Problem adding wireless network, Vista RTM WPA2-PSK, no SSID broad

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Guest

Bug report.

Tested using Vista Ultimate RTM, Linksys WPC54GS NIC, Linksys WAP54G AP,
802.11g LAN with WPA2-PSK/AES without radius server and SSID broadcast
disabled, on IBM Thinkpad R51 laptop. Device drivers for Linksys NIC are MS
drivers from Vista DVD.

When adding a wireless network definition in Vista manually, by selecting
WPA2-Personal/AES/PSK and entering the SSID and (long) shared secret, vista
fails to connect with an error message, but the network definition entry is
visible in the list. Hitting the [+] "Add" icon and attempting a second time
then successfully connects.

Suggest a possible bug in the UI in the case of networks where SSID
broadcast is disabled.

[Sanity check This is a known-good NIC and wireless LAN in daily use with
WinXp machines, and the settings for the wireless LAN were verified on a
WinXp Sp2 machine.


--
Cecil Ward

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http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co...osoft.public.windows.vista.networking_sharing
 
I also posted a question regarding this problem or at least a closely related
problem. No solutions yet. My PDA connects perfectly with WEP or WPA
security, but the new laptop with Vista will not connect unless security is
turned off. Article on MS website states that MS does not recommend
non-broadcast SSID. Does not seem very secure. heh-heh.
 
Update: the problem seems to be related to a misunderstanding of terminology.
If I select WPA-PSK/AES (not WPA-2), then the problem seems easier to avoid.
 
I have my wireless setup working by using WEP but could not get it to work
with WPA. Not able to access xp machine from vista. XP PC shows up in vista
network but cannot connect to XP machine. Must be a setting in the XP machine
to prevent connection from outside.
 
Cecil Ward said:
Update: the problem seems to be related to a misunderstanding of terminology.
If I select WPA-PSK/AES (not WPA-2), then the problem seems easier to avoid.
Click to expand...

I have my Notebook functioning with wireless and WPA-PSK. Had to use MAC
filtering in the router. The PDA and Notebook with Vista installed work.
 
I confirm what I said earlier. The bug does indeed to be due to confusion
over the meaning of "WPA2" vs "WPA" in my case. MS could state their
definition of these terms perhaps in the UI. (To me WPA2 means "using AES"
and WPA2-personal means that you "not using a radius server/802.1x".) As I am
mandating AES on the WLAN, I maintain that I am using WPA2. Vista seems to
only be happy if I select WPA-Personal rather than WPA2-Personal.

Speculation: Much weirdness seems to be caused by Vista's fear and loathing
of SSID-hidden WLANs.


If anyone from MS is listening, I ask Vista dev team to test the following
scenario: Both Vista x64 and x86; set to "WPA2-Personal" = WPA-PSK/AES with
max length key over LAN with hw Linksys WAP54G AP + WPC54GS NIC, set to
SSID-broadcast off, Wireless-G-only mode.
 
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