Help! M1330 Intel 4965AGN WONT work with WEP encryption

Ok it took me a while to figure this out and XPS techs where useless claiming that Wireless G router wont work with an N card, well it does, I already knew that. I was freaking out when my m1330 which finally came in today would intermittently connect/disconnect from my wireless network and lose a lot of packets in ping tests. I have a D-Link wireless G router with 64 bit WEP encryption. Well after some trial and error I found that the wireless N on the m1330 will NOT work with WEP (both 64 and 128 bit). It does work fine with WPA/WPA-PSK or if there is no authentication at all. Unfortunetely other computers in the house have older cards that only support WEP security so unless I take down the security on my network or buy newer cards for the other computers I cannot use wireless on my M1330. Anyone know why this is? Is there a fix for it? It has WEP listed as an encryption option in Vista when I manually set up the conenction so I dont see why it wouldnt work. Already tried updating drivers too. Anyone else have this problem? Any help is appreciated, TIA.

 

u update the drivers or reinstall em?--http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=XPS_M1330&os=WLH&osl=EN

 

I ran the Intel - Driver for Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection thats in that link you provided, it didnt do anything. I guess I just reinstalled the drivers.

 

It could be a Vista issue, u call Dell yet?

 

Yup, Dell was useless. They said wireless N card wont work with my G router. THats BS.

 

Dude, WEP is 100% useless, every 7 year old with some knowledge could hack that. You could just as well use no protection at all, it really doesn't make any difference.

Alternatively you could configure your router to accept only PCs with a certain MAC address. It's not much safer than WEP that way, but still better than no encryption at all.

At any rate, you should not waste your time trying to get your WEP network running, it is definitely not worth it.

 

Any eight year old can spoof a MAC address and nine year old's can get past a non-broadcasting SSID. However, I am using WEP too (it keeps out the accidental users and I figure my apartment is so big and high that no-one else can access my wireless).

So I did use WEP (D-Link DI-624) with this M1330. I found it a bit erratic so connected the Ethernet (It is about 18" from M1330 to Router!).

Since then a driver update was released for the Intel ABGN wireless and I upgraded... so I just unplugged the ethernet and switched the wireless back on. Connection looks good - if you are reading this it lasted long enough to post this message.

 

And my grandmother could crack all three (okay, I had to say something)....

 

You got a smart grandma.

 

Still same problem, anyone know whats going on?

 

I pinged 1000 packets to my router over the wireless with no packet loss.

I don't know what kind of router you have got - but in the past I had a lot of trouble with my D-Link DI-624. It would spontaneously reboot without apparent cause. In the end it seemed that provided I stuck to certain settings it would work ok. e.g. if I turn off UPnP in the router then it will start rebooting from time to time. Maybe you can check the router logs to make sure the problem isn't at that end.

The other thing is double check you really did get the updated driver from Dell.
In Device Manager mine shows as driver version 11.1.1.22 dated 08/08/2007