1 step versus 3 steps...

[djbombjack]

So yesterday I decided to get my roommate onto my Airport Extreme network. She has a Compaq Presario 2500 with Windows XP. We went and got an 802.11g wireless card... all good and fine. Now, i'm not really interested in PC bashing (far too many people on this board who do that already lol). But after nearly two hours I still could not get it to connect to the Airport network.

Now I do know something of PCs, so I did feel like I knew what I was doing. But after exhausting every option I had I still had no luck. Even simple things like disabling the 128-bit WEP... and even the guy on the support line from D-Link didn't know. He kept telling me it was a problem with my Airport - which I explained to him it was not, seeing as I had my Powerbook sitting right next to me with their website on it.

Anyway, the simple problem was that whilst the PC sould see my network fine, it just wouldn't connect...
Then last night I tried again and, doing nothing different, it just suddenly connected. I was dumbfounded...

So the point of this post? I remember now why I use Apple computers. For every 1 step you take with Apple, you take 3 with a PC. God bless 'em...

 

[Westside guy]

One thing I've found helpful when it comes to setting up wireless under XP is to turn off the setting where XP takes over some of the wireless management - it does funny things with the third-party WiFi software.

Control Panel -> Network Connections -> Wireless Network Connection -> Right-click and choose "Properties". Uncheck the box that says "Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings".

When I disable that, I find it much more straightforward to proceed, and things seem more likely to work as intended.

 

[djbombjack]

Oh believe me I tried that.
Just as a footnote, the instructions which came with the D-Link card were clear and concise. The problems arose when I had to go into XP territory...

 

[MoparShaha]

I know exactly what you're talking about. I just upgraded our home network to WPA, and setting up my PB was a sinch. Took about 3 minutes. When I went to deal with my dad's WinXP Dell, took me hours. I'm very knowledgeable about Windows, so believe me, I knew what I was doing. Even after I had downloaded all the WPA patches for XP, and upgraded the firmware of the PC card, it took hours to get it to connect to the network. Oh well .