Problem connecting old Philips WIndows XP based Multimedia PC to AEBS

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Level 2

293 points

Problem connecting old Philips WIndows XP based Multimedia PC to AEBS

I upgraded my brother's wireless network by turning off the Wifi from his 'oldish' Linksys and attaching a AEBS in bridge mode to his linksys. This works fine for his imac and MacBook Pro, as well as his iPod and AE (used for AirPlay). The AEBS is set up to offer a separate network for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. The channels are 'not wide'.

But one older system refuses to connect. It is an old Philips Windows XP based media center with a AR5006XS chipset based 802.11 b/g card. The log in the AEBS shows a constant failure to connect with errors "WPA handshake failed with STA".

Having looked around, I noticed some web pages with some info on problems with this chipset, no info specific to this Media Center PC. Does anybody have an idea what I could do best to get this system connected again? Drivers?

If updated XP drivers for this thing are not available, I was thinking to use an older M8799LL/A AEBS I have lying around here. I would then want to set that one up in bridge mode and let it join the existing network. I would then attach the ethernet to the Windows PC. Would that work with that base station?

iMac 27" i7, MBA SSD, mini server, mini, G4 Cube, NeXTdimension Cube

Posted on Nov 7, 2010 1:48 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 7, 2010 2:07 PM in response to Gerben Wierda

The channels are 'not wide'.

If you are talking about 5 GHz, they need to be "wide" if you want maximum bandwidth on the network. I don't know why you would not want this, but you may have your reasons.

Having looked around, I noticed some web pages with some info on problems with this chipset, no info specific to this Media Center PC. Does anybody have an idea what I could do best to get this system connected again? Drivers?

Based on your description, and a guess, this sounds very much like the Media Center PC wants to connect using older WEP 128 or WEP 40 encryption. It probably cannot handle WPA authentication.

If I'm correct on this, it's going to be a real challenge to try to find a compatible setting on the dual band AEBS that would allow this device to connect since the AEBS offers WPA2 Personal and WPA/WPA2 Personal choices.

If you want, I'll do some digging into the hidden settings on the AEBS to see if something might work here. Let me know.

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Answer 2

Gerben Wierda Author

Level 2

293 points

Nov 8, 2010 12:20 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob Timmons wrote:

The channels are 'not wide'.

If you are talking about 5 GHz, they need to be "wide" if you want maximum bandwidth on the network. I don't know why you would not want this, but you may have your reasons.

Though his house is made from wood his reception problems are much bigger than mine (and my house is made from concrete). I have made the channels narrow to minimize interference as a possible source of problems.

Having looked around, I noticed some web pages with some info on problems with this chipset, no info specific to this Media Center PC. Does anybody have an idea what I could do best to get this system connected again? Drivers?

Based on your description, and a guess, this sounds very much like the Media Center PC wants to connect using older WEP 128 or WEP 40 encryption. It probably cannot handle WPA authentication.

According to what Windows tells me I can select WPA and the log of the AEBS also shows me that an WPA attempt is being made. It just fails. It was also connecting with WPA succesfully to the linksys before I replaced the linksys' wireless with the AEBS. So it looks like a wifi compatibility problem between the driver on the XP machine and the AEBS.

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Answer 3

Nov 8, 2010 5:11 AM in response to Gerben Wierda

Thanks for refreshing my mind. I haven't worked with XP in some time, but did use some of the earlier versions with a Linksys router 4-5 years ago. I too had difficulty trying to get an older machine to connect to an Apple router using WPA2 Security.

If I remember correctly, I went into the connection settings on the XP laptop and changed the security settings form WPA-AES to WPA-TKIP. You might see if you have an option like that.

If you do, the WPA-TKIP setting should be compatible with Apple WPA/WPA2 Personal. Sorry, if you have already tried this and it has not been successful.

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Answer 4

Gerben Wierda Author

Level 2

293 points

Nov 8, 2010 6:32 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob Timmons wrote:
If I remember correctly, I went into the connection settings on the XP laptop and changed the security settings form WPA-AES to WPA-TKIP. You might see if you have an option like that.

If you do, the WPA-TKIP setting should be compatible with Apple WPA/WPA2 Personal. Sorry, if you have already tried this and it has not been successful.

I'll try this in a couple of weeks when I visit his place again (he lives 350km from here). Thanks.

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Answer 5

Gerben Wierda Author

Level 2

293 points

Nov 8, 2010 6:41 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Bob Timmons wrote:
If you do, the WPA-TKIP setting should be compatible with Apple WPA/WPA2 Personal.

WPA-TKIP is not as secure as WPA2 (which uses AES), isn't it? So, will this substantially decrease network security?

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