PCG-R600HFPD - WiFi Driver & WPA

[Jacko]

Hi guys

I responded to someone else's thread about problems they were having with WiFi dropout on the PCG-R600HFPD recently, and posed the question about 'is WPA available for these too?"

No one replied, but I have since answered the question myself, and thought others might like to know.

I got a NEW (non SONY Approved) driver for the WiFi card (which shows as an ORiNOCO Mini PCI Card) from here:

http://www.agere.com/mobility/wireless_lan_drivers.html (the specific one being this one for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP- http://www.agere.com/mobility/docs/windows_drivers_sr02-2.3.zip)

Depending on your Windows version, and how well updated you keep it, you may also need the KB 815485 WPA update for Windows - available here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/c/2/cc2aae3a-da13-4a9a-b3d9-802b0e7c877c/Q815485_WXP_SP2_x8...

and there's more info on that update here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=815485

It seems to work fine - at least in WEP mode. It will also work in WPA-PSK mode, with my new Belkin F5D7130 Wireless Access Point - albeit that the new WAP can only talk to the VAIO at 11Mbps, not at 54Mbps, but that's a limitation of the internal wireless card in the VAIO.

However, there is one small wrinkle with WPA, and I haven't worked out yet whether it is the new driver, or Window's handling of WPA, or something 'in' WPA itself, or the Belkin!

Basically, I can connect to the Belkin using a WPA-PSK connection, but I cannot make that connection use a DHCP-fetched IP address (from my separate router+DHCP server behind the Belkin WAP). The Windows connection only ever uses an address in the 169.x.x.x 'autoconfiguration address' range. And of course, when it's in this range, my router doesn't like the IP, and won't route packets to the internet for it.

So near, and yet so far.... anyone got any experience with WPA who can tell me if DHCP is a no-no, or whether there's a workaround?

[kee-lo_]

Thanks for all that info Jacko, I'm sure someone will find it very handy

[nick_pan]

good

will be added to the FAQ wont it kee-tyger?

[kee-lo_]

Yup

[johncirving]

Hi,

I'm setup with a belkin 54g access point & cardbus with WPA - no problems (in fact, I'm sat down in the lounge right now).

After getting the latest card drivers from the Belkin web site & installing from the instructions - then windows XP (sp2) (it has the WPA update in).

Everything is pretty much as default & dhcp range is in 10.0.0.100

I did try using my own dhcp setup around either 192.168 or 197.100, but could not get a reliable connection (may help ?).

Worth noting that the access point is configured as WPA-PSK, as is the card, but the card utility reports WEP.

[TygerTyger]

The FAQ seems slightly redundant now they appear to really be adding a search feature. Stickies aren't as difficult as a search box if someone could organise them that way instead it would be smiles all round :smileygrin:

[kee-lo_]

Not really as the search is in alpha stages and finds nothing.

[Jacko]

Thanks for the comments and feedback, guys - lucky I popped back to check, cos I didn't seem to get any notification email telling me this thread had been added to!

I had another go, using the 'new' driver for the VAIO's internal WiFi card, trying various settings to see what worked and what didn't.

It's peculiar - I was able to get a WPA-PSK connection going, using DHCP (my VAIO picked up its usual 192.168.1.x address ok)... but the connection lasted a mere two or three minutes, before the link dropped, and wouldn't come back.

From there, it didn't seem to make any difference what I did - I tried a new WPA passphrase, making the SSID broadcast on the Belkin (it's a Belkin F5D7130, by the way), and I tried all permutations of Authentication on/off/auth-as-computer/auth-as-guest/etc - all with no luck. The best I could get was a 3 minute link, then a drop, and no second chance.

I've confirmed that the Belkin is using the latest firmware available, and that there really is no 'WPA' mode on the old, still-available Lucent driver from the VAIO-LINK downloads site. I've raised an E-Support question to see if that can shed any light.

I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

At the moment, I'm running the card and WAP in WEP mode, and that seems ok - but it's not really what I want. Ideally, I want to move over to WPA-PSK only, because WEP is now fairly easily crackable (hunt for Aircrack on Google, and be moderately afraid!)

Funnily enough, I mentioned the problem to 3COM (cos I have a 3COM Wireless PCI card in another machine), and their response was basically "It's obsolete, we're not writing any more drivers for that card". I was pretty disgusted, considering the card isn't even a year old, and is STILL on sale on the 3COM website! Other dealers are even lying that it is WPA compatible (which it plainly isn't).

So that's another item for me to dump Ebay then, eh? And it'll be the last 3COM product I ever buy. Quite funny, considering Belkin's response was to send me, completely free, and without me even asking, a brand new, latest-model WAP to replace my old WEP-only one! What a difference, eh?

I'm hoping SONY can be similarly 'customer-focused' as Belkin, and do the right thing here, to get us all using WPA... Fingers crossed.

[TygerTyger]

I've been pushing Belkin for ages I have the same model as you but with the ADSL modem built in. I've tried a 3com router and it was utterly awful, although faster than most.[
Thanks for giving us updates everyone like to hear how things go and if problems get solved.

[kee-lo_]

Specially us on this forum