Setting Wi-Fi with WPA on VISTA Vs WEP on Windows XP

[ichetan]

Existing Wi-Fi Network is as follows,

Wireless Network Name (SSID) : BBIN
Security Mode : Auto (WPA or WPA2) - Personal
Cipher Type : TKIP or AES
Network Key : password123

I have one old DELL Inspiron 6000 laptop bought in 2006 I guess. Did a Clean install of Windows XP SP2 on it was and trying to hook it on to the Wireless Network but in vain. I'd proceed until the point of entering password as shown below




and it would fail throwing an error message -

The network password needs to be 40bits or 104bits depending on your network configuration. This can be entered as 5 or 13 ascii characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters.

Step -2
So what I thought was INSPIRON 6000 wants WEP Key Only and it cannot accept the WPA so I changed the configuration in my D-LINK Router not to use WPA, so it now defaults to WEP Key. Configuration looks as follows,


Wireless Network Name (SSID) : BBIN
WEP Key Length : 128 bits
Default WEP Key to Use : 1
Authentication : Open
Network Key : 5A9CF5B9AE013DDE5848224EED

Step-3
Enter the newly generated WEP Key on INSPIRON 6000 and it connects like a charm.

Step-4
Go to VISTA and change the network Properties to "Security type to No authentication (open)" and the "Encryption Type to WEP", enter the newly generated WEP Key and even this works.


I'll have to see how to connect my iPad now.