Laptop having issues after switch from WEP to WPA

Hello,

I am hoping someone might be able to give some advice on an issue that seems to be increasing in frequency. We downgraded our DSL service a few months back from 6MB to 3MB and when I called to get help reconfiguring our router, I noticed they had me set it up as WPA instead of WEP. Instantly I noticed that when bringing our laptops out of hibernation state, that they took longer to connect to the internet and sometimes required a few different attempts to connect.

The problem seems to have only gotten worse. We have two laptops. Mine (a Gateway NV52 seems to be having the most issues connecting now and is running Vista 64bit). Some nights I am literally spending 30-45 minutes trying to connect to the internet, some times it eventually works and other times I just give up and either go use our desktop or the other laptop (that isn't running Vista 64bit). We do have wireless phones in the house and I've read somewhere that WPA doesn't work as well as WEP if you have wireless phones. Can anyone confirm this?

I'm also wondering if anyone has any advice on how to troubleshoot this? Does this sound like something is going bad with a wireless card in my laptop? Should I try to switch back to WEP?

Before downgrading our DSL service and switching from WEP to WPA I had no issues and everything worked flawlessly. I would just take the laptop out of hibernation, and it seemed to already be connected.

Thanks for any advice.

Hi dragon889,

Welcome to Vista Forums!

It does not sound like your wireless card because you say the problem (though perhaps not as bad, but still similar) exists with the other laptop too. You didn't mention the desktop, so I can't say there - but if it's happening to two PCs and started at the same time on both and as a result of a change to your router configuration and service plan, then I'd have to say that it is unlikely that it's the wireless card. I can't accept they'd both start having problems coincidentally at the same time.

It could be the change from WEP to WPA (or any of the other changes they made at the same time that they didn't discuss with you). Are all the computers setup with the proper configuration (WPA and no longer WEP)?

Although I would have called them (I assume you mean the ISP) the very next day, it still may not be too late to get the people who reconfigured your router (or people like them) to recheck the configuration (and the modem and the line at the same time) to make sure everything is fine. If so, then have them check the configurations of all the computers as well - changing the router settings may have required changes in the computer settings that they overlooked at the time. I think most of this can be done over the phone and you don't need to schedule a visit (especially if that costs when phone service is free I hope).

Find out why it was changed from WEP to WPA and ask if it can be changed back since it seemed to be working when that was the algorithm being used (but it may have to do with the service level you now have as opposed to the one you had before - I don't know). If so, have them do it or talk you through the process on the router and on all the computers.

In effect, this does not sound like a Vista or a computer hardware problem, but rather a network configuration problem caused by changing the service plan and whatever changes they made to the router - so you really need to talk to them about it. They know what they did (I assume) or at least know how it should now be configured and should help you get things running like normal again (well, a little slower but not that much).

I hope this helps.

Good luck!