wpa2 on a laptop: hardware or driver feature

[VJ]

Hello,

I recently configured a wireless network at my parents place. Initially, it consists out of two linksys bridges (one for pc, one for tv) that connect to a linksys router. I configured everything with wpa2 encryption, but as it turned out I couldn't connect my laptop to the network. After some experimenting, I found that the laptop does not support wpa2 encryption (only wpa).

Is wpa2 encryption on an internal wifi adapter a property of the adapter? Or a property of the driver? (the latest driver on the Fujitsu Siemens site is quite old)
The adapter is an Intel Pro/Wireless 2915ABG.

Thanks!


Jörg

[Dr Mordrid]

I believe both.

The OS can also be troublesome. On an old Dell laptop with 2K I found the drivers broke with WPA2 on, so I upgraded to XP which worked fine.

[VJ]

I'm running XP Tablet edition, but I think the problem is in my drivers. I searched the Intel website, and found this:

http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro2915abg/index.htm

Apparently, their drivers support WPA2 for this adapter. I'll try to see if I can upgrade my Fujitsu-Siemens drivers to these.


Jörg

[VJ]

Just to let you guys know: the Intel Pro/Wireless software works perfectly (on my Fujitsu-Siemens). It takes over the Windows Wireless Network manager, and IMO does a better job. It shows much more statistics (channel, ...), allows for profiles with triggers (execute this or that file when connecting to the network), and the supplied 10.x drivers have much more encryption methods than those I had in the 9.x drivers (WPA2 is now available).

Jörg

[rylan]

Yeah I have a Intel Proset Wireless 2100BG mini-pci card that I put in a dell laptop, and I'm using the reference drivers from Intel. It supports WPA2 and all sorts of other encryption perfectly. As you saw, the reference drivers work very nicely. Unfortunately lots of the laptop manufacturers use out of date wireless drivers, or don't update theirs with the current reference drivers from card manufacturer.

[Taz]

Noticed this on the Intel site

Microsoft also provides an update for adding WPA2 capability to Windows XP service pack 2 (SP2): 893357 â€*. This patch is optional if you are using Intel® PROSet/Wireless software to manage the wireless adapter. Download this patch to add WPA2 support when using Windows to manage the adapter.

[VJ]

I really should learn to read text on websites... But then again, I might not have installed the Intel drivers and just settled for this update.

Jörg

[Gurm]

I've had mixed luck with WPA. There are certain IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads which I've been utterly unable to get running with WPA, which work fine with WEP. So ... YMMV.

[VJ]

It seems to work with my laptop...


Jörg