Ah, another wireless stumbling block…

This customer couldn’t get his laptop (he is visiting his daughter) to work on on her wireless router (a netgear MIMO WPN824… apparently, a previous tech had setup the wireless, but didn’t tell anyone what the wireless password was (It seems to happen a lot, unfortunately).

He eventually mucked up the second wireless PC… but the 3rd PC used ethernet, so there was a way out of this.

I connect to the router, and get to the wireless section.

I see it has WPA-PSK-TKIP enabled. I prefer WPA-PSK-AES (better security), so before I change, I make sure all wireless PCs have XP at SP2.

I change to (what I think is) WPA-PSK-AES, but I cannot get any wireless access… after a lot of stuffing around, I eventually realise that this router has 3 different WPA encryption methods:

• WPA-PSK-TKIP
• WPA2-PSK-AES
• WPA2-AES

Its amazing how the mind will sometimes see what it wants to see…

I didn’t notice the little number “2”, and assumed the router would be like most others, and support WPA-PSK-AES (but it doesn’t).

So after reverting to WPA-PSK-TKIP, and changing the wireless PC accordingly, the PC is finally on the internet.

Next, I go for the laptop.

Oddly, it still refuses to connect. I look at all sorts of settings, and after 5 minutes I get a message about the radio being off… I look at the lights on the laptop… the small blue wireless LED is off…

I find and press the little wireless button, and within 10 seconds, the laptop is on the net at last!