WPA-PSK wierd problem

On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 15:12:24 GMT, "GB" wrote: : Hi, : : Hoping for some help here as I'm at a dead end. : : Installed XP Home for a friend of mine. IU set it up at my house connected : to my wireless network - worked great - good signal strength and no : problems. : : Took it back to them and although I can see their wireless network, I can't : get the PC to connect to it. I set their router up for use with another PC : in their house which works fine, but the "new" PC can't connect. : : When it asks for the WPA network key and I input their key, it hangs at the : "connecting" dialogue box for ages and eventually says that it can't : connect. Now the wierd bit is that there is already a network key in the : dialogue box when I try and connect. Judging by the number of characters in : the key, it's mine from my wireless network?? : : If I go into wireless networking properties and view the properties of their : wireless network, the network key appears to be mine and even if I try and : delete it, it keeps coming back?? : : As I said, I'm at a dead end with this one and would appreciate some help. : : Their hardware is a BT Voyager 2100AB wireless router, an Athlon XP 1900+ : running WinXP home with a Ralink wireless network card. : : Cheers : : Geoff :

Presumably the key isn't actually getting entered when you type it at the prompt. But why do it that way? The more straightforward procedure is to configure the connection with the key already in it. That's what you must have done at home, or your key wouldn't be there.

Another possibility is that the key is being recognized, but is wrong. Are you sure you have all the parameters set up correctly (AES vs TKIP, WPA vs WPA2, etc.)? If you're using WPA2, did you remember to install the Windows XP hotfix that enables it to work?

Bob

Thanks for the quick reply.

I set the wireless network up at home using the same setting for my own network: WPA-PSK - TKIP It is possible, although I don't remeber doing it, that I did configure MY network via the preferred networks dialogue box.

I tried to add a network (their BT Voyager router) to the preferred networks list, but from memory, the netwok key boxes were greyed out. What I can't understand is that I've removed my network from the preferred networks list and MY network key still appears to be pre populated in the "connect" box when I view available wirelss networks??

A suspect that their PC is trying to connect to their wireless router using my network key, hence it won't connect. How do I force the PC to "forget" my network key ??

Regards

Geoff

On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 15:47:10 GMT, "GB" wrote: : Thanks for the quick reply. : : I set the wireless network up at home using the same setting for my own : network: : WPA-PSK - TKIP : It is possible, although I don't remeber doing it, that I did configure MY : network via the preferred networks dialogue box. : : I tried to add a network (their BT Voyager router) to the preferred networks : list, but from memory, the netwok key boxes were greyed out. What I can't : understand is that I've removed my network from the preferred networks list : and MY network key still appears to be pre populated in the "connect" box : when I view available wirelss networks?? : : A suspect that their PC is trying to connect to their wireless router using : my network key, hence it won't connect. How do I force the PC to "forget" : my network key ??

I doubt that it's that simple. The greying out of the boxes suggests that something is missing or misconfigured. I know nothing about XP Home Edition (never used it), but in XP Pro, there are actually two hotfixes for WPA: one to make it work at all, the other (more recent) to make WPA2 work. The former is included in SP2, IIRC; in any case, I didn't have to install it. But depending on how old your friend's OS is and how well it has been kept up to date, it might be needed.

Did you try backing off to WEP, or even to no security? You wouldn't want to run for very long that way, but it might at least help pinpoint the problem.

As for your final question, the way to make it forget your key may be to make it use another key successfully. Of course you might be able to find it in the Registry and delete it, but that's a procedure not without risk. I think you're barking up the wrong tree anyway; the remembered key is a symptom of your problem, not its cause.

