Wireless security problem

Sometimes when i connect to my router via wireless. XP wireless networking will give me the "your connected to a insecure wireless network". But wpa is enabled on my router and it asks for the wpa passcode when i connect. If i dont enter it, it wont let me connect. So why isn't it connecting securely or is this some weird glitch?

I'm thinking it may be more related to my new wireless network pci card i have in my pc than the router itself. I have changed 2 things on my network when this started. One i started using my pc with a wireless network card instead of my laptop (which died). And 2 i changed isp to AAISP from Zen. But i doubt its the isp change. Only settings i changed on my router when i changed isp was the dsl username and password.

Are you sure you aren't occasionally connecting to a neighbour's unsecured wifi network?

Pretty sure.. unless it somehow connects to one that isn't broadcasting its name. I have never in my life in my house picked up another wireless network other than my own. Which isn't unusual cause this is a pretty remote area i live in. And people that do live near by tend to be "older" people in retirement.

Edit This is all i ever pickup. And thats mine

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/2596/wirelessbww.jpg

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Aug-09 18:50:11)

In reply to a post by blackmesa8:

And people that do live near by tend to be "older" people in retirement.

And don't us "wrinklies" in "retirement" have wireless networks attached to our Zimmer Frames? Admittedly we wouldn't be stupid enuf not to secure them.

On your original problem, does the full Status of the XP Wireless Network Connection give you any clue?

Not really. the box on the task bar just randomly appears when i connect sometimes warning me about being connected to a "insecure network" Then everytime i open the status i always get the same thing.. This.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/4920/wireless2.jpg

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Aug-09 19:03:08)

That Status window looks OK.

May I see the "Wireless Network Connection" window behind the Status window & also the View Wireless Networks?

View wireless networks leads to "wireless network connection" window which was behind the status window in the screenshot. I already posted a picture of it too earlier in this post.
Only one picked up is my network.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/2596/wirelessbww.jpg

Looks good; says it's Security-Enabled (WPA).

Perhaps you should try to make it WPA2, if you can, and see if it makes any difference?

I've got mine at WPA2 and, although my XP desktop is currently Ethernet'ed, I don't remember it giving this msg when it was wireless'ed.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Mon 24-Aug-09 20:22:52)

Done. i'll see how it goes.

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/7333/wirelesswpa2.jpg

I think the problem is - you need to change your SSID from the default to something unique.

Otherwise you are hoping that no-one else ever turns on a router or AP nearby with the name NETGEAR - which is very common along with the other popular makes. Similarly with the laptop it would be trying to connect to any NETGEAR on the move.

Doesn't matter if you've never seen any other networks (and remember that other people may be hiding their SSID but if it's called NETGEAR you could still end up connected to it by mistake).

This kind of setup can easily happen if you originally setup your network with no security, then added a password as you can end up with unwanted entries in your preferred networks list.

(1) choose something distinctive for your SSID - an easy fix

(2) check and update your preferred networks list - so that it doesn't contain NETGEAR or any other entries you don't expect and
(3) check that it is not set to automatically connect to any non-preferred network.

Hi. I've done what you've said. Only network in my preferred networks was "netgear" and only one. So i dont think i've been connecting to any elses who hasn't been broadcasting. This is a pc not a laptop i only installed a wireless network card in this pc last week. After my laptop died. This a old pc was then moved into another room hence it suddenly needed wireless access due to the insane length the ethernet cable would have had to have been. Thats when the wireless problems started. I'm thinking it might be the wireless pci network card i got. I never had any problems with wireless with laptop.
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116619 thats the card i got. But not from ebuyer from a pc shop near me.

New screenshot of my network now i changed the broadcast name.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4623/wirelessupdate...

Edited by deleted (Mon 24-Aug-09 23:57:11)

In reply to a post by prlzx:

I think the problem is - you need to change your SSID from the default to something unique.

This is a red herring!

He only connected after successfully giving the correct password for the network. It's highly unlikely that someone else's NETGEAR SSID has the same password.

His only problem with a duplicate SSID is that he might have trouble distinguishing his own network, but his password will get him to the right one.

Anyway, from what I've seen factory set SSID's usually have a unique string of numbers following the make of the router.

