Unable and Cannot Connect to WPA and WPA2 Encrypted Wireless Wi-Fi Network in Windows XP
After configuring the security settings of a wireless 802.11a/b/g router or access point (AP) to enable WPA or WPA2 encryption with a Pre-Shared Key (PSK or WPA-Personal/WPA2-Personal), or Radius Server (WPA-Enterprise/WPA2-Enterprise), Windows XP machine cannot or unable connect to the WPA security-enabled wireless network (although Windows XP is able to scan and detect the availability of the Wi-Fi network) with the following error message:
Windows is unable to connect to the selected network. The network may no longer be in range. Please refresh the list of available networks, and try to connect again.
WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA2 (RSN Robust Security Network or IEEE 802.11i-2004) is more secure encryption algorithm for wireless or WiFi network, especially WPA2, which introduces new AES-based algorithm, CCMP encryption which is considered fully secure. WPA2 certification is now mandatory for network devices to be certified by Wi-Fi Alliance as “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED”.
The Windows XP (with or without SP1) system does work properly and connect perfectly to the wireless network if the router, WAP (wireless access point) is configured to enable and use WEP 64-bit/128-bit/225-bit security encryption, which is less secure than WPA2 and WPA. Beside, in Windows XP SP1 computer, the WPA encrypted wireless network can be connected without error too. The error only surface on pre-SP2 Windows XP on both WPA and WPA2 protocols, and WPA2 on Windows XP SP2.
By default, Windows XP does not has native support for WPA in Windows XP (which only added via KB815485 WPA support patch and via Service Pack 2), and no native support for WPA2 until Windows XP SP3. To verify that the unable or cannot connect to the wireless network is indeed cause by lack of support in Windows XP, right click on the Network Connections icon on the system tray (notification area), then go to Wireless Network tab. Select or manually add in the SSID for the wireless network, then click on Data Encryption option. If Windows XP supports WPA and WPA2, you will see its options appear in the drop-down list, in addition to usual WEP.
To let Windows XP pre-SP2 system provides support for WPA WiFi network security encryption method, download and install KB815495 (KB article), or upgrade to Windows XP SP2.
To provides operating system support for WPA2, download and install the newer KB917021 Wireless Client Update for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (validation required at Microsoft Download Center, or user can direct download the WindowsXP-KB917021-v3-x86-ENU.exe) or older KB893357 Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) and Wireless Provisioning Services Information Element (WPS IE) update for Windows XP SP2 (validation required at Microsoft Download Center, or user can direct download the WindowsXP-KB893357-v2-x86-ENU.exe) or more recommended, upgrade to Windows XP SP3, which now incorporates the WPA2 hotfix and implements the WPA2 IEEE 802.11i wireless networking standard natively.
After installing the WPA and/or WPA2 support into Windows XP and restarting the computer, if the system has a client wireless card with WPA/WPA2-capable firmware and WPA/WPA2 drivers, Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) displays a WPA2 designation when user view the available wireless networks. For example, Security-enabled wireless network (WPA) and Security-enabled wireless network (WPA2), instead of just plain “Security-enabled wireless network”.
As mentioned just now, operating system support for wireless security protocol especially WPA2 is just a piece of the jigsaw puzzle. The PC must also has client wireless card, or built-in wireless receiver, or Wi-Fi network adapter that supports WPA and WPA2. If you just bought the wireless network adapter recently, chance are the WLAN adapter will support WPA and WPA2 by default.
If after installing the WPA2 (or WPA) update hotfix or latest service pack in Windows XP, yet WPA or WPA2 is still unsupported and system unable to connect to wireless network, check the website of the WLAN adapter or wireless card for any new updated WLAN driver that capable of enabling WPA and WPA2 functionality on the WiFi receiver adapter card. Some WLAN adapter may require a firmware update to support WPA and WPA2.
If you have an old wireless card that the only option available is WEP, and has no updated driver for it, then WPA/WPA2 won’t work simply because the WLAN adapter does not support it. In this case, fallback to WEP encryption, or get a new wireless adapter.
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To the team who wrote this article, thanks heaps, fixed my network issues with an old laptop, you guys are the best!
Thankyou so much for the Hotfix!!! so easy -just a click. I love this site hahaha! my XP now automatically connects to WPA2 wifi
Thanks for very useful infos. I wasted lot of time with solving this problem.
Thanx a lot you could think who is still using XP2 saved my neck
I spent hours on this bloody thing, your article rulez!
It is indeed useful articale.
Thanks
Thanks for this helpful article.
I downloaded sp3 but it still wont allot me to get on….. my wzc is on but I think my wireless adapter is too old for wpa2. But i cant find the wireless adapter. can anyone direct me to it?
Dude.. thanks alot… really the idea meant a lot for me… i updated to sp3 n it works.. awesome… cheers
Thanks for this!! I'm all up and running now, when I thought that would never happen!!
I have SP3 but no WPA options. I tried installing the patch, but it tells me the SP is newer than the patch and wont install. How can I get WPA working on an SP3 system?
I have an external wireless card and am assuming that maybe why SP3 didn't install WPA correctly. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
You guys are a lifesaver!! Fixed my problem that I had been agonising over.
thank God, finally I found the solution also
thanks for the knowledge, good luck for us all
I have an older wireless card. WPA/2 was working on it prior to my reloading the OS (XP w/ SP2). I reloaded the OS and then upgraded to SP3 using Ethernet and now can't get the WPA options when trying to connect using the wireless adapter. So, what the heck? If I try to use the links above they won't install because I have SP3 installed already. Is my only option to reformat the hdd and reinstall the OS?
INFO trimakasih wah, can eventually correct solution!
Thank you!
This has helped me tremendously!
I also want to point out that if you get an error message saying that your wireless connection can not be established due to some certificate missing, updating to SP3 will solve the problem.
Hope that this will help some people out there. I've been using google for an hour now without finding any solutions, so this is my way of helping out.
Thanks for the info…that helped me figure out that last step that was hanging us up.
Thanks for the great info – very helpful