[RESOLVED] Not able to connect to home wireless netword

I have an Alienware Area 51 Sentia Laptop with a Centrino Laptop (builtin wifi) running Win XP with SP2. At home, I'm using a Zoom X6 ADSL modem with built-in wireless capabilities.

I tried last night to connect to my wifi network at home using Win XP's wireless connection features. When I search for wireless networks within range, it finds my home network and detects it's a restricted network (I'm using WPA passcode to limit). When I select the network and press connect, a window opens that says "detecting network type" with a progress bar that never moves. A couple of seconds later it says "the network is no longer available, check you're within range and so on...". I know the network is OK because my wife's laptop is able to connect with no problem (she has a compaq with a built-in super atheros G wireless adapter).

Could it be because of the WPA encription? I'm using the intel WLAN driver which came with my laptop, which is a couple of years old. I tried looking on the intel site for an upgrade to my driver, but I can't find one. Alienware unfortunately is terrible in driver support for their machines, so this is no help either.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

SOLE2000

Hello SOLE2000,

Does the wireless adapter support WPA? First, have you tried it encryption disabled on the router?

If you can successfully connect then you know it's your encryption settings. If the wireless adapter doesn't support WPA, then you have two choices. Get another wireless adapter with WPA support or trying using the highest encryption that your network equipment can support.

Hi E-Cross, I checked this before actually posting. Intel states that all of its centrino processors are capable of WPA access. Although it was not recommended, I rummaged through the intel download site and eventually ran into generic drivers for the wifi adapter built into my processor. I updated and everything worked OK.

Just in case, I actually downloaded a hotfix from Microsoft which allows WPA2 access from SP2. All's working fine now.

Thanks!

SOLE2000

Glad you got it fixed! :)