# Airport Extreme - PC access problems



## jdsboston (Oct 14, 2006)

Hey guys,

I just joined the forum tonight and was wondering if you could give me some suggestions on setting up a wireless network with an airport extreme.  I am visiting my Aunt and Uncle who are lawyers and use nothing but Macs.  They have an Airport Extreme.  My college student cousin is living with them for a few months and like me she has a Thinkpad IBM Laptop.  

She has been having trouble connecting to the Airport Extreme so I tried it with my Thinky and experienced the same problem.  Here's what Windows SP2 says to me when I tried to connect. (click for screenshot)

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/0/0/1/7/7/8/webimg/23248311_o.jpg

If the link doesn't work I also attached it...

Now here is what is odd.  I did a bunch of reading on this online and in other forums and the strange thing is that nobody has mentioned getting this error before.  I don't find anything about it.  Most people find the airport and immediately get a 40-bit hexadecimal login key request form for WEP and fill that out and they are done.  With my relative's Airport however it doesn't present the encryption key form at all, like it does with other WEP-enabled WIFI connections?!

So, I started messing with the Airport configuration on their MAC and 
(a) turned off WEP encryption 
(b) power cycled the airport and 
(c) changed the airport name (what the heck you know ;-) ) 

...and when I tried to login to the same airport again with my Thinky it worked fine.  Turning off WEP was the factor it turns out as the minute I turned 40-bit 10 hexadecimal encryption back on I got the same Windows XP error.

Oh yeah also the same thing happens if I try to do a closed network...

What gives?  I would like to turn WEP back on but for some reason when WEP is on the XP software doesn't connect properly, and doesn't even offer me the opportunity to present the correct WEP key before bonking out.

Is there something I am doing wrong that I am missing?  I confirmed that the key that the Airport config software presents is the same 10-digit code I entered before Updating the Airport but to stae the plainly obvious it doesn't matter what the code is, as for whatever reason the XP never prompts me for it when WEP is turned on, on the Airport.

Odd huh?!  Please share your best ideas on how I could configure the Airport and/or the XP laptops to allow my relative's to encrpyt their network and still allow Windows laptops to connect properly.  

For now they are broadcasting unsecure which is fine for the next few days as they are out in the country but ideally I would like to figure this problem out with some help and turn on basic 40-bit encryption.

Any ideas where to start on this??

Cheers!!

/Josh


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## Satcomer (Oct 15, 2006)

I think it has to do with the security protocol and the limited password character limitation. Try to setup a simple WAP security password and see if the XP can connect to it.


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## bobw (Oct 15, 2006)

Maybe try AirPort 4.2 for Windows


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## Natobasso (Oct 15, 2006)

If that airport express is in a law office connected to sensitive documents, ya better get WEP back on! 

Make sure you're entering the numeric wep key, not the text that creates that key.


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## jdsboston (Oct 16, 2006)

I am using an all numeric 10digit passphrase so not a transposition problem AFAIK.  

Any other experience/expertise out there that people are willing to contribute to debugging this one.

As noted above I would like to get WEP or WPA running again soon, however the minute the encryption goes back on Windows SP2 geeks out and won't recognize the Airport Extreme access point properly...

CHEERS!

jdsboston, on eBay since 1998


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## jdsboston (Oct 16, 2006)

Satcomer said:


> I think it has to do with the security protocol and the limited password character limitation. Try to setup a simple WAP security password and see if the XP can connect to it.



cheers sat.  i used a simple 10-digit all numeric passphrase (e.g. 1234512345 ) to avoid anything resembling transposition issues but that is not creating the problem as it's deeper than that - when I have encryption on, XP does not even present the ability to enter a code!  See the error I am getting which shows that somehow XP SP2 is getting badly confused and is not even offering me the ability to present a code!


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## jdsboston (Oct 16, 2006)

bobw said:


> Maybe try AirPort 4.2 for Windows





How will this help the problem?  Will it interfere with my cousin's ability to connect with other non-airport WIFI's?  Is anyone else out there running Windows XP SP2 with this software with WEP or WPA with success?  Perhaps even someone out there who also initially got this same error but was able to address it with using this software?  

Generally, I like to avoid more software.  It complicates and over-layers a problem that should not exist.  The Airport Extreme is supposed to be based upon the 802.11X standard and clearly it is not compliant.

Up next I am going to do some Airport Extreme research then start looking for an Apple Product Manager through Linked In as this is silly business as the Airport Extreme is clearly not 802.11X compliant if it doesn't support the XP encryption handshake - what kind of access point is that?   ::ha:: ::ha::  

PS_ ok checked out the download page bob - thanks so much - says alot about fixing WPA compatability with XP SP2 but nothing about WEP which is what I was using...


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