[nredman]

Just bought an Airport Extreme & Extreme Card for my emac (planning to get a labtop soon) but i would also like my wife to be able to use the high speed access with her dell labtop on the wireless network. does anyone has any experiences with wireless cards for pcs? any suggestions...brands? as long is it is 802.11g or 802.11b it should work fine right? also since she is using XP could someone get into her computer and then to mine over the network?? thanks for the help guys.

[Ric_D]

Connecting shouldn't be a problem. I just bought a Netgear MA521 802.11b card yesterday at CompUSA for USD $29.95 (after $10.00 mail-in rebate). I loaded the driver on my ancient Dell Latitude (Win 2000), popped in the card and immediately connected to my Snow Airport network. I'm using 128-bit WEP on my Airport, so I had to type in the 26 character Hex equivalent password (WEP key) that you can get from the Airport Admin Utility.

[ghporter]

There are a LOT of wireless cards for PC laptops. I'd go with a company with a pretty big presence in the stores (which is an indicator of market commitment in this case), such as D-Link, Netgear, or Linksys. Windows XP makes setting up wireless networking pretty straightforward; that OS should identify the card and set it up right away.

YES, using an unprotected wireless network sets you up for intruders to attack. Even if you don't have file sharing working between your Mac and her PC, your information is at risk. Enable WEP or WPA encryption on BOTH computers and the AEBS (you have to on both computers, or they won't connect to the base).

Apple uses different terminology just about everyone else for certain items involved in wireless networking. What Apple calls the "network name" everyone else calls an "SSID" (Service Set Identification). The "network password" is the encryption key, WEP key or WPA key. WPA is more secure than WEP, but it takes a bit more effort to set up.

[nredman]

well i got my ibook & aiport but all be damned if i can get my wifes dell with linksys wireless card to work...windows is really pissing me off besides windows telling me over and over again that the network isnt connected...i cant even seem to see the airport...any ideas or help online you can direct me to. thanks alot.

[nredman]

anyone..before my wife kills me

[ghporter]

Depends on which Linksys card you got, and what OS you're running on the Dell. Windows XP should figure it out by itself just fine, but if you have an older Linksys PC card, XP may not have suitable drivers.

Give some more specifics, and we'll see what's up.

By the way, we have a wireless network that includes both an iBook with an Extreme card and a Dell laptop (running XP) with a Linksys WPC11 v3. No problems here, so I'm curious what's getting in your way.

[nredman]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
Depends on which Linksys card you got, and what OS you're running on the Dell. Windows XP should figure it out by itself just fine, but if you have an older Linksys PC card, XP may not have suitable drivers.

Give some more specifics, and we'll see what's up.

By the way, we have a wireless network that includes both an iBook with an Extreme card and a Dell laptop (running XP) with a Linksys WPC11 v3. No problems here, so I'm curious what's getting in your way.

I have the WPC11 too..with XP on my wifes Dell Inspirion 2600. when i first installed it is when i probably messed it up because i installed the software instead of letting xp recognize it. i tried to get it to work with windows and with the software included...at one point it found the airport on the windows side & the linksys app. but couldnt get to the internet. i messed around with the passwords to try to get to to work but nothing seemed to work right. my wife did a total restore back to before i did anything and i still couldnt get it to work. when i try to connect via windows it doesnt do anything just sits there...and if i try to connect via the linksys software it just says connecting...i wonder if i didnt set it up on my mac right? maybe my isp doesnt allow two computers to be connecting? its all very confusing to me as i dont think it should be hard to figure out. any help you can give me would be great. thanks alot.
'

[ghporter]

Right click on "My Computer" in the Start button menu. Select "Properties," then click on the "Hardware" tab. Finally, click on the "Device Manager" button.

Here, you'll see all the devices installed in the computer. You should find the WPC11 under the "Network adapters" tree.

Now, right click on the WPC11 entry, and select "Uninstall" from the menu. XP will ask you if you really want to do this, so say "Yes." The computer will think for a moment, and then tell you that the device is uninstalled. Now eject the card, back out of "Device Manager," and restart the computer. Restart it a second time-this should (but doesn't always) clear the driver cache.

