Network Nightmare - now Linksys WAG320N asking for a second network security key?!

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8 Oct 2006
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I am at my wits end trying to sort out our wireless network.

Our router is in the hall. Fortunately my bedroom's devices are connected to it via an ethernet hub, so no drama - but we have a brand new, top-of-the-range Dell upstairs which struggles to get a signal.

We upgraded first from our BT Homehub 1.5 to a Netgear DGND3300, which was awful. Even worse reception!

Today a Linksys WAG320N arrived. After setup there was no reception for a while, then suddenly it seemed to start working. Once I switched to a narrow (20Mhz) network gap we got good reception upstairs - as testified by two laptops and my phone. I also ran a wifi scanner to check and our neighbours are on bands 1-6, whilst we are on 11 - so all good.

However, the Dell could not even see the router. I heard its wireless card was weak, so installed a brand new 'high performance' Linksys networking card.

It can now see the network, but with WPA2-Personal the Dell has 0 bars reception and, therefore, seems likely to be prone to dropouts.

Curiously, switching to WPA-Personal improves the Dell's reception to 2 bars. I have switched repeatedly to check this anomaly.

However, when I try to connect the Dell on WPA-Personal, after filling in our network security key, it then opens a second, slightly smaller box asking again for our 'network security key' - and it is not accepted.

Both the laptops work fine with WPA-Personal and do not open a second box.

What can I do to improve things - and what could this second password be?!

Thank you!
 
There is no second security key. Fancy posting up some screenshots for us? Make sure you fully uninstall any previous wifi drivers too.
 
I uninstalled anything with the word 'Dell' in it the day it arrived.

I seem to have secured a consistent 2 bars of reception through tweaking; increasing the height of the router; attaching the larger aerials from our old card - and, finally, alligning them horizontally. This last point (in repeated experiments) consistently increased download speeds at www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk from half a meg to around five meg!

The reception of our laptops in the same area as the PC is excellent, so the router appears to be stronger than the Netgear DGND3300. I suppose the PC being on the floor, with the aerials at the rear may explain why the signal for the desktop is poorer - but 2 bars is still enough.

If this performance is maintained, I will consider the job taken care of - particularly as the Linksys software seems so much better designed and well-featured than the Netgear.
 
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