Wi-Fi Protected Access (SP2)

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Just changed the wireless router to WPA. With the very new laptop, it works flawlessly. With the older laptop — which says it’s running SP2 — Can’t get configured for WPA. Still only shows WEP as my encryption choice. Tried downloading a couple of patches from MS. The one that seems most recommended 815485, appears to be for SP1. Flummoxed. Help, please.

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How about this one ?

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Thanks. I had found this one already.

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In order to use WPA you need support from the Network Card and the Network Driver, as well as a version of Windows that supports it.

What NIC do you have? Can you check that you have the latest drivers for it.

StuartR

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A couple of hours after I put up my help post, I came to the same conclusion as your response. It’s a Belkin card. I did get the most recent drivers and I even contacted them. Tech Support said, sure it’s fine with WPA but it turns out they’re just making stuff up. The card apparently was never intended for anything other than WEP and doesn’t seem to have the capacity for an upgrade. This took some time to find out from people who had also purchased the same card. I suspect the reason for this is that the cards are so cheap, why should Belkin bother with functionality. But all it makes me is @#$!% off at Belkin and determined not to buy their products anymore. Anyway, it’s a hardware issue which I’ll have to solve for. Thanks for your help.

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The card was most likely developed before the WiFi world accepted WPA and WPA2 security technology. Old cards are often not “fixable” for this type of upgrade.

Saying this however, newer Belkin cards will work fine and dandy – you just have to ensure you get the card that suits your environment.

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Ok this one really piqued my interest. I have an older laptop that will only accept wireless B, so I bought a wireless G card for it. I wanted to go to WPA, but was told that the computer was not capable of it and that there was no way to updrade it. So consequently I have everything at WEP. What you are all saying here is that it is the card?
The computer in question is XPH SP2.

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It’s unlikely to be the computer. The things I think you need are:

• A Wireless Card that supports WPA
• A driver for the card that supports WPA
• A version of Windows that supports WPA (XP SP2 is fine)
• Windows patches (I forget which ones, but if you are up to date on Microsoft Update then you should be ready to go)
  [/list]StuartR

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