Top Troubleshooting Tips for Wireless Encryption

Chapters 10, 11, and 12 are dedicated to troubleshooting problems with wireless networks, including encryption-related issues. However, here are the top tips to follow if any of the computers do not reestablish communication. Items to check include the following:

• Make sure the encryption method chosen on both the wireless router and all wireless NICs is the same.

• Make sure the passphrase for WEP key generation (or WPA) is entered exactly the same on both the wireless router and all wireless NICs. The passphrase is case sensitive, which means that p is different from P. Take care to make sure the entered phrase matches exactly, including lower-and uppercase letters.

• If all else fails, disable encryption on both the wireless router and all wireless network adapters, reverify the connections without encryption turned on, and then start the encryption setup from scratch.