On Sun, 8 Jun 2008 09:39:19 -0700 (PDT), JP <jpsebasti@gmail.com>
wrote:
>I have a DELL Vostro 1500 laptop that came with Windows XP SP2 Home
>Edition.
>It came with the entire drive partitioned for XP which I don't want.
>So I formated the drive and re-installed XP on a smaller partition so
>that I can partition the drive for Linux as well.
>
>The XP install went fine. I then went to Dell and installed the
>driver for my Dell wireless card that came with the machine. (Dell
>1395 802.11g Wi-Fi internal card).
Did you install XP SP3? If not, do it now.
>NOTE: Prior to re-installing XP, the wireless card connected to my
>Linksys wireless router just fine.
>
>Now, when I attempt to connect to the Linksys wireless router, I gain
>a connection (after putting the WEP 128bit key in) but it is stuck in
>the "Aquiring Network Address".
There are three different methods of converting from an ASCII WEP key
to the Hex equivalent. When you upgraded the drivers, you apparently
changed methods. You can make it work by using the WEP Hex key, which
always works.
However, the correct method is to change your unspecified model
wireless router to WPA or WPA2 encryption. This does not have the
ASCII to Hex conversion nonsense, and is much better for security as
WEP is easily cracked.
>Eventually, it times out and I have
>no wireless connection. If I connect a hard wire ethernet cable to
>the laptop, I can ping the Wireless Router so I know it's reachable
>via my wired network.
>
>I've seen people recommend hard coding an IP address but then I have
>to screw around with the wireless IP settings when I travel which I
>don't want to do.
Don't bother. The problem is that Microsloth, in their infinite
wisdom, decided that their wireless drivers do not require any
connection progress indication. Although it says "aquiring network
address" it really means "can't negotiate a suitable encryption key".
>Does anyone have any ideas what else I should look for?
Some instructions on how to use various partition managers. You
didn't have to reinstall everything just to change the partition size.
There are various partition managers that will do it for you. As I
recall (not sure), Disk Druid will resize the Windoze partition for
you on installation.
--
Jeff Liebermann
jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060
http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
DELL wireless card stuck "Aquiring Network Address" 
Linear Mode
