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Matth · 29-04-2004, 13:36

My recent experience - wireless setup for a friend - was a little mixed.

1. I set the router up OFFLINE - and wirelessly! - selected dynamic addressing mode, cloned the addres (spot the mistake), and set about implementing WEP security, and locking the router to only associate with the specified WiFi adapter mac addresses.

Connected up, the router wouldn't pick up an addrerss, DCHP failed - after some fiddling, spotted the mistake, and then SET the mac address of the NTL Ethernet adapter, instead of CLONING the adress of the WiFi.

After that, turned off the SSID broadcast, and it worked, for a while, then failed.

Found a suggestion that you use the adapter utility, and turn off Windows configuration of the wireless network - so updated the adapter drivers and urtility - **UNCERTIFIED DRIVERS** - and then spent the rest of the day trying to fix a hard crashed WinXP! - A "repair install" finally did it - should have gone there first.

DELETED ALL TRACE OF THOSE DAMN DRIVERS!

Installed supplied drivers/utility, and set it up, working fine (with SSID broadcast disabled) until WindowsUpdate (reloading lost updates from repair) - updated the Wifi (Prism) driver and broke the utility.

Switched back to Windows configuration for it, and this time, left SSID broadcast ON - the router is mac address secured anyway, and I'm getting to distrust the combination with SSID broadcast disabled, after readin several similar examples where it wouldn't work properly without broadacst (unless WEP was disabled - which is far less secure).

29-04-2004, 13:36	#50
Matth Inactive Join Date: Mar 2004 Services: BB:M, TV:XL, Phone:M, Loyalty Posts: 2,516	Re: This was the scene earlier....... My recent experience - wireless setup for a friend - was a little mixed. 1. I set the router up OFFLINE - and wirelessly! - selected dynamic addressing mode, cloned the addres (spot the mistake), and set about implementing WEP security, and locking the router to only associate with the specified WiFi adapter mac addresses. Connected up, the router wouldn't pick up an addrerss, DCHP failed - after some fiddling, spotted the mistake, and then SET the mac address of the NTL Ethernet adapter, instead of CLONING the adress of the WiFi. After that, turned off the SSID broadcast, and it worked, for a while, then failed. Found a suggestion that you use the adapter utility, and turn off Windows configuration of the wireless network - so updated the adapter drivers and urtility - UNCERTIFIED DRIVERS - and then spent the rest of the day trying to fix a hard crashed WinXP! - A "repair install" finally did it - should have gone there first. DELETED ALL TRACE OF THOSE DAMN DRIVERS! Installed supplied drivers/utility, and set it up, working fine (with SSID broadcast disabled) until WindowsUpdate (reloading lost updates from repair) - updated the Wifi (Prism) driver and broke the utility. Switched back to Windows configuration for it, and this time, left SSID broadcast ON - the router is mac address secured anyway, and I'm getting to distrust the combination with SSID broadcast disabled, after readin several similar examples where it wouldn't work properly without broadacst (unless WEP was disabled - which is far less secure).