WPA-PSK won't work using Siemens SX-66 on WM 2003

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loghyr

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#5766 25-Nov-2005 06:13

The reason I bought the SX-66 was its WPA support. I had another PDA, but it only supported WEP and was not upgradeable to Windows Mobile 2003. SO I got the SX-66 (from Cingular).

My Netgear Wireless router supports WPA, and both my laptop and wireless USB card connect using WPA-PSK with no problems. But my SX-66 can only connect if the router is set for no encryption or WEP, but NOT WPA. I have tried every update and support site for Windows, Windows Mobile (except 5.0, which is not available for the SX-66), Netgear, Siemens and Cingular. Each vendor politely tells me it's some other vendor's problem.

I have heard from some colleagues that their WM 2003 PDAs have similar problems with WPA-PSK, but I have also heard and read of others who connect their PDAs via WPA with no problems.

I would give/pay a great deal (aside from buying yet ANOTHER PDA) if I could get my SX-66 to be able to connect to my router using WPA encryption, as it is supposed to be able to do.

Sooner Al

66 posts

Master Geek

#23884 26-Nov-2005 02:40

The best I can come up with is to check/ping Siemens and Cingular for updates to your device. My iPAQ 5555 supports WPA-PSK (TKIP) but only after HP supplied a firmware/driver/ROM upgrade to the WM 2003 OS.

jhc123

28 posts

Geek

#25225 22-Dec-2005 23:43

I run a Netgear DG834G (wireless adsl router) and my PDA2k (same device as the SX-66) and have it all running happily in WPA-PSK auth mode with TKIP Data encryption (instead of WEP).

Had to upgrade my Netgear firmware initially to get WPA-psk support as it was only WEP when I got it 12-18 months ago. Currently running V2.10.22 for my router but not sure what model Netgear you have. Note that I run 802.11b only on my Netgear as I use it for web browsing, not file sharing so can't see any point in running 54mb. The router's capable of 11g, but I have not tested in this config. Just make sure you don't have the router forced into 802.11G mode only and maybe put it in 802.11b only for testing purposes.

My PDA2k is on the latest rom version from the Club I-Mate web site - 1.4, but I was running it happily in WPA-PSK mode before this upgrade too. If Cingular use different build numbers, the core OS version on my device now is WM2k3 Second Edition V4.21.1088(build15045.2.6.0).

To add the PDA2k to the Wlan (I got it working on my laptops first like you) I did the following.
1) on the netgear I disabled MAC filtering, turned SSID broadcast on
2) On the PDA2k enabled the option to "Automatically connect to non-preferred networks". This helped get the initial connection up and running easily-
3) Turned on the wifi card on the PDA2k and got the pop-up box about the network being available
4) Selected "SSID" connects me to "The Internet" and click connect
5) typed in the pre-shared key when prompted. The only problem I had was typing in my obscure preshared key on the dinky little keyboard.

Once set up I re-enabled MAC filtering on the Netgear (easy to see the MAC address of the PDA2k as it is in the list once connected) and turned off the "Automatically connect to non-preferred networks" option on the PDA2k (in Wireless Lan Manager under Tools, Network Cards.)

At least now you know the same hardware (HTC Blue Angel) and a recent Netgear firmware will work together. I'm not sure how good/bad Cingular is for ROM upgrade support compared to I-Mate though so you may have an older version and this could be where the problem is if the steps above don't help.

Regards
John

loghyr

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#25228 23-Dec-2005 04:16

Thanks for the detailed tip - I'll try it without MAC filtering and at 11b only