Edited by XRaySpeX (Tue 25-Aug-09 00:07:21)

I still think the pci network card is at fault. Laptop never had any problems with the old settings even in the same location. Prolly should have mentioned this before but altho the signal is high very high. 85% or more all 5 signal bars always lit. It only connects at 24mbit not 54mbit. Laptop always got 54mbit anywhere in the house. Even in the back garden. Another thing this network card seems very sensative i've noticed if the microwave is turned on (which is about 8 meters away) It makes this pc disconnect from the router and it wont reconnect till microwave is off!

You may yet be right about it being a red herring but I was simply going off the first post.

The OP stated getting "you're connected to an unsecured wireless network" and if XP is set to connect to non-preferred networks, the PC can get connected to any unprotected, before even trying the saved password.

Therefore it's worth eliminating even the possibility,

And while you are right about many manufacturers adding characters (generally taken from the hardware address), rest assured you can will still find an awful lot of plain old NETGEAR about if you take a look.

Another test which I did not think of at the time - when getting the "connected to a insecure wireless network" to use the TBB check my IP tool to see if on the same network.

A fault with the router's wireless or the PCI card remains a possibility.

Edit 1: Maybe check Windows has the latest driver for this card. I remember we had kit where XP used to get the connected / not connected status reversed due to buggy drivers so being confiused about security status could plausibly be a driver issue.

Edit 2: Just noticed the microwave issue which is a known source of interference and is not going to help matters. Although trial and error possible to see if a any other channels suffer less from interference, I don't know if the OP can switch to 5GHz with the current kit. Edit - ah no it's a g/b wireless card so stuck on 2.4GHz for now.

How long would that ethernet cable have to be then?

Edited by prlzx (Tue 25-Aug-09 01:02:51)

In reply to a post by prlzx:

Another test which I did not think of at the time - when getting the "connected to a insecure wireless network" to use the TBB check my IP tool to see if on the same network.

Eh? That'll be the router's IP addy on the Internet; not the PC's addy on the local network, which will be a private IP of 192.168.x.y

Exactly -it would have conclusively proved OP was not on anyone else's router as they would have different public IP.

As I meant - would have been a useful test earlier in the thread (so adding it for completeness if anyone else having similar symptoms) - I accept the OP has since ruled out connecting to a different network inadvertantly.

OK gotchya

Since using wpa2. I have not had any "you are connected to a insecure network" box's come up. Well i spose it could be cause i changed the default broadcast name from "netgear" to "aaisp". Who knows but at least thats no longer a problem. However the problem with my pc disconnecting from the router when i use the microwave and always connecting (altho having very high signal) at low speeds like 24mbit even down to 11mbit remains. Altho 24mbit isn't really a problem since i dont transfer files between pc's via wireless and thats easily fast enouth to handle my dsl connection speed.

blackmesa8

Good that msg no longer happens; I'm sure it must be the WPA2, the SSID change was just trivial!

How do you know it's connecting at "24mbit even down to 11mbit" and used to be 54 mbit?

What is your ISP's BB speed? As long as wireless connects at least that it won't matter.

I know because it tells me in the wireless status window what speed im connected at to router. And it always says 24mbit or sometimes 11mbit. My isp is AAISP and i connect at about 4.3mbit (but due to a low sync on sunday my ip profile is currently only 3mbit so i gotta wait for that to increase at the moment)

Ah, OK; I never look at that (mine is 36 Meg).

But it doesn't really matter as it's > 4.3 Meg you are getting off the Net.

A usefull tool for wireless fault finding is Netstumbler In my experience it seems to find more wireless networks than the windows tool, and gives loads of other info.

Could be of help.

In reply to a post by monkeyarms:

A usefull tool for wireless fault finding is Netstumbler In my experience it seems to find more wireless networks than the windows tool, and gives loads of other info.

Netstumbler won't work with Vista. For that, use Inssider.

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

In reply to a post by monkeyarms:

A usefull tool for wireless fault finding is Netstumbler In my experience it seems to find more wireless networks than the windows tool, and gives loads of other info.

Netstumbler won't work with Vista. For that, use Inssider.

Or alternatively Vistumbler

Try http://wlancontroller.com to turn windows 7 into hotspot

Another option is http://wlancontroller.com