmware. Catch 22 is that I can't update the firmware without getting on the network. The other issue i,s that in the test at the store our new laptop zipped right on into their encrypted network using their 26 character WEP. That did have 26 numbers, however (1-26) and no letters to get the case confused. I thought about trying to update the firmware in the Airport router itself, but again there is a catch. The update available now only works with Mac OS X 10.3.0 or higher and my G-5 is running X 10.2.8.

Thank you both.

[renegade600]

I am not sure if firmware is required if it worked at the store. Give more info about the network itself. Is it 802.11b or 802.11g. If both, make sure the router setup indicates this.

[Archangel122184]

You can eliminate you catch22 fairly easily.

Since this is a home network, I think I can safely assume that you or someone you have access to can access the administrative functions of the router.

Simply remove the wep/wpa security and leave the network open for a short period of time. Just long enough to test to make sure your network card does work and update the firmware if necessary.

Edit: also, there is a windows version of the airport administrator that I have used on numerouse occasions when I haven't had access to a mac.

[John T]

I've been out of town; sorry for the delay in responding.

I did as you suggested, and removed the security from the Airport. The Windows laptop saw the network as "Unsecured wireless network. This network is configured for open access." It said it was connecting, but then showed "Connected," for two or three seconds before it switched to "Not connected."

I got a balloon that popped up like a cartoon dialog balloon out of the little network icon at the bottom right of the windows screen saying "Unable to connect to network," and offering a "repair" button. I tried the "repair" button but got a message that said "couldn't do repair because could not connect to network."

At this point I noticed that my "Wireless Network Connection" screen was showing the network name on the upper left, the words "Not Connnected" at the upper right, and at the lower right a button that said "Disconnect." I wondered why I had a disconnect button if it was not connected. For the heck of it I double clicked on Internet Explorer and it came up online!

But every few minutes it would disconnect and I'd have to go thru the odd process of reconnecting, getting told it was not connected (but showing a "disconnect" button) then resuming what I was doing on the internet despite the "Not connected" label.

Again, this laptop seemed to work fine in the store on their network, both encrypted and not, and I have a another Windows (98) machine, working fine on my Airport network. When I turned the encryption back on at the Airport I reset it to 64 bits instead of 128 bits (because it noted that was "more compatible.") Still won't join the network. I don't know if the problem is with the Windows XP Home laptop or with the network, so it is hard to seek repair help.

[John T]

On Dec 24, Renegade600 posted this question:

"I am not sure if firmware is required if it worked at the store. Give more info about the network itself. Is it 802.11b or 802.11g. If both, make sure the router setup indicates this."

Renegade600: I checked the Airport Admin Utility Configuration pages and found the "mode" is set for "802.11b/g compatible." The network options are 802.11b only; 802.11b/g compatible or 802.11g only. It is set to the b/g setting. I don't know what the Windows XP is using. I wasn't even able to find out if it is set to DHCP, but assume it must be since I was able to get into the comcast server even if temporarily( see thread below). The router provides ip addresses to my various computers, though I only use one or two at a time.

[Archangel122184]

It sounds like you may have a hardware issue now. Usually if you can connect to a network at all it is not a software problem (i.e. windows or drivers). You MAY need to consider buying a new wireless adaptor.

[John T]

I'm going to add this final post in the hopes that it will help other folks and spare them the 25 hours of troubleshooting it took me. In Windows XP get to the Wireless Network Connection Properties > Wireless Networks tab. You should see your network name where it says "Automatically connect to available networks in order listed below." Below that is a "Properties" button. Go to Properties and right above the space where you enter the WEP key (HEX password which your Airport Extreme admin utility -configure- will give you) there are two boxes for Network Authentication and Data Encryption. The Data Encryption box should be set to WEP and the Network Authentication box should be changed from Open to Shared. Five Compaq/HP support techs told me that Open was right. Wrong. They had me wipe the HD and reinstall all the OS and software and spent hours on the phone going over all the settings again and again. Finally, today, as one was trying to get me to download new drivers for my wireless card, I got another guy who said, "Well, if you are using WEP encryption you must also have it set to Shared, not open. The minute I made that change my wireless network lit up immediately. I didn't even have to hit OK. Bang, it was on. Hope no one else has to go thru this for four weeks. There should be a better way.
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