Mobile Broadband

[Marc]

I got some new awesome info... Abdul told me that Vista doesn't work with the WiFi 2 modem...........................................

He told me to change the Auth settings from WPA-PSK to WPA2-PSK but that only made the situation worse... Maybe one of the other settings will work but I'm not sure

[Peter]

Abdul should do stand-up comedy.  What does he mean?  In what way doesn't the Pocket Wifi support Vista?

There are various settings on the laptop that may complicate wi-fi connections, but he's just wrong.  The modem drivers supports Vista if a USB cable is used, while normal operation requires regular wireless networking capability that's present on every laptop these days.

What's the wireless setup on your Vista machine anyway?  Does it use the eNet management software I saw in the manual?

Can you tell me the modem's auth settings?  You should be able to check wireless adaptor properties on the working machine.  Once you know that, then see if the older laptop can support them.  That's it.

[Marc]

The Modems Auth settings are at WPA-PSK... My laptop does have the eNet Management but I am just trying to connect normally through windows or whatever (neither windows nor eNet work though) I don't exactally know how to "check wireless adaptor properties on the working machine." I am kind of sure that my Laptop has WPA2-Personal... Then again I don't even know where to go...

The internet works when plugged in the side of the laptop... Just thought I'd add that...

[Peter]

Try this:

Windows Start icon > control panel > network & sharing centre > double left-click network & sharing centre icon > manage wireless networks > locate the pocket wifi icon - one of list

what adapter properties are displayed?  eg Security: WPA - Personal; automatically connect, etc

Right-click the pocket wifi icon, select Properties > this opens a box with two options: Connection & Security > select Security - what's displayed? 

What I see on my Vista laptop

[Marc]

Displayed on My Laptop in Security is:

Security Type: WPA2-Personal

Encryption Type: AES

That's all that's in the security part. Unfortunatly I can see the pic you uploaded is this the same as what was on yours?

[Peter]

The answer (I hope) from Microsoft:

You cannot connect to a wireless network on a Windows Vista-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935222

On a Windows Vista-based computer, consider the following scenario:

1)  You use Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) together with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption to access wireless networks.
2)  A computer certificate is configured correctly on the computer.
3)  The computer has the correct permissions to access wireless networks.

In this scenario, you can see that a wireless network is available in the Connect to a network dialog box in the Network and Sharing Center. However, you cannot connect to the wireless network. etc etc


The good news

Microsoft has a hotfix available for this specific problem (on the page from which I copied the above information) but also suggests installing the latest Vista service pack (service pack 2).

This could be it...

[Marc]

I'll check it out now...