T30 wifi drivers. WEP and WPA.

[oshta]

Ive recently aquired a ibm t30 thinkpad (2366-45g) with a cisco systems pci wifi card.

Ive installed the windows update default drivers, and works fine on unprotected or WEP secured access, however i wont work if i switch the router back to wpa.
- Ive done a fair bit of googling and found some people who have deffonatly got a T30 working on wpa with some other drivers, but i havnt managed myself.

Anyone have any ideas or pointers? Running winxp sp2.

Its just my router wont do WEP and WPA at the same time, and in a house of five of use theres about 8 computers, and no one wants to change just for my new laptop!


Daniel

[ikonia]

ahhh this old chestnut.

I had this problem as I recall with my old laptop.

The driver stopped development and worked with WPA until SP2. SP2 fixed the way windows did some security stuff, but also broke the driver and as it was out of development never got fixed. This was common on a lot oXircom cards that used the cisco chipset too.

Sorry.

[oshta]

Right, so it can/will work without sp2 installed?
- But if i have sp2 i wont work, and no ones written a driver that will?

Could i just removed sp2? Does it work with sp1? Could be the best way?


Daniel

[ikonia]

The drivers I had did work pre-SP2

However - is that what you want ? SP2 was a good thing on XP as I recall.

Its up to you, but yes, I had this working Pre-SP2, but to be honest, I'd rather buy a new intenal card (its just a pannel under the base on the T30) or a PCMCIA card thats compatible post SP2 and keep up to date with windows updates

[oshta]

Oh yeah i dont doubt it.

But the sole reason i bought the pc was to surf the web and access msn wirelessly. So if i have to run with sp1 or native xp then maybe thats what i will have to do!
- Or else if you can get the drivers, win2k?


Daniel

[ikonia]

the drivers are available for win2k and I had it working on XP pre-sp2

[peterb]

If you are only using it for msn/web wirelessly, just stick with WEP. While it is true that WEP can be cracked with a bit of determination, the risks of you being specifically targeted are probably low. Use the maximum key length you can, and if you are really paranoid, change them frequently.

The risks of not using SP2 are probably higher than than risks involved using WEP.

[oshta]

Yeah although then everyone else in the house would have to use WEP, which they dont want to.

Unless i set up my desktop (conected to the router with a wired conection) to spout out some WEP for the laptop to do a an-hoc network off?

But then its all starting to sound very messy!
- And other thoughts. Other than geting a thirdparty USB/Pcmia wifi card.


Daniel

[peterb]

Some routers will support WPA and WEP simultaneously - worth checking to see if yours will.

[oshta]

Yeah im afaid it doesnt (its a BT-bussiness 2-wire jobbie).

[MadduckUK]

perhaps get an el cheapo access point and plug that into the current router? or if you have an old wireless router lying around you could use that

[ikonia]

if your going to buy another router - just buy another card less hassle and probably cheaper, one that supports WPA in XP SP2.

Thats really the only way.

Your card doesn't support it with your current OS, you don't want to change your setup so a £30 purchase of a card is whats required.