WPA wifi security on an IBM ThinkPad T23 with Airport Extreme?

Question

I’ve got an IBM ThinkPad T23. Its wireless card is, apparently, the “IBM High Rate Wireless LAN MiniPCI Combo Card”. It’s running Windows XP Service Pack 3, with all the latest updates.

I’m trying to connect it to my home wifi network, which is an Apple Airport Extreme with a “WPA/WPA2 Personal” password. It connects just fine when I remove the password, but when I put the password back on, there are two issues:

1. With my usual (11 character) password, Windows complains that the password should be 5 or 13 ASCII characters.
2. When I change the password to 13 characters, it spends about a minute trying to connect, then fails with no error message.

So, it seems like the wireless card doesn’t support WPA2. I think I’ve updated the card with the latest drivers (Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > Network adapters > IBM High Rate Wireless LAN MiniPCI Combo Card, Right click, “Update Driver”).

Any idea if this card can support WPA2? I’ve Googled a little, and it doesn’t look hopeful:

• http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prior-T-series-ThinkPad/T23-WLAN-amp-WPA2-Encryption/m-p/32050

Any third-party drivers worth trying? E.g. this one?

• http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=64214&sid=c78bb2cbaf8cc9bedb6454840a8e47ef

Answer 1

I just got the same problem, downloaded and installed "wireless intersil wpa win2k-xp.3.0105.zip", then downloaded prismnds.sys and updated the driver, and it seems to work with WPA2 (as long as TKIP is allowed). Links to the files are here: http://www.netstumbler.org/f48/new-prism-2-5-3-win9x-2k-xp-drivers-wpa-support-11366/

So yes, third-party drivers work, cannot say much about stability yet.

Edit: during my two weeks of use network sometimes went down and it was needed to disconnect from a given wifi network and connect again ("Repair" option didn't work, it said that driver cannot turn off the card). But it doesn't occur too often, so I can still say that the driver is usable.

Answer 2

Didn’t try any of the third-party drivers myself; bought an 802.11n card instead.