yes. another networking thread this week.

hey guys (and gals)
I just set up a broadband router *linksyswrt54g* with aes encryption.
also using wpa2. This is on a xp pro fully updated system.
When I first set it up by their easy secure setup, it wasn't all that secure.
(anyone could just click and connect). I was able to connect and changed
much of the settings. Now when I try to connect with the laptop
(xp home and updated) I can see the wireless network but not connect.
when I checked the laptop's settings, it had wmm as the only encryption method. Is this causing the problem, and if so, can you upgrade via software to allow for aes encryption. Sorry if i'm being even more dumb than usual.
andrew

 

Check with the manufacturer or the wireless card. They may support it.

 

You may not even need any encryption. Run it without for a while and if it works then keep it like that. Monitor the clients connected to see if anyone's leeching.

 

yeah, thanks to you both for the advice.
I'm not super paranoid, but my wife does do work at home-
otherwise there is no reason to encrypt packets.
I'll keep looking into it, and thanks again.

 

you could try wpa-psk mode for encryption, while not the same as wpa2 its still a tough nut to crack and should be supported by your equipment. Your XP machine should have SP2 if using windows wireless manager for the connection.

 

You need to check your wireless card even supports WPA. I know I've not been able to step up from WEP because not all of the clients on my WLAN support WPA.

My answer is to run all wireless connections through a SSH tunnel which is Blowfish encrypted. It slows things down a tad, but it means that nobody can ever sniff my information.

Saying you might not need encryption is totally ridiculous. Thats like saying you might not need opaque walls in your home. People drive around looking for unencrypted access points. They might not be leeching one day but how do you know someone won't just drive by once and find your connection?

Oh and don't think MAC Filtering does anything - to bypass MAC filtering in any Linux is trivial, probably harder in Windows but nobody really uses Windows in that situation.

 

i had the notion that his equipment was wpa compliant, is it?

 

Without knowing what card you're using I have no idea!

 

what I was trying to say was that with a SP2 XP system could you use the built in wireless zero configuration to use WPA-PSK.
If the router supports WPA2 there should be no problem should there?

 

If you've got the right drivers installed for the Wireless NIC and in the network properties for Wireless, WPA-PSK shows up then it should be compatible. But both the router and the card needs to support the authentication and encryption methods, otherwise it won't work. Yes, WZC does support a range of encryption/auth methods, but your hardware might not.

If you look up the card on the manufacturers website you should be able to find out whether it supports WPA2.

 

thanks all.
got it running after way too long fiddling with advanced settings.
the wireless card in the laptop didn't support wpa personal.
frickin' presarios!
thanks again.