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LDSAccess difficulties
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:27 pm
by jdlessley
The success rate in making wireless connections using LDSAccess in our stake building is dismal. I have tried to connect four notebook computers but have been successful only with one. The one that succeeded is a Windows Vista system. The other three are Windows XP Professional. One of the Windows XP notebooks is using third party wireless connection software instead of windows to configure the connection. In all cases just after entering in the password to connect the following message appears and the connection fails.
Wireless configuration
The network password needs to be 40 bits or 10 bits depending on your network configuration.
This can be entered as 5 or 13 ascii characters or 10 or 26 hexadecimal characters.
For those of you who are more knowledgeable about wireless networking I could use some help. I have entered the correct password. Is there something I am overlooking?
In all cases the notebook's wireless hardware is built into the motherboard. I did not check on chipset manufacturers or anything like that.
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 9:42 pm
by Mikerowaved
The quote you found is referring to the older WEP encryption (which is NOT recommended) and can be ignored for using the recommended WPA/WPA2 encryption protocol.
As far as getting things to click with different adapters/OS's I can only guess at the problem, as I don't have hands-on experience with LDSAccess yet (only home and business wireless networks).
Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:05 pm
by aebrown
jdlessley wrote:The success rate in making wireless connections using LDSAccess in our stake building is dismal. I have tried to connect four notebook computers but have been successful only with one. The one that succeeded is a Windows Vista system. The other three are Windows XP Professional. One of the Windows XP notebooks is using third party wireless connection software instead of windows to configure the connection. In all cases just after entering in the password to connect the following message appears and the connection fails.
For those of you who are more knowledgeable about wireless networking I could use some help. I have entered the correct password. Is there something I am overlooking?
In all cases the notebook's wireless hardware is built into the motherboard. I did not check on chipset manufacturers or anything like that.
As Mikerowaved mentioned, you should never get that message if you are using WPA security, which is what the LDSAccess profile uses. Many computers will recognize that the access point requires a WPA-Preshared Key and simply prompt you for the password. But if your computer requires you to manually set the wireless settings, make sure you are specifying a WPA-PSK, and that it has the right SSID (LDSAccess). Then when you enter the key, you should have a better chance of connecting.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:14 am
by jdlessley
Unfortunately I do not control the security protocol for the connection - I do not have the option to select the security protocol.
When the network 'LDSAccess' is identified after a scan for networks the only selection available is to connect. After the connect button is clicked then the password must be entered. It is after entering the password (twice) that the error message is displayed.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:41 am
by mkmurray
jdlessley wrote:Unfortunately I do not control the security protocol for the connection - I do not have the option to select the security protocol.
When the network 'LDSAccess' is identified after a scan for networks the only selection available is to connect. After the connect button is clicked then the password must be entered. It is after entering the password (twice) that the error message is displayed.
Is this the screen you are referring to after a scan for networks?
Click on the "Change the order of preferred networks" and it will take you to some properities windows where you can more finely tune the connection (as shown in the following images).
manual addition of wireless network
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:35 am
by danpass
mkmurray wrote:
Click on the "Change the order of preferred networks" and it will take you to some properities windows where you can more finely tune the connection (as shown in the following images).
On more than one occasion, I've had networks listed in the preferred networks box that I could not connect to even when all the settings were correct in the properties for that network. But if I used the Remove button just to the left of the Properties button to delete the network and then use the Add button to manually add the network back and set the properties there, then I was able to connect with no problem.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 11:00 am
by mkmurray
danpass wrote:On more than one occasion, I've had networks listed in the preferred networks box that I could not connect to even when all the settings were correct in the properties for that network. But if used the Remove button just to the left of the Properties button to delete the network and then use the Add button to manually add the network back and set the properties there, then I was able to connect with no problem.
Yes, I agree; I've had to resort to that a few times. Sometimes it has done the trick.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:25 pm
by russellhltn
danpass wrote:On more than one occasion, I've had networks listed in the preferred networks box that I could not connect to even when all the settings were correct in the properties for that network.
I've had cases where I have to place the current network at the top of the list in order to connect. If I don't, it tries and fails repeatedly.
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 1:15 pm
by jdlessley
Thanks mkmurray. I think what you suggest will work. I hadn't thought of looking for configuration options at that point. Again Microsoft's cryptic and totally useless dialogs take their toll.
Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 11:51 pm
by DenleyAn
In my toying with LDSAccess I have discovered that drivers make all the difference with WPA connections. If I install a Cisco wireless card in my laptop Windows will happily assign it drivers and it will work just fine, until you try to make a WPA connection, when it will totally fail to work. If I then load the Cisco drivers the WPA connection will work 100%. I have noticed this for a couple of different wireless cards, including some HP built-in ones. It's not the only situation I have seen where Windows provides it's own drivers that don't do the job and don't let you know that the drivers are substandard.