Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

MickeyZ · Jul 13, 2006, 08:22 AM

Hi,
I've D-Link DI-634M wireless router connected to cable modem. There is one Windoze PC connected with Ethernet cable directly to one of the LAN ports on D-Link and Internet access always works fine on that PC. Then I have 15" MBP, which I want to connect wirelessly to D-Link. If I don't use any encryption for wireless connection on D_Link, MBP connects to the router no problem. But of course I'd like to make my home network more secure and after reading this forum the obvious encryption to use would be WPA. The D-Link has an option to set 'WPA-PSK' encryption (PSK - Pre-Shared Key) and if I select it there are 2 cipher methods: TKIP and AES. For each of those cipher methods I can set a passphrase. But whichever method I select the MBP can't connect to the D-Link. When I select my home network on MBP it automatically selects 'WPA Personal' connection type and gives me an option to input passphrase, but when I input correct passphrase it says it can't connect. As a test I set WEP encryption on D-Link and then MBP could connect to the router fine.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

ghporter · Jul 13, 2006, 08:09 PM

WPA Personal is what Apple calls WPA-PSK-TKIP. Are you ABSOLUTELY SURE you are inputting the correct passphrase? I'd try changing the D-Link's passphrase to something short and very simple, then trying again with it set for WPA-PSK-TKIP.

Do NOT use WEP as a final choice. It is worse than poor protection. Keep pluging at the WPA option until you get it running.

MickeyZ · Jul 14, 2006, 08:24 AM

Thanks for the explanation ghporter. I'll try again later when I'm back home. Is there any requirement with regard to passphrase when using WPA-PSK-TKIP encryption, like length, character set used etc? Also, I read in one of the threads that $ sign should be used in front of the passphrase on the client's side, but can't remember if it was required for WEP or WAP.

One more question: would setting MAC filtering on D-Link be equally safe as WPA encryption? If so, or maybe even better, I could try that instead of setting WPA encryption.

ghporter · Jul 14, 2006, 03:57 PM

Any character is a valid character (as far as I know) for a WPA passphrase. Using the '$' is only required when entering a hexidecimal key for WEP-the WPA standard includes universal rules for passphrases, which includes how to handle either a hex key (64 hex characters) or a passphrase (up to 63 characters).

MAC filtering is no substitute for encryption, because your connection goes over radio signals which can be intercepted and read. Encryption makes that extremely difficult-not doable on a practical level, in fact. MAC filtering only keeps others from activelyl joining your network, not from passively intercepting radio signals-like your credit card number when you order something online. I use both.

MickeyZ · 01:47 PM

OK, I can now connect wirelessly to D-Link. I think the problem might have been the 'Super-
G Mode' that was set to 'Turbo', which MBP might not have recognised. However now when I connect wirelessly I can't get the correct IP address assigned to MBP - it's always self-assigned to 169.254.122.53. As a result MBP can't connect to the Internet. I tried renewing DHCP lease in Network preferences windows, but with no luck. The interesting thing is that if I check DHCP server on D-Link it shows that it assigned 192.168.0.100 address to Airport MAC address.

ghporter · Jul 16, 2006, 06:57 PM

Any non-standard mode will screw things up. These depend on proprietary equipment on both ends, and none of them are interoperable-Linksys' superfast stuff won't connect with Netgear's and neither will talk with D-Link's. That's what standards do for us.

Your address issue is pretty strange-I don't think I've heard of such a thing before. You might try deleting the location you're using with your AirPort card, and then starting over-maybe there's some sort of setting that's hosed in that location from your earlier attempts. A fresh location (let the card find the router and then accept it and name the location) should fix such problems.

MickeyZ · Jul 17, 2006, 08:43 AM

I'll try deleting the location and start from scratch, as you suggested.

I noticed another strange thing - if I start WinXP through Parallels the WinXP gets correct IP assigned by DHCP server and Internet connection works, although downloading webpages seems to be very slow.

MickeyZ · Aug 1, 2006, 04:56 PM

For those that might have similar problems this is what I did and wireless connection with WPA encryption works fine now. On the D-Link router I changed the SSID of my network to a new one. I also changed the Mode from Mixed Mode to G Mode. I used the WPA-PSK-TKIP encryption. On MBP I reset the Keychain (Keychain Access->Preferences/General->Reset My Keychain), turned the Airport off, then back on and connected to the new network SSID. From then on the Internet connection over wireless seems to be working great.