Intel WiFi Link 4965AGN not connecting to wireless networks with WPA2 encryption... "Acquiring Network Address"

Sorry I should have noted that. I'm running Windows XP SP3

While that v5.3.3 (A28) NSS is compatible with the D630, the latest version is 5.3.6 (A30) and is available at http://ftp.us.dell.com/utility/R181862.exe

Was there some particular reason nina007 should revert to that previous version, sarangk_14?

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Try entering the passphrase in HEX instead of ASCII.
i.e. if the ASCII phrase is made up of the 96 characters commonly available on a keyboard, as shown in the chart below (click pn it to expand to 'full' size, though that's still pretty-small).

Hi Sarang,

I updated the driver using the DELL ftp site you sent but alas this did not work.

Darr247 i will download and install your driver and see if that fixes my problem.

Thanks

Hi,

Do you by any chance have the MAC address filter enabled on the AP/ Router?

Regards,
Sarang

Nope no MAC address filter enabled

If you are using WPA2, you need a patch from Microsoft search for WPA2 patch for Microsoft XP. Alternatively, you could try to look up the following links
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021

If you do not have SP2, then you could do well to check the DHCP settings on your WLAN router.

Hi there,

I've tried everything but so far nothing has fixed my problem. I'm thinking it's actually something to do with XP Pro. qtkfreak i tried to install the patch http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357 however as i'm running windows XP Pro SP3 it said my computer already had this patch. I will try the 2nd patch http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021 but am thinking this will also not work as it's for windows xp SP2.

Darr247 I tried all your suggestions but they didn't work either :(

I'm not sure what else to try. this is driving me crazy.  I'm thinking it's definately something to do with Windows XP and how it's handling WPA2 encryption authentication.

So they won't connect using WZC *or* the PRO/set connection manager?

How are you entering the key... copy and paste, or manually?

Nope it won't connect if i use windows to manage wireless networks or if i use the Intel Pro connection manager. I am typing the key in manually and am very careful of spelling and alpha-numeric characters. It's such a weird situation because there is another computer, exactly the same as mine, same wireless NIC, same O/S, same SP however it cannot connect to a wireless network with WPA2 but my computer can. I've gone through and examined all my settings vs the settings on his computer and they are the same. Could it be anything like a permissioning or group policy affecting it??  All users are local administrators of their computers. Everyone who can't connect to WPA2 wireless networks are running windows XP Pro, SP3 with an intel Pro 3945ABG or 4965AGN.  My computer is a 3945ABG and can connect successful but one of the computers, exactly the same as mine, cannot. So could this be a permissioning thing or windows XP preventing authentication for some reason??

Ok so I uninstalled SP3 and rolled back to SP2, installed both updates http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021
and running on SP2 i still cannot connect to WPA2 networks.  I changed it from the intel manager to the windows manager to manage the wireless networks and neither could connect.
I can connect to WEP wireless networks but not WPA2. Does anyone else have any suggestions as this is driving me crazy!!

When i use the intel pro to manage wireless networks you can do additional troublshooting and it's erroring on authentication. see print screen.  However i am absolutely typing in the encryption key correctly.

thanks, Nina

Hi,

I might sound stupid asking this, but have you confirmed that the Encryption you are using is the same on the AP as well as on the client? e.g. WPA-PSK (AES)/ WPA-PSK (TKIP).

Basically, the reason for asking is, as fr as I know, the difference between WPA and WPA2 is about whether you are using TKIP (WPA) or AES (WPA2), and I've seen people using separate encryption on the AP and the Client and unable to connect.

Warm regards,
Sarang

yep double checked that the encyrption being used on the AP is what is being used on the clients. good suggestion though...

Hmmm,

I somehow still think this is driver related. I was facing  similar problem on my Compaq Laptop (Able to connect to WEP, but not WPA/ WPA2)

The only way I could solve it was by installing the latest driver from the HP site and using Intel Wireless Client Utility.

