Hi folks,

Did my searching but didn't quite find a pat answer. I've got a T42p with the Intel LAN 2100 3B card. I've updated it to the latest driver ( 1.2.4.41 ) and am running Access Connections 4.12. I've got XP SP2 with hotfix KB893357-v2 installed.

The option for WPA2 never comes up. On my wife's T60, it shows up just fine. But on mine, the little selector box shows only plain WPA.

Any thoughts on correcting this? Other updates besides those listed above required?

Thanks in advance.

Marc

the problem is idon't think that card supports 802.11G which is a requirement for WPA2. You can get WPA with the patch and updates but not WPA2.

Correct, the 2100 card does not support WPA2 encryption. If you absolutely need WPA2, you will need to upgrade to a newer card that supports it. I believe that the 2300 series of Intel's wireless cards do and ever card made after that.

You can try updating Windows XP with the WPA2 patch from microsoft. I have used this to get WPA2 on some of my machines that had problems with Access Connections. Here is a link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/893357

Oh how interesting! WPA2 requires G functionality? I didn't know that!! I had thought the 2100 3B card was on a WPA2 compatibility list, and I've seen some posts in other forums during my googling on this issue that suggests people with the card were able to set it up.

well as far as i know you can't have WPA2 and .11B. WPA2 is a subset of .11G so maybe you're mistaking the card with a 2200 which is the B/G version. The driver has to support WPA2 too also and intel never realeased any drivers for the 2100 that did that since it's not supposed to WPA was a strectch for it in the first place, they just did it to at least get people away from WEP.

OK, thanks. I'll mark this up as "Marc was ignorant but learned something new today."

WPA2/AES encryption is part of 802.11i and have to do with security. Some refer to 802.11i and WPA2 as the same thing. 802.11g have to do with the modulation and speed. Those two is not related so it's not like WPA2 require 802.11g.
There is some equipment that is 802.11b only that also support WPA2, but since 802.11b was actually pretty old and already replaced with 802.11a/b/g or b/g products when the manufacturers started to implement WPA2 just a few updated their old 802.11b products with WPA2 support. I guess the reason for that is because they want to sell new wlan adapters and some older 802.11b might not have the hardware to support AES encryption either. I also think that most people don't care what the old 802.11b equipment support since they want 54mbit anyway. WPA2/AES require better hardware for the encryption/decryption prosess compared to the older WEP/WPA1/TKIP standards using RC4 encryption.

well yeah, i've never seen an older .11B that has WPA2 tho because the chips just didn't support it. Surely there was no need for all of that since as you said .11G was already out and faster and better and all that but it wasn't just because they were old and they wanted to sell the hardware, it's more than the .11B chipsets didn't support the algorithms needed to encrypt and decrypt WPA2 and trying to do it in software would kill the CPU anyways.

Hi Marc_G.

I am a happy user of T40 with Intel 2100b card and I was searching for WPA2 functionality too. I found some info on Intel's website and it looks like some 2100b cards have WPA2 support. However, even after upgrading to latest drivers, I still see WPA (WPA-PSK) option only (using winxp)...

For me, WPA2 is not that important to upgrade to Intel 2200bg card or higher.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Filip

Thanks for the reply and confirmation of what I'm seeing.

It's unfortunate that you have to spend money to upgrade to WPA2, but on the bright side, you will definitely enjoy the speed of 802.11g. I upgraded my T40 from (horrible) Intel 2100b to Intel 2200bg and never looked back. It's a much better card in my experience.

Hi,

I have T40 (intel a/b 2100) and don't have any problems with WPA2 AES. MORE, on my two t43p with lasts drivers and AC lose connection after some time, T40 newer lose connection!!!


hardware
AP WAP54G, router BEFSX41 (linksys with lasts firmware)

BR

ok, well let's see. You are maybe mixing up some things.

2100: 802.11B ONLY card
2200: 802.11G (B because of backwards compatability)
2915: 802.11A/G (B also because of back compat)

The T40 can use any of the above. The 2200 and 2915 support WPA2 but the 2100 wont work with WPA2. So which is it that you have? Can't be the 2100 i'm assuming.

ok,

look on this...




br

Which version of the Intel drivers are you using?

look on the first picture

1.2.4.41,

br

D'oh! Sorry about that. You wouldn't think that I just graduated from an Ivy League university, would you?

On the Toshiba support forum a user was able to get WPA2 support for his 2100 card using the Intel driver and NOT the Toshiba one. Could this be true of Lenovo drivers as well?

Here is the Toshiba forum page:

http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe. ... adID=13983

This is very interesting. I haven't tried finding the Intel drivers versus the Lenovo ones.

AdaSch... did you do anything special, or just get them from the Lenovo (/ IBM) site? And, please confirm which version of Access Connections you are using.

I'm using the same driver number and have Access Connections 4.12.

Thanks!

Marc

HI,

my version of ac is 4.23

nothing special, reset to factory default plus all updates from system update 3.0

bye,


edit,

look on this


ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... cn38ww.txt

and ...
AC <4.13>
- (Fix) After reboot, wireless LAN automatically becomes disabled
and AC cannot connect to WZC profile (Windows wireless
function).
- (Fix) When 3 or more WZC profiles are created, error message is
displayed.
- (Fix) After disabling wireless adapter in Windows Device Manager,
AC fails to connect.
- (Fix) Cisco mini-pci profile does not switch to hidden SSID AP.
- (Fix) IBM PCOMM hangs if AC4.12 is on the system.
- (Fix) Office apps from sharepoint will not open.
- (Fix) Incompatibility with Secuware Crypt2000 Gina.
- (Fix) WPA2-AES not working for Intel adapters.
- (Fix) EAP-FAST not connecting at first logon without pac.
- (Fix) acsvc.exe is trying to change ics setting error message.

BRILLIANT!

Thanks. I had thought I was using the latest version of AC available for my T42 P but this one came out right after I posted my problem.

Installing this version fixed the lack of WPA2 for the 2100 B card.

Thanks to all who contributed.

Marc

Well played, AdaSch; well played indeed.

That did it.

I have a t40 with the 2100 wireless LAN adapter.

My network is WPA.

1.2.4.41 driver fixed WPA network connection issues

Thank you, to all who maintain and contribute to this truly helpful forum. Sad to say not all are helpful, some rather childish.

Hey All,
I just wanted to add a BIG THANKS for helping me solve this same problem on my T42 and share my results.
I have just got a brand new shiny Linksys E2000 router and all was good until I tried to hook up all the laptops. I started with my trusty T42, it could see the network and correctly identified it as a WPA2 network. But could not get an IP address and connect. Did some searching here and came across THIS old thread, which basically blames it on the BIOS version. Oh yeah I should mention I was letting XP manage my connections. As the T42 shares its BIOS with the T40, but not the T43, and all my T4Xs have 2200BG wifi cards I figured it would be good to see how the others worked. T43 connected with no problem to my WPA2 network, the T40 did not.
At this point I was ready to try reverting the BIOS on the T40, started looking for a ROM of the old BIOS when I came across this thread. Awesome, Access Connections worked GREAT. And I don't have to undo my modified BIOS so my Win7 upgrade is still possible.

Thanks AdaSch!