Speedtouch 576 hangs at "Acquiring Network Address" Wireless

21 Sep 2006 3:55 PM

Ali Chambers

Hi,

I'd be really grateful for any advice here:

I have a Intel Centrino Fujitsu laptop with a built in wireless card.
The wireless card connects to other wireless networks but not my home
one.

I also know my home network works, as I am using my fujitsu laptop with
an ethernet cable. My second laptop connects via wireless to my home
network fine.

When I try to connect via wireless on my fujitsu laptop to my home
network, I get:

"Connecting..."
and it hangs at:
"Acquiring Network Address"....

I've tried disabling the firewall, restarting the wireless connection
and nothing works!

I'm using AOL (UK) broadband with a Speedtouch 576 router.

Oh - I can get the laptop to connect to AOL by disabling WEP security
on the router. But I don't want to have to use an unsecured network.

Can anyone help!
Thanks - alex

21 Sep 2006 5:14 PM

Lem

Ali Chambers wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> Hi,
>
> I'd be really grateful for any advice here:
>
> I have a Intel Centrino Fujitsu laptop with a built in wireless card.
> The wireless card connects to other wireless networks but not my home
> one.
>
> I also know my home network works, as I am using my fujitsu laptop with
> an ethernet cable. My second laptop connects via wireless to my home
> network fine.
>
> When I try to connect via wireless on my fujitsu laptop to my home
> network, I get:
>
> "Connecting..."
> and it hangs at:
> "Acquiring Network Address"....
>
> I've tried disabling the firewall, restarting the wireless connection
> and nothing works!
>
> I'm using AOL (UK) broadband with a Speedtouch 576 router.
>
> Oh - I can get the laptop to connect to AOL by disabling WEP security
> on the router. But I don't want to have to use an unsecured network.
>
> Can anyone help!
> Thanks - alex
>

It sure sounds as if you are entering an incorrect WEP encryption key.
Understand that if your router allowed you to use a "passphrase" from
which it generated the hex key, you almost certainly can not use the
same passphrase in your laptop's wireless adapter. You have to use the
actual hex key itself. [see, e.g., "Response Number 3" at
http://www.computing.net/networking/wwwboard/forum/28221.html] Also,
make sure that both router and laptop are set to use the same length key.

Actually, you should forget about WEP altogether. These days, it
provides almost no security. Use WPA-PSK. The Speedtouch 576 can do
this. See Speedtouch User Guide at
http://www.speedtouchdsl.com/documentation/ST576/R610/UserGuide/HTML/wwhelp.htm?single=false&context=ug&topic=init

If WPA is not available on your laptop, download and install the latest
driver for your laptop's wifi adapter. Go to the Fujitsu site.

22 Sep 2006 12:17 AM

Ali Chambers

Great - it works!

Thanks so much, alex