Now, with the computer freshly restarted, insert the PC card. It should act like the card has been inserted for the first time, and automatically detect the card, install the appropriate driver, and configure the card. If it doesn't act like it's never seen this card, go back to the begining and start again, but restart three times before reinstalling the card.

You should also know that XP doesn't support all versions of the WPC11, particularly the original version. If you have a v3 or v4, you're ok, and maybe even a v2-but NOT a v1. For that one, you need Linksys' installation program-it's on their site in the support pages for the WPC11(no suffix).

[nredman]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
Right click on "My Computer" in the Start button menu. Select "Properties," then click on the "Hardware" tab. Finally, click on the "Device Manager" button.

Here, you'll see all the devices installed in the computer. You should find the WPC11 under the "Network adapters" tree.

Now, right click on the WPC11 entry, and select "Uninstall" from the menu. XP will ask you if you really want to do this, so say "Yes." The computer will think for a moment, and then tell you that the device is uninstalled. Now eject the card, back out of "Device Manager," and restart the computer. Restart it a second time-this should (but doesn't always) clear the driver cache.

Now, with the computer freshly restarted, insert the PC card. It should act like the card has been inserted for the first time, and automatically detect the card, install the appropriate driver, and configure the card. If it doesn't act like it's never seen this card, go back to the begining and start again, but restart three times before reinstalling the card.

You should also know that XP doesn't support all versions of the WPC11, particularly the original version. If you have a v3 or v4, you're ok, and maybe even a v2-but NOT a v1. For that one, you need Linksys' installation program-
t's on their site in the support pages for the WPC11(no suffix).

did that but the network isnt available....she used the linksys software and got connected via ad-hoc..whatever that means...do you know if i need to set something up with my isP?

[ghporter]

ISP matters not at all. Your wireless network is where you are, and it all goes through your access point/router before it gets to your ISP anyway.

The big deal is the difference between "Infrastructure" and "Ad Hoc" networks. Ad Hoc networks are just that, "as needed." You can't connect shared resources via ad hoc connections, and every time you look for the network again you have to go through the connection process again.

Infrastructure networks use the wireless as a different medium, sort of a replacement for an ethernet cable. Every access point/wireless router I've ever heard of has Infrastructure/Ad Hoc as a setup choice. You'll want to alter that setting on your equipment-it will probably let the Dell just "see" the network and let it connect to the wireless network automatically.

[nredman]

Originally posted by GHPorter:
ISP matters not at all. Your wireless network is where you are, and it all goes through your access point/router before it gets to your ISP anyway.

The big deal is the difference between "Infrastructure" and "Ad Hoc" networks. Ad Hoc networks are just that, "as needed." You can't connect shared resources via ad hoc connections, and every time you look for the network again you have to go through the connection process again.

Infrastructure networks use the wireless as a different medium, sort of a replacement for an ethernet cable. Every access point/wireless router I've ever heard of has Infrastructure/Ad Hoc as a setup choice. You'll want to alter that setting on your equipment-it will probably let the Dell just "see" the network and let it connect to the wireless network automatically.

do you think i should delete the linksys software i installed and just use windows then. the card sees the network but wont connect to it...i worries me to not have some kind of security key (wep) or whatever. i can type in the password and click connect and it doenst even try to connect...son of a bitch windows...now i know why i dont use windows i'm too stupid or something

[nredman]

i am again trying to get this working....windows sees my network but wont connect to it...i type in the password for the network and it doenst do anything and then pops up a message saying One or more wireless connections are available..my ass they are available

[nredman]

turned off all the WEP security on the airport and on the PC connects to the airport but cant get on the net?

[djjava]

Originally posted by nredman:
i am again trying to get this working....windows sees my network but wont connect to it...i type in the password for the network and it doenst do anything and then pops up a message saying One or more wireless connections are available..my ass they are available

I just recently came across this problem with my girlfriends Dell inspiron 5100, yet my PB17 connects flawlessly. This lc of connection on the Dell's part came without merit, or reason.. any help on this would be great. I have AEBS v5.2 w/ WEP encryption. Worked fine up until a few days ago.

