Airport Express on WPA/WPA2 setting but shows up as WPA2 only

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Airport Express on WPA/WPA2 setting but shows up as WPA2 only

I use my Airport Express as a router to create wireless connection. The AX is set as WPA/WPA2 Personal, all devices in my house can connect besides one laptop that can only uses WPA Personal. This laptop can detect the network but cannot join because it's listed as WPA2 only even though the Airport Utility clearly shows that it is a WPA/WPA2 connection. I tried disabling the security and it connects and works perfectly. I've tried everything, including using the Equivalent Network Password but it still can't connect once the security is back on. Please help!

Airport Express-OTHER, Windows XP

Posted on Oct 7, 2012 10:03 PM

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Answer 1

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gilwen_tl Author

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Oct 7, 2012 10:52 PM in response to gilwen_tl

Never mind, I found the answer. For WPA devices, the data encryption has to be TKIP.

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Answer 2

Bhaycock

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Nov 25, 2012 7:17 PM in response to gilwen_tl

Can you tell me how you did that? I'm having this problem now, but I don't know what "the data encryption has to be TKIP" actually means. I web-searched the term... and that's great and all, but I can't find if that's something I change on my Airport Express or the Win 7 PC I recently introduced into an apartment full of Macs?

Any help would be great! Cheers.

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Answer 3

Tesserax

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Nov 26, 2012 10:25 AM in response to Bhaycock

TKIP is a type of encryption protocol. AES/CCMP is another and more secure. The WPA wireless security certification only supports TKIP; the newer WPA2 certification supports both TKIP and AES.

Older network wireless clients that only support the TKIP protocol would not be able to connect to a wireless network configured for WPA2 using AES only.

For the Apple AirPort routers the encryption protocol used is set by the Wireless Security setting via the AirPort Utility:

WPA/WPA2 Personal - supports clients that use either TKIP or AES
WPA2 Personal - supports only client that use AES

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