the card must support WPA natively or it simply wont work. It has nothing to do with the driver that instructs the cart how to operate. I has to do with the actual hardware on the chip itself. If the Wi-Fi card doesn't support WPA, then WEP or MAC address filtering is your only option.

J

Actually, an updated driver SHOULD make them support WPA.
It's WPA2 that can often not be upgraded to with just a new driver.

The original WPA is just WEP with a password that changes every so often using Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), and any card that had the WiFi logo on it had to be able to upgrade from WEP-only to WPA with just a driver update. Your data isn't really any more secure using WPA than WEP, because the password is still included in every packet (just like WEP).
If a hacker gathers enough packets (5-10 minutes worth) they can break the RC-4 encryption and decode your data. They cannot use that method to reverse engineer the original password, though... the original password plus a NONCE is used to generate encryption vectors that are then used to compute the key used for encryption (and what it morphs to with each variation) - ergo, your connection is secure with WPA.

WPA2 usually needed a hardware upgrade on the cards because it uses AES encryption which requires more horsepower to encode/decode on the fly. Very-few pre-WPA2 wireless cards had a processor powerful enough to handle that extra load.
WPA2-AES does not include the passphrase with every packet so there are no clues to use for cracking it. The only crack it's susceptible to is brute-force dictionary cracks, mitigated 'live' by routers/APs breaking the connection with clients that present the wrong passphrase during authentication, though they can still gather packets and try to brute force them... I've never heard of AES encryption made using a 'random' (non-dictionary) 10+ character passphrase being broken, though.

Sullivan, it's not the chipset, that I'm pretty sure about. Darr, the manufactures haven't created updated drivers for these types of card since 2003/2004. I checked that already.  Dell & Sony machines are the one's I'm finding with that issue and not only have I checked their website, but I spoke to their reps.  A Sony rep told me about a third party driver that I could use, but I can't find it and didn't bookmark the page.  

On the Dells, the Latitude C510 and C610 only ever came with a TrueMobile 1150 Mini-PCI internal, which is an 802.11b card. You could try helping them upgrade to a TrueMobile 1300 or 1350 (11g).

Here's the relevant page (for both the C510 and C610) in the service manual:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/latc610/sm_en/upgrades.htm#999869

And sample sources e.g.
TrueMobile 1300
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220288362789
TrueMobile 1350
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350111624330
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170269525313
All of those are $15 or less, and the one that's $15 includes free shipping.

I would not get a TrueMobile 1400 or 1450 as those are dual-band cards and I'm pretty-sure those laptops wouldn't have a 5GHz antenna, so they might burn out the 11a radio driving it through the wrong load. If I recall correctly the 1390 and 1490 cards are mini-PCI express cards and won't fit the 510/610's mini-PCI slot. But either the 1300 or 1400 should fit and work well in those.

1300 Manual - http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/p54164/en/index.htm
1350 Manual - http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/network/p70008/en/index.htm

1300 HTML Documentation A00 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R69824.EXE  (18MB - 1.0)
1300/1350 HTML Docs A03 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R69806.EXE   (17MB - 3.0a)

1300/1350 Install A02 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R74092us.EXE  (11MB - 3.40.66)

1300/1350 Drivers A06 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R94827.EXE (16MB - 3.100.35.1)
1300/1350 Drivers A07 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R102320.EXE  (26MB - 3.120.27)
1300/1350 Drivers A08 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R65194.EXE   (5MB - driver only - 3.20.23)
1300/1350 Drivers A09 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R115321.EXE  (48MB - 4.10.40.0)

1350 Drivers A10 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R140747.EXE  (52MB - 4.100.15.5)
1350 Drivers A14 - http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R151519.EXE  (52MB - 4.100.15.5)

Run the Install file first because it might recognize the card and install it correctly even though the C510/610 never came from Dell with those cards. Then step up through the updates... A06, then A08 (the driver-only package, whether A06 installs or not), and A10 or A14 for the 1350 (I suspect those two actually contain the same driver files, anyway).

If you decide to help them upgrade to 11g and you're unable to install the latest driver updates, post back here and I'll detail the process. Last time I typed the process all in first and the update files installed for the asker without a hitch so they didn't need the extra detail... but I'll be happy to explain how to update the drivers using Device Manager if there's a problem with the autoinstalls.

My apologies, but device firmware and device drivers are not the same. Regarding horsepower, Im pretty sure that computing algothrims have nothing to do with processing power.

&something just doesnt make sense, are WPA and WEP that similar& they use different key authentication protocols, but is the actually encryption the same? Im pretty familiar with the aircrack suite and this just doesnt make sense. Can someone please provide some links backing this up???

...alright, no one interested in this thread???

Darr: "Actually, an updated driver SHOULD make them support WPA.
It's WPA2 that can often not be upgraded to with just a new driver."

...that is simply incorrect. regarding driver updates to support WPA (from a native WEP card)

> ...that is simply incorrect. regarding driver updates to support WPA (from a native WEP card)

WPA is WEP + TKIP, so I'm afraid your assertion that it's not possible to do with a driver update is the 'simply incorrect' part.

Please show me a card with the WiFi logo on it that cannot be upgraded from WEP-only to WPA with a driver update. Because that was 1 requirement in order to use the WiFi logo on them.

why isn't WEP mentioned in this article???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PBKDF2

...and i will find you a card with the Wifi Logo, that can't be upgraded with software drivers :)

do you disagree with my previous statement: "device firmware and device drivers are not the same"????

> why isn't WEP mentioned in this article???

Because you're looking in the wrong article - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Access
PBKDF2 is how they generate the encryption vectors which are then used (in WPA) with an incrementing WEP-encrypted [RC-4] password that's included in every packet of the payload.

thanks Darr, that article has our answer...

The protocol certified through Wi-Fi Alliance's WPA program (and to a lesser extent WPA2) was specifically designed to also work with wireless hardware that was produced prior to the introduction of the protocol which usually had only supported inadequate security through WEP. Many of these devices support the security protocol after a firmware upgrade. Firmware upgrades are not available for all legacy devices.

The last part is my favorite, funny how drivers arent mentioned at all.

Darr, please stop trying to defend your incorrect position;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Access 
under HARDWARE SUPPORT

I'm still a little confused, but maybe I need to read all those references you guys put up.  Give a little to catch up.  Been busy as heck with miles of other problems.  Two that I've about to post now..