I've already tried HP's support desk to no avail, but maybe someone here can give me some hints. I have an HP/Compaq NC4000 laptop with the HP W400 802.11b/g WLAN module running with Atheros Client Utility software. I've been using this laptop with my WLAN at home (D-Link 624 AP/router) with no problem for months, and it was working fine on Wednesday night. Then last night I tried to connect, and I couldn't get past the authentication stage. I had changed no settings from the previous night when it was working, so I don't know what's going on.
After several hours of troubleshooting and reinstalling software as directed by the HP support tech and changing various settings, I have discovered the following:
- When I try to use authentication, on the Atheros Client Utility screen, I see it saying "Authenticating..." but it never progresses past that. There is excellent signal strength. It goes from having no IP address to having one that starts 169.xxx.xxx.xxx, but the normal IP address for a successful connection starts at 172.xxx.xxx.xxx (that fits the IP address assigned to my router).
- I can connect with no problem as long as I don't use authentication. WEP encryption works fine. So there's nothing wrong with the radio or the basic WLAN module or router.
- None of the authentication schemes work.
- The router's log file shows that wireless authentication WAS successful. This indicates that the problem is not mismatched passphrases or pre-shared keys (which I've already changed and checked anyway). It seems like the laptop just doesn't know that authentication was successful for some reason.
- The laptop appears to have trouble receiving packets when I attempt to use authentication. The number of received packets is usually 0, or sometimes a very low number.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks for your help!