Question

Wireless connection via WPA-PSK w/TPIK on XP Home

Asked by: flubbster

Okay, I'm in Internet Purgatory. I am on vacation at a place that has wireless access. I can't connect. I am doing this via a dial-up @ 41.2kbs. This a a notebook, Acer, with a Broadcom 802.11 b/g card built-in. I use this same system at home on my home network wirelessly and it works great. At home I am using WEP. I have the password for the connection. I get an "Acquiring address" message, then a "Limited or no Connectivity" message and I have no internet access. The owner allowed me to look at the settings on his laptop in the office, which is wireless. It is a Vista system. The encryption and protocol is set for WPA-Personal w/TPIK. I am running XP home and am set for WPA-PSK w/TPIK. I don't get it. It is not set for WPA2. I do not want to mess up my settings for home if at all possible. BTW, I also found a very weak signal on a wireless system that was unsecured and I was able to connect to that with no problem. I can't reach that signal from where I am, but at least I know my system is working. Any ideas??

Also, just curious... when I go back and look at my settings along with the password, it always shows fewer characters than I have entered previously. Is that normal? Is it just a default display?

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Asked On
2009-08-02 at 16:14:34ID24620350
Tags

Wireless networking

Topics

Windows XP Operating System

,

Miscellaneous Networking

Participating Experts
2
Points
200
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: NotexaPosted on 2009-08-02 at 16:42:45ID: 25001145

Could you open a command prompt (cmd.exe) and type ipconfig when you have limited or no connectivity.  Tell me what the ip address and gateway is.

About the curious question: yes, this is normal.  This is an added security measure so that people don't know the actual length of the password.

 

by: dnilsonPosted on 2009-08-02 at 16:56:33ID: 25001193

Dont worry about screwing up you home settings, from the adaptor Properties | wirelsss dialog, just Add a new profile and set that to WPA-PSK-TKIP and make sure the owner give you the correct key.

As to the curious part - yes it could be a problem.  Normally theer are MORE dots, or at least the same, not less as the dialog generally puts the same number of dots as the maximum key length.  If you key is longer, you may yet have an incorrect setting - this is typical when trying to use a 128 bit WEP key on a 64 bit configuration, so check carefully

 

by: flubbsterPosted on 2009-08-02 at 17:13:26ID: 25001242

ok... made a new profile. Same thing happens with the connection and the password, which is 11 ascii characters.

results of ipconfig:

wireless connection:
IP 169.254.211.75
Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0

PPP Adaper (Dial-up)
IP 207.172.216.186
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255
Default Gateway: 207.172.216.186

NOTE: The wireless connection was tried again while the dial-up was active. I do not know if this interfered with the results of the ipconfig command. If you think it does, let me know and I will log off the dial-up. Just realize that I may not be able to connect again for a while.

 

by: NotexaPosted on 2009-08-02 at 19:44:44ID: 25001635

So you get a connection but don't get an ip-address.  
A few possibilities: does the router has mac filtering turned on ? Are your ip settings correct for a dynamic ip-address ?
If both are ok, then the question is: what system do uou have (laptop) ?
I know from experience that some older laptops with XP can't handle the WPA encryption.  They get a connection but no ip-address.

 

by: flubbsterPosted on 2009-08-09 at 18:14:13ID: 25056680

After a whole lot of trial and error and investigation, it turns out that the problem was the position of the wireless gateway. Also, the encryption kept going back to AES instead of TPIK. Once I entered the encryption at the connection screen instead of the other, I got a "loose" connection. From there, I played with the placement of the gateway in the office while on my cell to my wife. Once I got it up to 2 bars, my connection locked and is now fine.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I'll throw a few points your way in appreciation.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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