Need help with WPA and DHCP problem

[prouton]

I just upgraded a friend's network/wireless system from a Netgear 802.11b router/USB wireless adapter to a Linksys WRT54G router and WUSB54G adapter. The wired side of things is fine, including the assignment of addresses via DHCP, but I had a heck of a time with the wireless side when using WPA security. In both cases, the computer being used is a Compaq Presario 960US laptop running WinXP sp1, attached via CAT5 when it's located in her home office, and via the USB wireless adapter when located in the kitchen (about 30 feet away from the router, through two walls).

Basically:
1) I set up the router, and confirmed the wired connection. Looked but didn't find any newer firmware releases for the router.
2) Turned on WPA security in the router, using PSK/TKIP, set the password (a string of 26 letters and numbers that makes sense to me, i.e. can be reconstructed from a memorable phrase).
3) Downloaded the latest version of the software from Linksys to control the adapter and installed it. MS Wireless Configuration service is turned off -- I can't stand its willingness to attached the first, easiest network it finds rather than the "preferred" network you've told it about.
4) Disconnected the CAT5 cable and plugged in the USB adapter, let Windows see the new hardware and finish setup.

Nothing. The adapter couldn't see the router. Triple checked that the passwords matched and attempted to connect again, pounded on things, swore, etc. and then went out to Google to look for an answer. My research unearthed a patch from Microsoft for pre-SP2 systems that enabled WinXP to handle WPA, so:

5) I downloaded the patch, installed it and...still no joy.
6) Uninstalled Linksys software, rebooted, reinstalled Linksys software. Tried again...no joy.
7) Poked around in the router settings (connected once again by CAT5 to the router) and discovered that I had changed the "Authentication Type" to "Shared Key" -- after all, that's what I was using with a WPA key (I thought). But the following line in the documentation struck me as perhaps significant -- With Shared Key authentication, the sender and recipient use a WEP key for authentication. I wasn't using WEP, so I decided to set this back to the default of "Auto".

Eureka! The adapter was now able to connect to the router. Well thank goodness for that. And it only took three or four hours...

Wait a minute, I can't load a webpage in the browser...any webpage. I can't log into the router administration pages. Cripes! After more poking and prodding, I discover that ZoneAlarm thinks the adapter is at an IP address beginning with 169.254.xxx.xxx and the subnet mask is 255.255.0.0 -- what the...fudge. Moving the laptop to the router so that the signal strength is "excellent" doesn't help the matter any. With WPA turned on, DHCP just isn't working with wireless. I even went so far as to try a WEP security connection, and it had no problem with DHCP.

I have gotten the WPA security connection working, but only after hard-coding IP/mask/gateway/DNS addresses in the Linksys connection software (profile). Of course, that created a new problem the next time I booted the computer -- it takes literally minutes for the system to finish starting Windows if the USB adapter is plugged in when the computer is turned on (although Task Manager shows the CPU being used 95%+ by the idle process). And then the network connection never quite gets going. Leaving it unplugged, the computer starts fine, and then plugging in the adapter works fine (quick establishment of network services).

The Question (and you thought I was just talking to keep the monsters from coming out of the darkened closet)
I'd like to know where I went wrong, and ideally be able to use DHCP with the wireless side of things. Has anyone else seen (and hopefully fixed) this?

[ecross]

Hi prouton,

Go to Device Manager and expand the Network adapters and right-click the Linksys Wireless adapter and choose Properties. Click the Driver tab, and take a look at the version of the driver you have. Linksys wireless adapter WUSB54G with driver 1.0.8.0 or higher supports WPA.

What Linksys Wireless Adapters support WPA, and how do I set it up?
http://linksys.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...i=&p_topview=1

The wireless update for WPA is included with SP2. There is no reason not to update to SP2. The service packs are important and I advise you obtain the latest service pack as soon as possible. While troubleshooting the network, I would uninstall ZoneAlarm until everything is working.

