Acer wireless lan issues

[glennbtn]

Hi All

I need some help with a wireless lan issue on a windows 7 machine,Aspire 5532 with atheros wireless built in.

I am running a wireless network with wep setup (some older machine not supporting wpa) I have a number of xp pc on the network running fine along with a macbook and a windows 7 Fujitsu with no problems. This new acer can see my home network but as soon as you click connect it just ask you to diagnose the error and does not even ask for the wireless password.

I have updated the drive both on the acer site and on the atheros site and still I can't connect to the network. I have also tried to manually configure the network in the settings as well.

Can anyone shed any light on this as its driving me nuts.

 

[Barman58]

Hi Glennbtn,

I have seen a few cases with later, (win7 ?), drivers having issues with WEP security yet working perfectly with WPA/WPA2.

The only way to check if you are having these issues is to test the adaptor when set to WPA or WPA2. I am not sure if this is a straight driver issue or a win7 one.

If you are having this issue the only things that may work is to revert to a Vista driver, (in compatibility mode if required), or to use a USB adaptor of some type that supports the WEP you are required to use.

 

[aem]

This might be a trivial question but have to made sure that the wireless setup of the ACER W7 machine matches the WEP setting of the wireless network?

 

[glennbtn]

I have checked the setting. With the acer you don't get to choose 64 0r 128 bit you just type either your phrase or the code directly. I have done both when manually setting up the connection. If I use the wireless network browser and click me home network it just ask you to diagnose it without even trying to connect.

 

[aem]

I have checked the setting. With the acer you don't get to choose 64 0r 128 bit you just type either your phrase or the code directly. I have done both when manually setting up the connection. If I use the wireless network browser and click me home network it just ask you to diagnose it without even trying to connect.

I'm not sure what you mean by 64bit or 128bit, in relation to SSID security type.

This is what i meant, when i said made sure the setting are the same as the what the router is broadcasting.



Otherwise as Barman58 said, try changing the SSID security to WPA.

 

[chev65]

I agree with Aem, the settings need to be changed on the Win 7 machine. Also it's true what Barman says, certain Win 7 wlan drivers do not like using WEP but it may work if you change it from WPA-2 to WEP here where it shows in the picture below.

 

[Darryl Licht]

I have checked the setting. With the acer you don't get to choose 64 0r 128 bit you just type either your phrase or the code directly. I have done both when manually setting up the connection. If I use the wireless network browser and click me home network it just ask you to diagnose it without even trying to connect.

A little education on wireless encryption for the uninformed...

There are several types of WEP wireless encryption schemes out there... NONE of which are preferred these days.

WEP was shown way back in 2001 to have serious weaknesses, and is easily hacked by anyone with a packet sniffer/grabber and a brute force crack tool (all of these tools are available to any snot nosed internet surfer). WEP was originally a 64 bit encryption scheme. Some HW manufacturers in an attempt to increase security of WEP went to a proprietary 128 bit WEP schema... but it was determined that the underlying algorithm of WEP was flawed and still easily cracked.

These days you shouldnt even consider WEP.... look to WPA or WPA2 for your wireless encryption. If your router or AP doesnt support WPA, many times a firmware upgrade will give you that ability.

I have used WPA encryption for years... it works fine with XP. You do have all the latest service packs, right??? To switch to WPA on your XP machines you may have to use the Wireless Networking Setup Wizard...