Windows 7 RC (Build 7100) Issues With Secure Wireless Connections
Okay, here is everything that has happened with my wireless, it's been similar to what many have had, but not quite exactly the same. First, I am using Windows 7 RC 64-bit. My wireless adapter is a D-Link DWA-522 XtremeN Desktop Adapter. The drivers I am using came directly from Microsoft Update. When I first installed Win7RC it prompted me for my network information and it took it and properly connected me. I proceeded to download a few things in relation to my graphic drivers and etc. Not too long after restarting my system (possibly after a Windows Update) I started having wireless problems. Unlike the others, I can always see my router, although we all know that most home use "routers" aren't true routers... The router is an Extreme N Gaming Router. I have been telling it to connect and it prompts for my passkey. I put it in and click Ok. Windows waits for a moment then comes back with "Windows was unable to connect to (SSID)". After messing around for a good hour or so where I proceeded to uninstall, reinstall drivers, change my NIC settings, stop and start services and etc, I happened to notice in my Adapters list it would label my adapter as Attempting to authenticate (instead of Connected, Not Connected or anything like that). I watched it carefully as I put in my passkey again, and as soon as I clicked OK, it went from Attempting to authenticate to Not connected, as if it simply dropped trying to connect after I sent the passkey. I went into my router settings and completely disabled the wireless protection. I was able to get on with no errors or delay. My router was set up to use WPA or WPA2-Personal with AES or TKIP. Changing which one these were using in the wireless network manager changed nothing. It didn't prompt me for my key anymore, but it just sits there saying Attempting to authenticate. --Edit-- After further testing I swapped my wireless security to WEP and it worked! It seems to be having an issue with WPA / WPA2. I am going to try and force my router to only use WPA2 and etc to see what all is going on here. There are four other wireless devices that connect to this router that are either using Vista, Vista64, or Windows XP, none of which had this issue. My PC worked fine during the Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) right out of installation and didn't have any connectivity issues.
May 27th, 2009 10:34am

Do you by chance have TKIP enabled? Could you please cut and paste the output of running the command (will be long): netsh wlan show all in your reply? Thanks, Alok Manchanda Microsoft Corporation
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May 28th, 2009 5:47pm

TKIP and AES are both enabled on the router, if you mean the NIC, then I am unsure which one it tried using. I did create a profile and tried swapping between TKIP and AES and it made no difference. Also, I removed my MAC addresses from this summary. For now I am running my network on WEP until this can get resolved.I put the router back at the original settings before running the command. Thank you for your time.Wireless System Information Summary(Time: 5/28/2009 9:34:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time) ===================================================================================================== SHOW DRIVERS ================================================================================================== Interface name: Wireless Network Connection Driver : D-Link DWA-552 XtremeN Desktop Adapter Vendor : Atheros Communications Inc. Provider : Microsoft Date : 4/8/2009 Version : 2.0.0.72 INF file : C:\Windows\INF\oem7.inf Files : 2 total C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\athrx.sys C:\Windows\system32\drivers\vwifibus.sys Type : Native Wi-Fi Driver Radio types supported : 802.11b 802.11g 802.11n FIPS 140-2 mode supported : Yes Hosted network supported : Yes Authentication and cipher supported in infrastructure mode: Open None Open WEP-40bit Shared WEP-40bit Open WEP-104bit Shared WEP-104bit Open WEP Shared WEP WPA-Enterprise TKIP WPA-Personal TKIP WPA2-Enterprise TKIP WPA2-Personal TKIP Vendor defined TKIP WPA2-Enterprise Vendor defined Vendor defined Vendor defined WPA-Enterprise CCMP WPA-Personal CCMP WPA2-Enterprise CCMP Vendor defined CCMP WPA2-Enterprise Vendor defined Vendor defined Vendor defined WPA2-Personal CCMP Authentication and cipher supported in ad-hoc mode: Open None Open WEP-40bit Open WEP-104bit Open WEP WPA2-Personal CCMP ==================================================================================================== SHOW INTERFACES ================================================================================================ There is 1 interface on the system: Name : Wireless Network Connection Description : D-Link DWA-552 XtremeN Desktop Adapter GUID : 8da4f1e7-fa3f-4277-a173-e636ccdf89c6 Physical address :REMOVED State : disconnected Hosted network status : Not started ================================================================================================== SHOW HOSTED NETWORK ============================================================================================== Hosted network settings----------------------- Mode : Allowed SSID name : "DRAX-35900" Max number of clients : 100 Authentication : WPA2-Personal Cipher : CCMP Hosted network status--------------------- Status : Not started ==================================================================================================== SHOW SETTINGS ================================================================================================== Wireless LAN settings--------------------- Show blocked networks in visible network list: No Only use GP profiles on GP-configured networks: No Hosted network mode allowed in WLAN service: Yes Allow shared user credentials for network authentication: Yes Block period: Not Configured. Auto configuration logic is enabled on interface "Wireless Network Connection" ===================================================================================================== SHOW FILTERS ================================================================================================== Allow list on the system (group policy)--------------------------------------- <None> Allow list on the system (user)------------------------------- <None> Block list on the system (group policy)--------------------------------------- <None> Block list on the system (user)------------------------------- <None> ================================================================================================== SHOW CREATEALLUSER =============================================================================================== Everyone is allowed to create all user profiles. ==================================================================================================== SHOW PROFILES ================================================================================================== Profiles on interface Wireless Network Connection: Group policy profiles (read only)--------------------------------- <None> User profiles------------- <None> ================================================================================================= SHOW PROFILES NAME=* ============================================================================================== Profile "*" is not found on the system. ============================================================================================== SHOW NETWORKS MODE=BSSID ============================================================================================= Interface name : Wireless Network ConnectionThere are 1 networks currently visible. SSID 1 : Home Network type : Infrastructure Authentication : WPA2-Personal Encryption : CCMP BSSID 1 :REMOVED Signal : 42% Radio type : 802.11n Channel : 11 Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11 Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54
May 28th, 2009 9:43pm

