Finally got WPA to work in my Win2K wireless network using the freeware program WPA Assistant. The key was making sure each machine had the Linksys software turned off and out of the startup folder when the computer booted up and WPA Assistant was installed. That way, only the WPA Assistant software was used for connectivity and link monitoring initially.
This is how I did it.
My equipment is as follows:
Linksys WRT54G v2 (firmware v 3.01.3)
Linksys WMP54G PCI v 2 (original driver installed v 3.30.15.0) Pentium III
800 256RAM desktop using Windows 2000 SP4Linksys WPC54G PC card v 1.2 (original driver installed v 3.30.15.0) Pentium III 500 256RAM laptop using Windows 2000 SP4
Settings for the ROUTER:
-Mixed Mode
-Channel: whatever 1, 6, 11
-WPA Pre-share key
-WPA-AES (could use TKIP but AES is supposedely more secure) I made up a 63 character shared key using letters,
numbers, characters, etc.)
-SSID broadcast ON (this was necessary for the WPA Assistant during intial setup and, per-session, to initially find the
network-after it finds the network and you connect via the little key icon, you can turn it off if you prefer (on a per
session basis)-I just leave mine on since there are no security ramifications anyway).
-In Advanced wireless settings use all defaults (authentication type defaults to auto; I tried to use shared key but neither the
laptop or PCI desktop would work in that mode so I left it at the default of auto)
-Group key renewal I set at its minimum of every 600 secs (3600 is default--this way it will renew the key more frequently
adding a little--psychological anyway--added security)
-I also have MAC filtering set up
PC and PCI card settings via device manager:
Default settings,
including 54G only mode,
set same channel as router and
shared authentication mode (that was put on PCI card, there wasn't a setting available on the laptop).
Notes: initially in order for the WPA Assistant to work with my laptop, I had to set the router to mixed mode (mixed G and B network). I disabled (but didn't uninstall) the Linksys connection software and the laptop connected. That wasn't the case with my wireless desktop with the PCI card. It would work when the router was set to G only mode. In the case of the laptop, I ultimately COULD use G only mode on the router but only after I went into the hardware setting on the laptop and switched over to b only or mixed mode and then back to G only. I have no idea why that was the case but it was just easier to leave the router in mixed mode as the laptop will connect the first time when it sees the network via the WPA Assistant (via little key icon).
Also, while I disabled the Linksys WLAN software to install WPA Assistant on both machines, you can still open up the Linksys WLAN monitors after you have installed and connected to your router via the WPA Asssitant. The WPA Asst status doesn't have a couple things that the Linksys software has (very minor-in the laptop Linksys connect software it'll indicate that your security is WPA, but in the PCI card Linksys will still show you in WEP mode (you're really in WPA mode). The Linksys WLAN monitor and software capabilities of the PCI card leave a lot to be desired in comparison to the PC card software, but you already know that if you own both cards.
All in all, it seems to work well and only a very minor performance hit, if at all.
This was only my experience. I was trying to get away from WEP and into WPA as it is obviously much more secure. I figured if I could do it for free, what the heck, it seems to do the job. From my reading on WPA, the critical thing is to make your shared key 20 or more characters (might as well go for the whole 63 and make it complicated). As with WEP, if you can dictionary attack a simple WPA key, you can break into the system too. As I understand it though, once the router shakes hands with the clients via this initial key, once every interval (that you set up via the router, 600 secs, etc), it renews with a new, randomly generated key. If there are any inaccuracies in my understanding of this, comments appreciated.