Need w/Dell + Wireless USB Adapter accessing an Airport Extreme Base Station

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MaxTek's picture
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Need w/Dell + Wireless USB Adapter accessing an Airport Extreme Base Station

Hi,

I need help with a Dell laptop. It has a Belkin wireless USB adapter to access an Airport Extreme Base Station to surf the net.

Can anyone suggest the setttings for the following drop down menus:

Encyrption Key: is already assigned (and hex radio button is checked)

Network Authentication: Open, Shared, 802.1x, WPA, WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK

Data Encyrption: Disabled or WEP

Key Index: 1, 2, 3 or 4

Enable Cisco Client extensions for this network ON or OFF?

Also should I choose anything under the "Authentication" tab?

Thanks.

Macinjosh's picture
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The settings you choose...

... need to match the settings that the AE base station is using. Has it been set up; and if so are there any other computers that are using it for connectivity?

If so, you can swipe the settings needed for authentication, encryption etc from another client, if not they're available in the configuration of the base station.

You will want to use one of the WPA variants if at all possible as they are more secure.

Also you might want to read this, as it will run you through the basics of setting up a home Wifi network:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wireless-network.htm

-- Macinjosh

MaxTek's picture
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Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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Re: The settings you choose...

... need to match the settings that the AE base station is using. Has it been set up; and if so are there any other computers that are using it for connectivity?

If so, you can swipe the settings needed for authentication, encryption etc from another client, if not they're available in the configuration of the base station.

You will want to use one of the WPA variants if at all possible as they are more secure.

Also you might want to read this, as it will run you through the basics of setting up a home Wifi network:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wireless-network.htm

-- Macinjosh

Yes there is a G4 working properly with the internet. The laptop is reading the base station but says the signal is very unreliable even though I have 4 bars in the Belkin utility. This is with the laptop in the same room as the base station.

MaxTek's picture
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Still no go for this Dell laptop and my Airport Extreme

This is getting ridiculous. Is there anyone that can suggest something? I have tried my cousins Airport Extreme network and even where she works (The University). Same results as my Apple network. Inconsisent bars, but mostly 4 bar strength but NO connectivity. I get bars but cannot get on the internet.

What I have tried:

Same settings as the base stations
3 different networks
Changing settings on base stations and trying again
using binhex pass phrases and well as the normal password phrases

None of that worked, than we tried it on a non Apple home network and it worked perfectly.

That led me to believe it was something to do with the password. I read the Apple knowledge base article about it and followed everything it said but it didn't help either.

This was part of paying job setting up a new network with an Apple Extreme base station and the Dell laptop is the last part of it.

Please help and thanks.

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turn off encryption on the APX BS to test

If that works then it's almost certainly an error in the password setup on your Dell.

dan k

MaxTek's picture
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Re: turn off encryption on the APX BS to test

If that works then it's almost certainly an error in the password setup on your Dell.

dan k

After all these many weeks, and hours and hours of searching on Apple's site I finally got it to work today. I posted the problem on Apple's forum and a person there clearly stated "you need to get the hexadecimal equivalent of the Airport password. I started up the Airport Extreme Admin Utility and clicked the password tab and it gave me the equivalent. Put it into the Belkin utility on the Dell and bam I was on the internet.

Such a simple thing, you would think it would be a highlighted link on the first page of the Airport Support pages. It took weeks to find this out.

Thanks everyone for your help.

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