I had the same problem, then I read somehere that RC7 needs 128bit encryption to network properly. This meant I could not use my older nics software, etc. When I changed all my clients to 128 wep, all has worked well since.
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May 29th, 2009 2:17pm

Aurenas, Thanks for your reply. Would you please try configuring your router for WPA2-PSK with CCMP ONLY (i.e. disable TKIP) and let me know if that works for you. This particular device+driver combination has a problem connecting with some routers that enable TKIP and use WEP as the multicast cipher. Typically configuring the router for WPA2-PSK with CCMP ONLY will disable WEP as the multicast cipher and then you should be able to connect. Do let us know if this fixes your issue. Thanks, Alok Manchanda Microsoft Corporation
June 3rd, 2009 2:50am

wilscor41 - could you please describe your problem in a little detail? Were you unable to connect to a WPA or WPA2 protected network? Please note that these security settings are stronger than WEP and use TKIP or CCMP (AES) for encryption virtually all the time (though WEP can be used to encrypt broadcast/multicast traffic in some configuration).Windows7 (and Vista) support 40 bit and 108 bit WEP (sometimes publicized as 64 bit and 128 bit respectively). Quoting from the wikipedia page on WEP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wired_Equivalent_Privacy): "Standard 64-bit WEP uses a 40 bit key (also known as WEP-40), which is concatenated with a 24-bit initialization vector (IV) to form the RC4 traffic key. At the time that the original WEP standard was being drafted, U.S. Government export restrictions on cryptographic technology limited the key size. Once the restrictions were lifted, all of the major manufacturers eventually implemented an extended 128-bit WEP protocol using a 104-bit key size (WEP-104)."Thanks,Alok ManchandaMicrosoft Corporation
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June 3rd, 2009 2:56am

Even if there is a technical issue, WEP is NOT safe.Upgrade to newer NICs that support WPA2 for your own safety.--Barb BowmanMS-MVPhttp://www.digitalmediaphile.comhttp://digitalmediaphile.wordpress.comhttp://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspxOn Fri, 29-May-09 18:17:14 GMT, wilscor41 wrote:>I had the same problem, then I read somehere that RC7 needs 128bit encryption to network properly. This meant I could not use my older nics software, etc. When I changed all my clients to 128 wep, all has worked well since.
June 3rd, 2009 5:09am

I changed it to WPA2-Personal Only using only AES and unfortunately it also came up saying that Windows was unable to connect to (SSID). I'm not sure why it is doing it like this. There were times if I restarted the WLAN AutoConfig service it would work for a while, but even that isn't letting it work. My router log shows : [INFO] Wed Jun 03 10:47:15 2009 Wireless system with MAC address REMOVED associated [INFO] Wed Jun 03 10:47:10 2009 Wireless system with MAC address REMOVED disconnected for reason: Received Deauthentication. [INFO] Wed Jun 03 10:47:02 2009 Wireless system with MAC address REMOVED associated Thanks
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June 3rd, 2009 10:52am

Aurenas, I am not aware of any issues around this scenario. Please collect traces by running the below commands and email them to alokm at microsoft dot com. Thanks for your help here.Alok ManchandaMicrosoft CorporationDo the following from an administrative command prompt: - Netshtrace start wlan_dbg report=yes - netsh ras set tr * en - Reproduce your problem - netsh ras set tr * dis - Netshtrace stopPlease send or share %LocalAppdata%\temp\nettraces\nettrace.html.cab as well as %windir%\tracingAlok Manchanda Microsoft Corporation
June 4th, 2009 2:45am

Alok,I have seen this with Win7RC1 and now that I have done a completely fresh install of Win7 Enterprise I am still seeing it. Here is the situation and what I am seeing. We have Cisco WAPs running WPA-Enerprise. The name of the wireless nework is GVPrivate. In the "Manage wireless networks that use (Wireless Network Connectio)" dialogue there is an entry for GVPrivate listed as "Networks you can view". The network is properly identified and shows up with no issues. However, when I click on the network icon in the task bar the list that is provide shows the public access point (called GVPublic), the the private access point shows up as "Other Network". If I attempt to connect to the "Other Network" I get a dialogue asking for the SSID. If I enter the SSID GVPrivate I get an error "Windows unable to connect to GVPrivate" and no connection. I have tried uninstalling the drive, disabling the wireless card, reinstalling the driver, deleting it from device manager and then reinstalling it... I am out of ideas, and everything I do provides the same result, e.g. GVPrivate shows up in the Manager Wireless Networks list but not in the list of networks I can connect to.I don't believe this is an authentication issue. I believe it is an issue of Windows not being able to reconcile the connection as being valid.Thoughts on what I can try???Andy Atencioandyatencio@hotmial.com
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October 23rd, 2009 11:10am

Hi, I have a similar problem and I sent an email to Alokm at microsoft dot com with netsh trace info but it seems he doesn't work at microsoft any longer. The problem is My Wireless NIC does not connect to our WPA-2 Enterprise AP and gets stuck at Attempting to Authenticate Is there anybody else who can help me with this issue? I am on Windows 7 SP1 x64 professional. Thanks, Tanmay.
August 31st, 2012 11:53am

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