[nredman]

anyone?

[Cadaver]

I've had nothing but trouble getting a Dell laptop from work to connect to my AEBS when WEP is enabled. It connects fine without WEP, but just flat out refuses to play nicely when WEP is on. The Macs of course have no problem.

nredman, make sure when you are entering the WEP password on the PC, you are using the Hex Equivalent password, not the ASCII password you'd use on the Mac. Open the AirPort config utility on the Mac, select your AEBS and enter the password if necessary. Then, go to the menu bar item "Basestation" and pull down to "Equivalent Network Password..." This will display your WEP password in a hexadecimal form that most wireless PC drivers expect. Use that hex code as the WEP password on your Dell laptop.

However, at least for me, it still gives me grief. What I ended up doing is turning off WEP but activating the AEBS's "closed network" option (hides your AirPort network's name - can't connect unless you know it). Also, I activated MAC Address Control, so only wireless cards I specify (via their MAC address code) can connect. For residential use, it keeps things pretty safe. WEP is easily crackable anyway. WPA is much more secure, but my PC laptop's drivers don't support WPA yet.

Often on Windows XP, I find I have to reboot the machine when network settings are adjusted. XP is supposed to work without rebooting, but in daily use I find this isn't so true.

[djjava]

dell always thought it was a problem it the Airport..
arr

I disabled WEP, closed the network, and it's all good now..

damn dell.

[nredman]

Originally posted by Cadaver:
I've had nothing but trouble getting a Dell laptop from work to connect to my AEBS when WEP is enabled. It connects fine without WEP, but just flat out refuses to play nicely when WEP is on. The Macs of course have no problem.

nredman, make sure when you are entering the WEP password on the PC, you are using the Hex Equivalent password, not the ASCII password you'd use on the Mac. Open the AirPort config utility on the Mac, select your AEBS and enter the password if necessary. Then, go to the menu bar item "Basestation" and pull down to "Equivalent Network Password..." This will display your WEP password in a hexadecimal form that most wireless PC drivers expect. Use that hex code as the WEP password on your Dell laptop.

However, at least for me, it still gives me grief. What I ended up doing is turning off WEP but activating the AEBS's "closed network" option (hides your AirPort network's name - can't connect unless you know it). Also, I activated MAC Address Control, so only wireless cards I specify (via their MAC address code) can connect. For residential use, it keeps things pretty safe. WEP is easily crackable anyway. WPA is much more secure, but my PC laptop's drivers don't support WPA yet.

Often on Windows XP, I find I have to reboot the machine when network settings are adjusted. XP is supposed to work without rebooting, but in daily use I find this isn't so true.

sweet, finally got it to work...maybe i will just change the name of my network every once and awhile....do you have any problems with network speed and keeping the windows machine connected?

[ghporter]

I can't say that this is a Dell problem. Apple has decided that AirPort equipment, whether base stations or client cards, must be configured using a platform-specific utility. This is completely counter to what every other vendor of wireless equipment is doing, and it makes it much harder to build a network that works with whatever other hardware you have. Further, Apple insists on using their own terminology instead of what has become industry standard-because it comes directly from the IEEE networking standards that wireless networking is built on. It is only recently that Apple has decided to make it less difficult to enter a hexidecimal WEP key in AirPort software-not really "easier," but at least not as difficult.

Time and again, the villain in a WEP-related, cross-platform wireless network problem is that the WEP key is not entered identically in all stations. The cure is to generate hex keys and enter them as hex in every device. One way to do this is with a utility that Apple makes available (just search for WEP and "key generate" on Apple.com). The trick is to generate the key, copy it to a text document, and then share that document with every computer on the network. Then it's just a copy-and-paste task and you have the key properly entered-in everything but AirPort's Admin Utility.

In the Admin Utility, depending on the version you have, you may have an option box for designating your entry as hex, text, or something else. If not, (and you can do this in all versions of the Admin Utility) simply start the entry with a dollar sign ($) to indicate that the entry is in hex.

This works in 99+% of cases where "it works without WEP, but as soon as I turn WEP on it won't."