Vista and Wireless Network Security

Published 14 February 07 09:59 AM

I learned something interesting about Vista yesterday (or part of something interesting – I'm sure that I'm probably missing something). I've been running Vista for quite some time on my work laptop, and it has never been able to connect to my home wireless network. I always just assumed that this was due to some magical security certificate that Microsoft's IT group had installed on my machine that would allow it to connect securely only to the Microsoft wireless network (for the moment, let's forget the fact that I connected to my friend's wireless network using a security key when I was in Germany). However, I recently installed Vista on my wife's laptop and surprise – same problem! After a little digging, I noticed something strange. My wireless access point was set to enable security using WEP/128 bit. When Vista tries to connect to a WEP-secured system, it seems to force all generated keys (from the passphrase) to 64 bit. I couldn't find a way to change WEP settings to 128 bit, so I changed my security settings to use WPA. I don't know what the current trends in wireless security protocols are, but I do know that now all of my Vista machines can connect wirelessly to my network!

by hdierking
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# Mike Dunn said on February 14, 2007 3:43 PM:

WPA is the way to go anyway. WEP is easily crackable because of flaws in its use of the RC4 cipher.

# todd brooks said on February 16, 2007 2:10 PM:

I've had multiple issues with laptops with HP/Compaq wifi cards that would not sync up with WPA/AES.  Configuring to WPA/TKIP and they sync up.  Granted, I have very low regard for HP/Compaq equipment and the only reason I have these are for testing or hold-over equipment my wife uses.  I've never had problems with WPA/AES with any other mfg. of equipment.

I've even tried multiple WAPs from different manufacturers with the same results.

WEP is indeed outdated and easily crackable.  See AirSnort, AirCrack, Asleap, etc as examples of tools to easily crack WEP keys.

# Rosyna said on February 16, 2007 11:16 PM:

using WEP is less secure that having no password as it might cause you to take less precautions than you would in a public environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy#Flaws

Consider it a blessing that nothing could connect via WEP

# creed said on August 31, 2007 4:20 AM:

still does not anser why vista wont take wep

ween ever i try it cuts off  only showing 8-9

dots in properties

# Jim J said on January 20, 2008 4:47 PM:

I have found the same problem.  The router is set for WEP 128 bit and I can't get any Vista computer to take the full ASCII password.  It always chops it down to 64 bit.  The router cannot be changed.  It is the only available router in the RV resort.

# Confused said on February 15, 2008 1:05 AM:

how do you change the wep to wpa, i've looked around for settings, but i can't seem to find them.

# Jason said on February 24, 2008 8:37 PM:

I use WEP 128 bit and we were able to get our Vista laptop to connect no problem. The only mistake we made is that when you very first create the network connection, it asks you for "Network Name" which in typical Vista fashion, you would think this is a nice user-friendly descriptive name for the connection, but what it really required is the actual SSID of the network you are connecting to. Once we did that right and typed in the 26 digit security key it worked like a charm.

# Shisou said on June 20, 2008 11:33 PM:

Yeah I found this same thing when I tried to connect a vista laptop and a wireless gaming adapter to my network at the same time... the gaming adapter doesn't support WPA and vista doesn't seem to support WEP... Technology, gotta love it

# IcI said on August 5, 2008 5:20 PM:

I had issues where Viast Home Basic would connect to an Open network,but not my WPA protected wireless network using TKIP. Using AES it connected first time, got the right IP and my local LAN works.

Still no internet connectivity though. IE diagnosed this that my primary DNS server was not pingable. Swopped my secondary & primary around & life is good.

All of this just for wireless? The LAN connection works 100%

# Robert said on August 12, 2008 8:12 AM:

I use Vista home basic, it automtacally detects the wireless network where i want to connect (it is listed in the Connect to a network window), but i can't find where should i enter the security code. Right clicking shows only connect and diagnose, but these were useless. I searched in other menus too. Can somebody help me, please?

# hits4 said on August 13, 2008 9:40 AM:

I am having the same problem as Robert above; spent 4 hours last night trying to get my new Dell XPS running Vista machine to recognized my network.

When I try to connect to my neighbor's secure network, I get the prompt for the encryption key.

But like Robert above, I am not getting the prompt for my own network.

# hits4 said on August 14, 2008 9:29 AM:

Robert, if you are checking back here I'll tell you how I fixed my problem.

The MAC filter was "on" on my Linksys WRT54GS router; I saw my two current computers listed here, but as I was adding a third, I was not even getting the WEP key prompt because the router would not accept any new computers.

Once I turned the MAC filter off and tried to connect, I finally did get the WEP key prompt, and then everything is fine.

# carl said on August 18, 2008 11:43 PM:

were do i find my wep key as trying to connect my printer

# brenden said on October 25, 2008 12:45 AM:

hello, my mom just got a new Dell Inspiron 530S, with Vista Home Basic... and for whatever reason she gets the popular "windows did not receive a response from the router" message... and that's even WITH NO security.. none.. nothing I do fixes it.. we'ev updated the computer to the latest stuff from Microsft, and nothing is working...The funny thing is, when I connect the computer to the router, directly.. it wont get internet even though the router is connected to the modem...

# hdierking said on October 25, 2008 12:56 AM:

hi brenden - i'm not much of a hardware guy, but i've setup a few home networks, so out of curiousity, is your router one of those all-in-ones (e.g. - router + gateway + dhcp)?  If so, is the computer succesfully getting an IP address when plugged directly into the router (probably a 192.168.xx.xx address)?  I you want to take this offline, drop me an email at howard@microsoft.com and we can discuss further.

# Speakerguy said on November 6, 2009 8:49 AM:

Nov 2009 and I fourd this while looking to the answer that Hits4 gave. Wouldnt you think there would be some documentation on this by now. Cant wait to see MS  crash and burn

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About hdierking

I am currently the Editor-in-Chief for MSDN Magazine. I joined Microsoft in 2006 as a product planner with the certification team at Microsoft Learning. Prior to that, I spent my career as a developer and later as an architect. My main technology passions include pretty much anything on language theory, agile development, and service-oriented architecture.
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