Bet no-one can solve this one!

[swee'pea99]

Now this is weird...

Just tried to connect from my thinkpad using the belkin card. Never had any problems before, but since I last connected, I've enabled the security on my wireless router (having discovered five people riding piggyback on my broadband - I know, I know, you don't need to say it...) anyway...

when I try to enter the encryption key, only some of the characters appear in the box. It's really weird. Any number appears, no problem, but only some of the letters. Type an F and it appears. Type a C and it appears. But type an A or a D or a P and nothing happens. Literally, nothing. And yes, I have tested the keyboard by trying it with other programs - wordpad, word, outlook express - it works fine. But in the encryption box, like I say, some characters work, some don't. Weird...

I know I could get round it by changing the encryption key to one that has only symbols that do work....but I thought I'd post here anyway to see if anyone could throw any light on it 'cos it's got me well baffled.

 

[nigelnorris]

Is there a function key that is locking those letters into some auxilliary mode?

 

[fossyant]

FIVE.........FIVE.................piggybacking...... ? Blimey..............

PS check there aren't and F Locks on etc....

 

[ufkacbln]

I know that on a new computer when you open Windoze for the first time the keyboard is not activated fully, just the keys that Microsoft uses for its Licence numbers

Could this be a similar restriction?

 

[TWBNK]

Hex Key? but obviously A-H should work.

 

[Steve Austin]

copy and paste it in?

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks for all suggestions, but I had tried pasting it in and it won't let me - I think that's quite common with passwords...they insist on being typed in...and as for t'others, it seems to me that all of them would affect the keyboard with wordpad just the same as with the password box, so I don't think any of them can be right. It's a mystery.....!

 

[Bman]

Actually, I may have had this before. I couldnt quite understand it either. I think it was down to the type of wireless encryption i used, or my divers being incorrect/old. I dont like wireless, I think its insecure and unreliable (currently) so its not my area of expertise.

Make sure your Wireless LAN NIC drivers are correct and fully up to date (and your OS if its pre XP). Failing that, experiment with the different types of encryption available (on the router/access point). I bet the lower encryption types will work.

I'm assuming you havnt just left the num lock on like the above suggestions

 

[swee'pea99]

Ah...interesting! The phrase 'lower encryption types' immediately sets wee bells ringing! This is after all an ancient Thinkpad (c2004) running W98SE. So it probably can't cope with the WPA I've set up on the router. Am I going to be able to find an encryption type that runs on both this machine and my daughter's new Vista beastie? (I'm not really worried about having sooper-dooper security - I don't think there are any heavy duty geeks trying to crack into my system.)