Warm regards,
Sarang

Have you disabled broadcast of the SSID or are you connecting to a hidden network? If so, you need to unhide or enable broadcast to use WPA2-PSK AES to use it. Try this first. Then, you should check up following links:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=009D8425-CE2B-47A4-ABEC-274845DC9E91&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=662BB74D-E7C1-48D6-95EE-1459234F4483&displaylang=en
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22450152-Cisco-1131AG-WEP-and-WPA-work-but-not-WPA2
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021

If you're entering the key in HEX, it may have something to do with the way XP stores the passphrase only in HEX (i.e. sometimes it double-encodes it, so 12345678 becomes 3132333435363738 and then 33313332333333343335333633373338. For some reason, I've only seen it happen with Intel cards... I haven't seen a similar problem from cards with Atheros and Broadcom chipsets, but with only 2 instances (well, 3 if I count this one), it's not really a scientific conclusion. Still, that could indeed point to it being a driver problem, I guess. Another troubleshooting step you could try is a USB adapter like a netgear WG111 v2 or v3 (et al; but I don't think the WG111 v1 supported WPA or WPA2).

After you enter and store the passphrase, you can view what XP thinks it should be by digging around the registry at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WZCSVC\Parameters\Interfaces\{wireless adapter GUID}
The SSID, key and other info are HEX encoded (not encrypted) in the DWORD values named Static#xxxx, where xxxx matches the same order listed in the Wireless Networks tab (Static#0000 being the top or most-preferred one) so you could put them in the same order and compare them side by side after exporting the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WZCSVC\Parameters\Interfaces\{wireless GUID} key from both.

There's also a tool made by NirSoft that will fetch that info for you (for all configured wireless networks with a key):
WirelessKeyView - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html
I ignore all the other download links there (like the majorgeeks and download.com sites, they have download buttons for driver detective, et al, everywhere) and look for specific download links for each utility just below the Feedback sections.

Hi everyone,

sarangk_14 I wish it was a driver issue but i really don't think it is because i've downloaded and installed the latest drivers for the wireless intel NIC.

gtkfreak I have installed the 2 MS hotfixes KB893357 and KB917021 after rolling back from SP3 to SP2 (because if you try and install these when running XP SP3 you get a message saying this fix is already installed) and it did not fix my probs. I'll try and install the other MS fix you posted and see if that fixes it. Also i am broadcasting the SSID and it is not a hidden network

Darr247 - i downloaded your little support tool to obtain the HEX key for my wireless Netcomm router and unfortunately i get the same error ... "waiting to connect..." and it attempts over and over to connect but just can't.  The HEX key translated to 2076b6b58a55718f2d490d468342317976d67d720cb7888e667819d3c590dcee and didn't seem to fail on authentication but it just couldn't connect.

Any more ideas??

thanks all for your help so far.

Nina

> i downloaded your little support tool to obtain the HEX key for my wireless Netcomm router

That util fetches the value stored in the registry, not what's stored in the router. If it doesn't match what's stored in the router, *that* is why it won't connect.  64 ASCII characters is too many for a WPA or WPA2 passphrase, by the way... 8 minimum to 63 maximum characters is the spec.

So how do i work out what the HEX key is for my router??  yes i thought it was a lot of HEX characters for an 11 digit WPA2 password.  

Could you try WPA2-PSK TKIP? Does that work? I read here that WPA2-PSK AES was giving problems.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/itproxpsp/thread/691b044e-3aed-464a-b40c-c3cee63f9273/

You could probably visit the above link.

See the notice about WPA-PSK keys at http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wireless_key.html

Sorry I led you astray on that.
At this point I think WirelessKeyView's a wild goose chase unless its author gets back to me.

Hi everyone,

thanks for all your help. I finally fixed the problem.... i had to reformat my computer and reinstall all drivers and applications and that seemed to fix it. Don't know why but it just did. So i've done 3 computers so far and just need to find the time to do the rest. But thought i'd post the answer to help anyone else out in the future.

Thanks again for all your help.

Nina

The only reason it's a B grade is because the only resolution was to reformat computer and start again and that's what fixed my probs. thanks for all your help. much appreciated.