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Cannot set up USB Wireless on PC

Hi, I have a Linksys WRT54G wired to my desktop pc. Both my and my fiancé's laptops have no problem accessing this router using wireless. My daughter is home from college and I picked up a WUSB54G (V4) to get her Desktop PC on the network. All these machines are running XP Pro SP2, except my daughters, which was SP1. The router is set up to use 128 bit WEP key #3.

When I tried to set the USB wireless adapter on her PC it would accept the

26 character key but would not connect. When I edit the profile the key is only 8 characters. At a Linksys Tech's suggestion I upgraded the XP to SP2. He also said to use the XP setup and not the Linksys utility. I tried that and it still won't connect and still only displays 8 characters of the key. Shouldn't I be able to save the 26 character key?

I've tried the key as both 'auto' and 'shared' and still no luck. I'm using 'Infrastructure' mode as I want it to connect to the router to get on the network. Is there a setting on the router that I need to enable to do this?

Thanks for any help or suggestions, Jon

Reply to
Zeppo
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First, verify the passcode/encryption key. Check your router's menu and make sure that you do not have MAC address filtering enabled. If you do, add the MAC address of your daughter's laptop so that the router will allow her access. Make sure the SSID is typed in your daughter's wireless config. menu of her laptop. Finally, check the IP address of your daughter's laptop. To do this: click START, RUN and type the letters CMD and press the ENTER key. Afterwards, type ipconfig and hit the ENTER key. you will see the ip address, the subnet mask and the default gateway address. Make sure that the ip address is within the same range as the other pc on your network. If you see something similar to 169.254.x.x, you have a misconfiguration. Let us know if this info does not resolve your dilemma.

Reply to
Doug Jamal

If you are using XP's wireless config then after you have saved the Key it only shows 8 dots (I have a 40 character WPA key which only shows as 8)

Have you updated the drivers as there was a problem connecting to an AP ,when using WEP, if the SSID was disabled.

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Reply to
NBT

Doug, I checked and MAC filtering is not enabled (was planning to add this after all returning college machines had shown up for the summer). The ssid was correct for my network. I tried to obtain the IP address but ipconfig returned a message saying no network detected. I tried changing my WEP key to a 64 bit and still no joy. The USB adapter sees other wireless routers in neighborhood but not mine (I have broadcast disabled).

Just learning this stuff, so I'm having problems with the conceptual stuff of wireless networking. I think I'm entering the right stuff on the adapter, but I'm not sure if some setting on my router might be causing this. Or maybe I'm missing a hardware problem.

Thanks for your help, Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

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Thanks, I'll give this a try this evening. As a quick check I could start with enabling SSID broadcast.

Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

disable encryption on the wireless router/AP and see whether or not you can connect and we'll go from there. If your wireless device and its drivers are installed correctly, you should have no problems connecting while encryption is DISABLED.

Reply to
Doug Jamal

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I downloaded the new drivers powered up the router and it connected with a solid signal. Its working great. Thanks so much for the help.

Regards, Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

Doug, It turned out to be a driver problem with the USB device. Installed updated drivers and boom, solid connection.

Thanks for the help, Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

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