WinXP service pack 2

Life Technology
21

Couple of days ago, I installed SP2 via an automatic windows update prompt, and things are fine EXCEPT my laptop suddenly no longer detects my wireless connection.

I have a machine bought in Taiwan, with a built-in wireless LAN card, and have been using wireless internet back here at home (CA) just fine. That is, until two days ago, after I installed SP2. Now, the little icon in the quick-launch taskbar doesn’t even look the same, I get a “Wireless Connection not connected/unavailble” bubble when I move my mouse over it, and when I right-click it to “View Available Networks,” it is unable to detect any networks. But I know the network is there, because my sister’s computer, which is at most 10 feet away, can still connect.

I’ve tried “Repair”-ing the connection, turning off the new firewall, and altering the settings. Nada.

I’m pretty much ready to uninstall PS2, but then I read the story here, http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml?articleId=23905071, and that seems risky too. I don’t have the option to reinstall Windows XP; I’m pretty sure I have an illegitimate copy since I bought my laptop at Taipei’s Guanghua market. Likewise, I don’t have any of the drivers for the devices in my computer. Likewise for all my software.

What should I do? Has anyone uninstalled SP2 without any hitches? Is there something I can do with the configuration of my WLAN device as an alternative? Someone :help: please.

22

Perhaps you just need an updated driver for your wireless card. I run a Dell laptop and they released an updated wireless driver right after SP2 came out.

23

sp2 has a propper tool to configure wlan cards, so that is where you got the new symol from. If you used the intel tool to configure your card before you still can do that. but you can only use one tool to set up the card.

by the way make sure you have the built in firewall disabled, because it does more harm than good if you do have any shares on your harddrive.

24

SP2 turns off the ability to connect to unencrypted networks. There’s a checkbox somewhere in the advanced settings that says something like “allow me to connect to unencrypted networks” and check that. The other problem is it sometimes changes your encrypted network settings, so you might need to go in and re-enter the password and settings again. I saw one where it changed the setting to “shared key” for an encrypted network which was incorrect.