Hi all

I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop & I am having a problem staying connected to a wireless connection. It is running on XP SP3. There is a Broadcom wlan utility managing the connection. I have a 3g TP-Link router & have used WPA encryption. The wifi will connect, but will drop after about 5 minutes. It will then reconnect automatically & then drop again after a further 5 mins. I went into the settings for the utility manager & unchecked "let the utility manage the network", but then there is an icon saying "acquiring network address". I think the problem only AROSE  when I used the WPA encripion.

Thanks for your help.
It only happens when using WPA? Can you go into your router config and set the encryption setting to WEP and see if the connection drops again? I HIGHLY doubt its the encryption causing the problem, though...


If you let windows manage your WiFi connection, does the problem persist? Does "Acquiring Network Address" eventually complete?
Are there any issues if you use a direct wired connection to your router? If possible could you get hold of a wireless dongle and check if the connection still drops?Hello Transfusion

If I REMOVE encryption altogether through the router settings, the connection is stable. If I connect the usb dongle direct to the laptop the connection is stable. If I hard-wire the router to the computer, the connection is still ok. I have a Dell 1390 WLAN mini card installed on the system. If I disconnect the Broadcom utility & try to let Windows set up a connection, it won't connect. It will just keep saying "Acquiring Network Address".

Thanks
So I googled "Dell 1390 problems with WPA" and all these links came out:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/network-internet-wireless/f/3324/t/19245137.aspx
http://forum.notebookreview.com/networking-wireless/70214-dell-1390-wlan-mini-card-disconnects-2.html
..."I have to wait 5 minutes to connect"....
http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell/187624-wpa2-dell-1390-a.html
So this is a problem with your wireless card not being fully compatible with WPA even though it claims it is. As such I'm at a loss of what to do unless you want to swap out the WiFi card for a better one(I would suggest the Intel Link WiFi 5100AGN if you do choose to go this route), which is pretty easy(removing 2 screws will do the trick) but will void your warranty.
However, before we do that, have you updated your router firmware to the latest version? Have you done a router reset? Have you installed all the latest Dell drivers? Have you installed this Microsoft patch which enables full Windows XP compatibility for WPA2, in addition to standard WPA?

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;displaylang=en&displaylang=en&id=1974Hi Transfusion

I looked on the Dell page for a newer version of the Wlan driver & couldn't find a better MATCH, but I then found one form a different source & it was about 2 years fresher. I updated with this driver & all is working perfectly now!  Thank you so much for your TIME & help.