Dell Truemobile Mini PCI card

[BourbonLegend]

If anyone can offer some advice, I'd be most grateful.

I don't have a lot of networking experience, so please bear with me here:

My wireless Mini PCI card is not functioning correctly:

I have:
1/ Windows XP Pro
2/ Dell Truemobile Mini PC wireless card (which means, I think, Orinoco gold card)

Now, as far as I can tell, there has been some sort of upgrade, because the options I have for configuring the card under Network settings is different than the configuration options I've seen with other users who have the same card, but a few months older.

I can't, for instance, enter anything into the "key format" or "key length" fields because I simply don't have those fields (though my friends do). As well, whereas our network requires a "0" to be entered into the "key index" field, the configuration on my system only allows a "1", "2", "3", or "4".

So, basically, is there a conflict between the drivers and XP (I noticed a variant explanation on the faqs section of this site, but it doesn't address my problem specifically)? Or is it just a simplified improvement (which doesn't amount to much of an improvement at all, for me) over an earlier version?

When I try to connect to my network using a "1" for the index key and using the correct network key, a few things happen:

1/ Initially, I get "excellent" signal strength.
2/ This quickly peters off into "no signal".
3/ When I go back to the configuration screen, it looks like my network key is about 5 characters shorter than when I originally entered it.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Greenstead]

Well, I have a dell truemobile PC card (as you say its really an Orinoco gold card).

I don't have those fields "key format" or "key length".

Neither does my access point (which is Netgear). My key indexes start at 1.

Are you on XP Pro SP1?
What version of Dell Driver do you have ? 7.42.0.300 ? The driver should be signed.

The key should be 10 characters of hex code (if you're using 64 bit WEP).

What make of Access Point are you dealing with?

[BourbonLegend]

You're right.

I finally figured out that it is a result of SP1. So now it's a matter of making sure that the WAP's are optimized for this.

Below is an excerpt from an article I found online regarding the change that is made when you apply SP1:



Part of SP1's enhanced security relates to wireless network users. If you don't secure your wireless network, unauthorized users can gain access to your network. Wireless networking is growing rapidly, and if you live in a city or an apartment/condo complex, you should be concerned about theft of service. Securing your wireless LAN is of paramount importance.

Network security using Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption is not enabled by default in wireless LAN setup. It's up to the end user to take steps to implement it. Windows XP SP1 enhancements for wireless networking provide new functionality that detects an insecure wireless network and alerts the user to it. Making a non-secure connection is enabled only if the user acknowledges that they are aware of the security risk.

If you have not implemented WEP on your wireless network, after applying SP1, the wireless connection icon in the notification area may display a red X. Click this icon or the balloon tip that may appear automatically to View Available Wireless Networks. In Figure 3, Windows XP SP1 displays information on the security status of a selected network that is not WEP enabled.



You may need to access your wireless network in this non-secure manner order to specify WEP settings. Click Allow me to connect to the selected wireless network, even though it is not secure to make the Connect button available. Click Connect to use the unsecured connection.

Windows XP SP1 also changes the default behavior of the 802.1x authentication setting when used on wireless networks. When this setting was enabled before applying SP1, if no authentication server was found, the setting was ignored and a persistent connection could be obtained. Stricter enforcement under SP1 prevents attaching to a rogue access point. If 802.1x authentication (which must be used with WEP) is enabled under SP1, if no authentication packet is received after three minutes, the connection will be dropped. During the installation of SP1, any settings enabling 802.1x authentication for wireless connections will be removed. If you find that you lose your connection every three minutes, authentication may be enabled on a network that does not have authentication servers. Verify that 802.1x authentication is turned off if your network has no authentication server by following these steps:

Right-click the wireless connection, and then click Properties.
Click the Wireless Networks tab.
Select the network name in the Preferred networks window, and then click Properties.
Select the Authentication tab.
Make sure that the check box for authentication is not selected.

[Greenstead]

Is your problem resolved now?