Geoff, Sounds like there's something misbehaving software-wise. Rather than try to diagnose it, I'd go for a brute-force fix:

- ensure you have the drivers for the wireless adapter readily available, preferably the latest update from the vendor's web site

- ensure you have the *correct* WPA-PSK available in a text file

- from Device Manager, uninstall the wireless adapter

- reinstall the LAN adapter driver

- redetect the wireless LAN

- copy/paste the WPA-PSK value

"GB" wrote in news:2Mrwg.2771$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk:

On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 15:12:24 GMT, "GB" wrote in :

Sounds like you both have the same SSID, which is a Really Bad Idea(c). Set *unique* SSIDs on both WLANs; e.g.,

• "GB's wonderous wireless"

• "Friend's so-so-wireless"

Thanks for the suggestions:

His PC was in a dreadful mess, so I reinstalled it from scratch using his XP Home SP2 disk. All updates etc from Windows Update were applied and checked until there were no more updates available for it. He's only just got the router and this particular PC has never been used wirelessly with it.

My network does not have the same name as his - I changed mine for security purposes and left his as the default "BTVOYAGER2110AB" until we got it up and running.

I removed the network adapter from device manager and let it rediscover it and the same thing happened.

I will try backing off to WEP and see if I can get a connection.

Maybe it would be better to use the configuration software that came with the card rather than letting Windows configure it?? It's a Sweex Ralink

54meg pci card. I've never used them before so I don't know what their config software is like??

Are there any know issues with either the card or the BT router??

Thanks for your help

Geoff

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 09:55:15 GMT, "Geoff" wrote in :

Good idea. I'd personally disable all security temporarily while troubleshooting the problem. WEP can be a problem because different products interpret keys differently.

I haven't either. It may be worth giving the vendor software a try. I normally prefer to use Windows for Wi-Fi configuration because most vendor software isn't as good. One exception is Intel, which has very good (other than being horribly bloated) connection software.

I'm not familiar with either -- sorry.

That it works at your house but not at his house suggests the problem is related to the configuration of his wireless router/access point. Might you possibly have enabled *> MAC filtering Thanks for your help

I will disable all security to get try and get the thing connected first.

I will check the MAC filtering option. I don't "think" I've touched it, but you never know - is set as "on" by default??.

A mate of mine is bringing me his spare ADSL Router on Tuesday and I will try that in their system if I cant't get things working with their existing setup.

I suspect that as I'm not familiar with the BT Voyager router, I may not have it configured properly and if the MAC filtering is "on", I'm guessing it will refuse connections from any other PC's??

Many thanks for all your help, I will report back on Tusday after I've been to their house.

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 15:35:25 GMT, "Geoff" wrote in :

No.

Ignore them.

Well, I'm toally confused now !!

I went back to the house armed with a 15mtr patch lead and a spare ADSL wireless router.

I disabled all security on the router before running the following tests. For ease, I will refer to the "original" PC as PC1 and the one I've just reinstalled for them as PC2

With PC1 connected to the router via the patch lead and the wireless network card diasbled, PC1 can connect to the internet and PC2 can make a witeless connection to the router (but not the internet).

With PC2 connected via the patch lead and its wireless network card disabled, PC2 can connrct to the internet but PC1 cannot make a wireless connection to the router??

I repeated these tests with the spare ADSL router and got the same results.

I cannot get PC2 (in the Son's bedroom) onto the internet at all with the main PC connected.

Their ISP is Tiscali and they're on the basic 2meg package - could it be that the ISP doesn't support ICN or something like that?? When I ran the diagnostic tests from the spare router that I took, it came back saying that a "ping" test had failed??

HELP !!

"Geoff" wrote in message news:1HMwg.106100$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 14:26:56 GMT, "Geoff" wrote in :

Good.

What do you mean by PC2 connection? What IP address is assigned? Manual or DHCP? Can it ping the router? Can it access the router's web interface? Can it ping the Internet? Can it lookup hostnames? I'd like to see the exact output from IPCONFIG /ALL on PC2 in this case. Likewise PC1.

What is the exact symptom? Again, I'd like to see IPCONFIG /ALL from both PCs in this case.

Wireless Internet isn't working with either PC on either router?

What happens if PC1 is disconnected?

The router must be able to access the WAN if any computer, wired or wireless, can access the Internet. That suggests a router configuration problem. Try resetting the ADSL router to factory defaults, and configuring from scratch. Use DHCP (not manual configuration) for both wired and wireless clients. Get and post the output from IPCONFIG /ALL.

will do, may be a few days though as I working away for the rest of the week