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Old 14-02-2006, 22:54   #7
AndyCambs
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Re: Wireless Security Questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by jem
Yes it's because your Linksys router is broadcasting its SSID value which the second laptop can see but can't negotiate the encryption for so hence can't attach to. Open and Shared refers to WEP (wireless equivalent privacy) encryption which is not particularly effective but better than nothing WPA is far better, PSK stands for Pre Shared Key which is a form of WPA where you manually specify an initial encryption key on both the laptop and the router.

Now reading through the posts it looks like that the second laptop can't connect even with encryption swiched off. If so then I'd be tempted to condemn the Actiontec adapter. In theory they should all conform to the standards and anything should work with anything else but in practice it never quite works out like that. I'd recommend that you get yourself a new PCMCIA wireless card for the second laptop and forget USB. If you can get a Linksys card then it's virtually guaranteed to be compatible. Use WPA-PSK if you can and you should be good to go.

Good luck

John
My guess was that the Actiontec USB aerial was not compatible with the Linksys system - I am assuming it is the driver which will add the variety of encryptation? You're right, even with the SSID unhidden, and no encryptation, I can see but not connect - it came back with some error, like speak to your systems administator, which is a fat lot of good! I was trying to use the equipment I already had - I'll probably lash out on a new Linksys USB aerial shortly, although at the moment, the Actiontec router is sitting happily daisy-chained to the Linksys router.
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