[prouton]

The initial and subsequent installations of the Linksys software (monitor and drivers) were the latest version (2.0.0.0). I've had enough problems with wireless adapters to make this a first step (rather than using the drivers disk that ships with the product).

The reason not to update to SP2 is that the client (my friend) isn't comfortable with that decision yet. She runs a number of older software products (and depends upon PageMaker 7) and can't afford to have things stop working at this time. The patch, however, was supposed to take care of WPA compatibility with pre-SP2 (according to Microsoft), so...

While I didn't try uninstalling ZoneAlarm, I did try shutting it down completely, and saw no change in the results. Would you think that ZoneAlarm, which works fine with hard-coded IP settings, would act differently in regards to communicating with the DHCP server? It didn't cause a problem with the previous wireless adapter (NetGear MA101) or with the built-in ethernet adapter. ZoneAlarm runs all the time, even with the laptop wired behind the router firewall.

[ecross]

When you go into the Linksys router, under the Wireless tab, which modes do you have available? You want to select "WPA-PSK". Then once you configure your router or access point, then you want to configure the wireless adapters on Windows XP. Since you are not using the Wireless Zero Configuration is turned off, you'll need to use the utility that was provided by Linksys.

If you want to use the Wireless Zero Configuration and use Windows XP built-in configuration then you can follow these steps:

WPA Wireless Security for Home Networks
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u..._03july28.mspx

[prouton]

2) Turned on WPA security in the router, using PSK/TKIP...

yes, I did that. Since this is a home installation, I knew I couldn't use Radius or other enterprise-based keying. The USB adapter was set up to match exactly using the Wireless Monitor (the non-driver portion of the Linksys software).

So I presume you haven't seen this kind of DHCP problem before (where the adapter sees the router, connects via WPA, but seemingly can't talk to the DHCP server)?

[ecross]

Well if wireless encryption is enabled, you'll get an 169.254.x.x ip address and you will be unable to communicate with the DHCP Server if you don't enter your encryption setting correctly on the wireless adapters. You need to make sure the network cards are configured.

If you cannot get WPA to work then try WEP and see if that will work. Whatever encryption you put on the router, you need to make sure you enter the same encryption on the wireless cards.

WEP keys use a mixture of numbers and letters from A-F and 0-9. Each computer will need to be configured with the same WEP key. 64-bit keys are five 2-digit numbers or 10 hex characters. 128-bit keys are 13 2-digit numbers or 26 hex characters.

[prouton]

...Triple checked that the passwords matched...

I wasn't exaggerating with that -- I literally checked it back and forth three times. At one point I even viewed the router setup page, copied the passphrase to the clipboard, and then pasted it into the setting for the USB adapter.

I even went so far as to try a WEP security connection, and it had no problem with DHCP.

Yeah, tried that.

I have gotten the WPA security connection working, but only after...

Thanks for your suggestions.

[ecross]

Have you managed to sort this out yet? If you haven't then start with encryption off and see if the wireless connection works.

[prouton]

Have you managed to sort this out yet?
Well, no, as your suggestions (while appreciated) were all addressed before my original post, and no one else has offered any suggestions. As I stated up front, the only problem at the moment is that DHCP simply will not function in WPA security mode. DHCP does work under WEP security, and WPA security works when IP et. al. addresses are staticly set.

I guess what I'm trying to determine is if the problem is caused by the router's firmware (which is up to date), the USB wireless adapter's driver (which is up to date), or something about the sequence in which I installed/patched/re-installed things. I don't know, perhaps the answer is "it could be one or more of them".

Maybe I should ask the question another way: Does anyone here use the Linksys WRT54G, WUSB54G, WinXP Pro, and have both WPA and DHCP working (to the wireless adapter)?

[ecross]

Well, no I haven't used the Linksys WRT54G router. You can see if this is caused by the firmware upgrade by resetting the router back to factory defaults if you haven't already done it. The problem is either likely the network adapter driver isn't working properly or something with the router. One way to find out if it's the router or not is try another network card that has support for WPA.

Have you tried contacting Linksys Technical Support?