wpa2

bermary

My laptop is a five year old Acer aspire5920,the wi-fi security i am using at present is WPA-PSK would I be able to change this to WPA2-PSK and is it advisiable to do this,I'm using the Virgin media super hub. Thanks in advance.

Figment

At 5 years old it's probably running Vista? Try it but you may find Vista will get a connection to the router but no internet access.

esuhl

The router encryption method (e.g. WPA or WPA2) couldn't possibly affect Internet access but not your connection to the "router".

Either the "router's" wireless AP and the network adapter both accept WPA2 encryption (in which case the PC will connect to the router, and thus to the Internet) or the encryption method isn't supported by both devices (in which case you won't be able to connect to the "router", and so won't be able to connect to the Internet either).

Anyway, WPA is reasonably secure (for anyone who isn't determined to crack the password). But all other things being equal, WPA2 would be a better choice.

Figment

Tell that to the Vista users who can connect to their router but not to the net using WPA2, but have no problem when they drop the security mode to WEP.

robmar0se

Figment wrote: »

Tell that to the Vista users who can connect to their router but not to the net using WPA2, but have no problem when they drop the security mode to WEP.

Figment, I am intigued by your assertion that Vista doesn't work with WPA2.

I am writing this on Vista SP2 using WPA2 - WN111 adapter connected to a DG834N router. I did not use the Netgear GUI for configuring the protocol.

So maybe it is more likely that maybe the Vispa drivers for some manufacturers' wireless adapters/nics that are at fault rather than Vista itself? It would be interesting to discover which manufacturers' drivers are suspect!

GunJack

The "Vista pc won't connect/connects with limited access wirelessly" is one problem that's run and run for years....there's never seemed to be a single definite solution, affects random machines usually out of the blue, and one of the more consistent things that does work its dropping the encryption.....it's annoying, frustrating, and a complete PITA !!!

The theory of it being specific hardware/driver combos is as plausible as anything else...just don't think you could sensibly collate the failures to prove or disprove anything, unfortunately