Dell TrueMobile 1180 USB No WPA

Why do u need WPA encryption anyway? it is a very complicated one and is not supported in many hardware and software versions like even the earlier versions of XP up until SP2. also it might cause problems if in the future if u need to set up something like file and printer sharing, printer adapter installation etc. so i would ernestly recommend u to go for a WEP protection. just dont give a easily breakable key like ur phone no. WEP works very well with all the systems and if the key is properly selected, it will give u enough security.

regards

sam

Cool. Thanks Sam.

I appreciate the input.  

Have a great weekend!  

 

LongHaulin,

 

Don't listen to that guy!  WEP is useless!  Even if you stop broadcasting the SSID and enable MAC filtering, WEP is totally hackable within minutes using easily available tools from the web.  You might as well not use security at all.

 

Trash the 1180 card and see if you could upgrade to the Intel Pro Wireless 2200BG card.  In my Inspiron 8200 that's what I did.  If you don't have that luxury then get a PCMCIA card that will support WPA.

 

After you get the hardware, then you will need to program your router for WPA-PSK (Private Shared Key).  Your security will be as good as your key's strength so pick a string longer than 12 characters using a combination of alpha-numeric, upper and lower case, and punctuational characters.  If you want to be the ultra-uber geek, then go to http://www.grc.com/passwords and generate yourself a globally unique 63-character key.  That will take over a hundred years to crack through a brute force method.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Jedi...