Okay. We are running WEP encryption on our wireless network. On our older dell laptops with XP Pro and Dell Truemobile, it works fine.

But our brand new laptops, with XP Pro and Dell WLAN, it only works if you disable encryption on the adapter. I know the signal is still encrypted, because the older computers need to have the right key to work. But how come the new ones do not need the key, and HAVE to have it disabled to access the wireless network.

I have the latest drivers installed and have made sure the settings are correct numerous times.

Any ideas?

There are two components to a wireless connection:

1. The radio connection, where both of the adapters (Ad-Hoc or Infrastructure) can connect. This is when WEP/WPA is negotiated.
2. The network connection, where you have an IP and can be successfully routed beyond the next radio hop (be it a WAP with router as in your case, or Ad-Hoc with Internet Connection Sharing for others).

So, where are you having your issues? Do you see the signal for the network card successfully binding to the WAP? If so, are you using DHCP from a server on the network and not getting an IP? The latter is a very typical issue, where certain adapters do not work well (or at all) with certain WAPs using encryption. If this occurs, the DHCP broadcast from a server on the network never gets forwarded to the client (or may never make it to the server in the first place) and the client is left stranded.

You can tell if you are having this issue by simply using WEP/WPA, and then checking to see if the laptop is getting an IP. If it isn't, try manually assigning an IP to the device and see if it will connect. Remember, even if this works you might still have issues with connection stability later on. Try updating firmware on the WNICs and router to see if this addresses it. This was corrected for me a couple of times when I updated the firmware on a Linksys and Intermec WAP.

That's interesting.

A few ideas... Do you have laptop there that is stand-alone (not joined to the same workgroup/domain) that you can try to get a network connection with WEP disabled?

Does it work?

Does your AP support WPA? Does your laptop/NIC/driver/OS support WPA? Have you tried using that instead of WEP?

If WPA is available, it is considerably more secure than WEP for the time being.

Hope that helps, post back with your results/questions

Our WAP does not support WPA, just WEP. And our network uses static IP addresses.

If the encryption is turned on in the newer computers adapter, then they can't find the network. If I turn it off they can, which doesn't make sense, since WEP is on, and the other computers need to have it enabled in order to work.

Are you broadcasting the ESSID, or is that off?

We are not broadcasting the SSID.

So I guess no one has any ideas?

Nahh, I just didn't see your response . Did you upgrade the firmware on the WAP?

Ha, sorry. I looked and couldn't find a firmware update. But then I downloaded a manager software update, and THAT udpates the firmware. And it works!! Yes!! Thanks for the help.