WEP / WPA: hardware or software limitation

It depends on the hardware. There is no inherent limitation to any wireless hardware device to do WPA encryption. However, some card manufactories imbed large parts of the MAC layer in firmware, which will have an effect. The real problem is that vendors are not particularly interested in supplying updated drivers and firmware for products that they no longer sell. With current product lifetimes of

6 months to 2 years, there's a real chance that anything old may never see support for the latest acronyms.

Yep. Old card. No WPA. Get a newer model card:

supports WPA. $20-$45 from Dell or via Ebay.

Model number? 3Com has been fairly good about updating their older cards. I guess(tm) there might be a suitable driver available, but I can't tell without the model number. Start here:

Incidentally, if you have Windoze 98 original version and not Windoze

98 Second Edition, you may have some problems with drivers.

Wireless cards contain hardware to accellerate encryption and decryption.

The algorithm used in WPA/TKIP is very similar to the algorithm used in WEP. For this reason, most cards that support WEP could theoretically also support WPA/TKIP. However, wireless technology is rapidly changing and competition is fierce. Thus, it does not make a lot of financial sense to dedicate programmers to adding features to older hardware; especially, when new hardware can be purchased for around $50.

In addition, WPA2 replaces TKIP with (required for government use) AES. The algorithm used by AES is very different from the ones used by TKIP and WEP. Thus, pre-WPA hardware will not be able to support WPA/AES. Luckily, many chipsets from cards that supported WPA from the start (where AES was an option) should support WPA2.

So, if you're looking to replace your existing hardware, look for something that supports WPA2 (or WPA with AES). Also, assume that any new wireless hardware will be very out of date in about a year.

-Yves

Hello,

I have a home network with a router that would support WPA but I'm limited to WEP by 2 "weak points": devices that only allow WEP encryption.

I wondered if it was a hardware limitation of the device or just a matter of finding the right driver.

BTW, these devices are

- a Dell TrueMobile 1150 Mini-PCI card (under Windows 2000);

- a 3Com 11 Mbps wifi PC-card (with "Xjack" retractable antenna) (under Windows 98).

Any advice appreciated - TIA,

WPA can be implemented 100% in software.

Pozdrawiam.

WPA version 1 was specifically designed to require about the same processing power as WEP, so that vendors could retrofit WPA onto existing devices with just a software/firmware upgrade. Unfortunately, to be allowed to display the WiFi logo, the WiFi Alliance only required vendors to support WPA on products introduced after 9/30/03. So, although vendors were expected to produce updated drivers for existing hardware, they didn't do it. Perhaps this was because the introduction of WPA coincided pretty closely with the introduction of standard 802.11g. So generally speaking, 802.11g products support WPA and 802.11b products don't (with a few exceptions).

Ron Bandes, CCNP, CTT+, etc.

The official answer from tech support will always be "not compatible" for any arrangement they have not tested or previously sold. I've juggled a few cards in Mini-PCI slots on various laptops and never had (much) of a compatibility issue. I mean, it's a real PCI slot, just like a PCI card. There are no power supply voltage issues as everything I've found runs on 3.3VDC. I've juggled a few Broadcom, Senao, and Intel mini-PCI wireless cards without much trouble. I also have adapters between standard PCI and mini-PCI I use for testing. My biggest compatibility problem is my tendency to destroy the u.FL antenna connector, which seems to be good for only one or two insertions. In other words, there's no electrical reason why your Precison M50 should not work with one of the modern cards.

Drivers for Windoze XP are very much like those for W2K. There are some subtle differences in the installation scripts and driver signing, but the actual drivers are identical. I once had to tweak an XP printer driver into working with W2K. I forgot how I did it, but it wasn't much of a problem. In general, if the product has an XP driver, it will also have one for W2K.

The trick to juggling cards is to remove the old windoze driver

*BEFORE* you unplug the card and install the new driver. Use: Device Manager -> (Pick Device) -> Driver -> Uninstall Shutdown, power off, pull the old card, reboot, and make sure it's really gone. If you reboot with the old card still in place, plug-n-play will reinstall the drivers. When it's time to install the new card, you can either install the drivers first, and then the card, or the other way around. It really depends on how the driver install is written. If it comes with a complicated install script, then it's usually driver first, card install last. If it's just a pile of drivers and a .INF file, it's card first, and tell it where to find the drivers.

Well, the usual kludge is to have two access points. One running the faster 802.11g with WPA, the other running 802.11b with WEP. With the

802.11g access points set to 802.11g only, there is no slowdown caused by the presence of 802.11b devices.

Thanks for all these details.

I could locate a 3Com driver on their site. Not clear it has WPA. (BTW, it's W98SE.)

As for the Dell TM 1150, I'd hesitate to replace it. I have tried a TM 1350; would not install. I asked the tech support, they answered "not compatible" (with a Precision M50 notebook).

Maybe an Intel would work, but I have a doubt.

