Windows 2000 laptop and WEP

[Eric the Grey]

My GF's laptop is an older Dell running Windows 2000. I mentioned in another thread having to find the sound card drivers for it, but I've also given her a wireless card and picked up a wireless router so her and her roommate can share their internet connection.

The problem is with having security turned on. I've tried both WEP 64 and 128-bit which is all the card drivers/program seems to support. No matter what I do to it, the laptop cannot connect to the router (even though the LT says it is) with encryption turned on.

With WEP turned off on the router and laptop, it works perfectly.

There is no error, other than the wireless panel telling me it can see the router but not the internet.

I don't want to leave them with just MAC filtering, I'd rather have them set up with WEP, but I cannot get it to work.

One thing to note, is that the laptop only had a base install of Win2k, with NO updates to it. I spent 4 hours updating it (and adding AV/Firewall/Firefox to it) the other day, but couldn't do any more fiddling with WEP, so It's possible that the updates may have an effect on it, I don't know yet.

Anybody have any experience with 2000 and wireless? I'm half afraid that it just doesn't support it and will never work.

My next resort will be to ask my A+ instructor next week (after spring break) and see what he says. I'd rather not do that. :P



Eric the Grey

[lordlundar]

Hmm, what encryption is the router using? A possibility is that it's using WPA as opposed to WEP.

[LostMyMind]

I have an Win9x computer with an wireless card. Had the same problem you're having. The card I had to get to have it on my old computer was old and didn't like the encryption that the router was using. And the card maker didn't feel the need to update the Win9x drivers since the demand isn't much for it anymore.

If the router and network card don't support the exact same encryption (including the version of the encryption). You're going to have a very hard time getting them to play together. Some network card makers update their driver to include a software version of the newer encryption. Since Win2000 is still being used in business, you might be lucky enough to get an updated driver. But since it's laptop, I doubt it. Your best bet is to drop the onboard wireless on the laptop and get an USB laptop wireless card that supports win2000 and the encryption you want.

[Eric the Grey]

Hmm, what encryption is the router using? A possibility is that it's using WPA as opposed to WEP.

The router was set to WEP 64/128, and I was matching the laptop to it, right down to typing in, and verifying the key (multiple times).

If the router and network card don't support the exact same encryption (including the version of the encryption). You're going to have a very hard time getting them to play together. Some network card makers update their driver to include a software version of the newer encryption. Since Win2000 is still being used in business, you might be lucky enough to get an updated driver. But since it's laptop, I doubt it. Your best bet is to drop the onboard wireless on the laptop and get an USB laptop wireless card that supports win2000 and the encryption you want.

I have lost the original driver disk, and had to go out to the Cisco site to download the driver originally, so it should be the most recent. The drivers were 2000 specific, IIRC. There were even version specific drivers on the Cisco website (this card was like version 2) and I made certain to get the right ones.

The idea that the card may not support the version of encryption makes sense. I may have to get a new card. *sigh*



Eric the Grey