The TM 1150 does have a WinXP driver supporting WPA, but chances are that it would not work under Win2k.

Looks like WEP is better than nothing after all...

Thanks again,

Thanks for the continued support. Below are some comments (about what actually "didn't work").

"Jeff Liebermann" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Indeed I tried the TM 1350 and had no electrical problem. From Windows's point of view, the card was installed. But the Dell card management software would not take charge of it. I tried many times, no way. I sent the card back to Dell.

Here is what I think: the TM 1350 is a very specific Dell model for newest laptops. It has _two_ antennas. The TM 1150 has one (and of course the Precision M50 has but one connector). From your posting I conclude it is the general case, and I could have more luck with a non-Dell (e.g. Intel) card. But as for the driver...

The W2K driver is the one installed at present. No WPA. I think Dell has released a WPA-updated driver for XP, but "forgotten" to offer a W2K version. Yet, you encourage me in testing the XP software. This is what I'll try first.

Thanks again,

Groan. Why am I doing this????

Did you remove the old TrueMobile 1150 management software? Per my previous rant, that was an absolute necessity. Also, the 1350 drivers are NOT the same as the 1150. If you tried the 1350 with the 1150 drivers, it would not work. Installing the 1350 should have initiated plug-n-play and demanded a new driver. If not, something is really weird.

Methinks not. To the best of my knowledge the TrueMobile 1350 is stock Broadcom, right out of the box. Same mini-PCI card as a dozen other laptop manufacturers use. I'm fairly sure it's an exact copy of the Broadcom 94306 reference design:

Diversity reception. Some laptops actually have two antennas on either side of the screen and use both connectors. It should NOT have an effect on operation. However, some firmware might disable diversity and select only one antenna. I've never seen that in laptop configurations, but it might happen. Therefore, you have to select the correct antenna. Sometimes, there's a very small 50 chip resistor soldered across the unused coax connector (Siemens 802.11b PCI card).

Maybe. The 2100 was not a very good design. The 2200 works just fine.

I recently ran into a video card that had only XP drivers and nothing for W2K. I tried the wizard and it proclaimed that my W2K operating system was "unsupported". So, I used winzip to expand the archive into individual files, invoked the W2K add new hardware control panel applet, pointed it at the expanded archive of files, ignored the messages of impending doom, and installed the driver. It worked just fine.

I've done such risky experiements in W2K quite often. It doesn't always work. In XP Pro, we have the "System Restore" feature to recover from my screwups. In W2K, one has to manually disarm the offending driver in order to boot and then remove it. You might wanna read:

how to disarm a driver in W2K using the "Recovery Console" before you try anything creative.

Good luck and I still think the 1350 should work.

Bah, no luck required. Just a good search engine. See:

1350 drivers which include W2K and probably WPA.

No appology necessary. I was just having a bad day and complaining to everyone.

HOLDIT! Don't do that. The US and French drivers and radios operate under different rules and regulations. Power limits and frequency bands are different. The wireless drivers MUST be from the country in which it is to be used.

"Jeff Liebermann" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

My apology -- I just meant I appreciate your help.

I am pretty confident I have tried the TM 1350 the right way, but no matter. I don't have the TM 1350 any more. The Dell tech assured me it wouldn't work, I believed him and sent it back...

Searching from the link you indicated (did not know that part of the Dell site):

[...]

I have found a TM 1150 driver/client software newer than the ones I use. (It's not on the Dell French site). I'm full of hope... I'll try it ASAP.

Best regards,

Daniel CLEMENT

Not to mention it can actually leave you in breach of the law if you are using the wrong settings!

Oops! One more thing I ignored... Fortunately "ASAP" has not yet occured.

However, the driver download page, as well as the Client Manager page, both state "multi-language". Do you think I can safely assume that they carry the right set of frequencies for France? I don''t see why they would offer a French driver with US frequency settings...

What do you think of this:

driver link:

software link:

Or in Canada, where well over 30% of the population can speak French :)

Sorry. I can't tell without installing or running the install program. My guess is no. If you want French rules and regulations, you'll need to download whatever is available on the French site.

Oh, that's easy. We have plenty of foreign language speakers in the USA. One need not travel France to speak French. US rules and regulations, but written in a foreign language is common.

Sorry. It was worth a try.

Well, sorta. WPA appeared at about the same time at 802.11g, so they tend to go together. Drivers for cards that do just about everything in software (Centrino) were all available at the same time. Once the new cards appeared, there was no incentive to upgrade the 802.11b cards to WPA. Obsolescence is the price of progress.

Sigh. Well, at least you tried.

Well, I have tested.

Now I have a signal meter which reads "bon" instead of "good" :-) But I still don't have any WPA :-( Yet, the driver and software versions are as recent as the ones for XP.

I'm bound to think that WPA is a WinXP feature, not (or not easily) available in W2K. I'll look fore more info about that.

For now I have decided that I can live without WPA.

Many thanks for your valuable advice,