Intermittant Wireless Connectivity....Please Help!

I have a Cisco Aironet 350 Series Access Point and several machines
running Windows XP with HP WL500 wireless adapters.

The wireless connection on every machine drops out about 2 or 3 times
per day - sometimes for as long as 30 mins. They do reconnect / repair
their connections themselves after that time.

The access point log shows the following entries each time and for
each machine:

Deauthentication (MAC Address) reason "Previous authentication no
longer valid".

and

Station (MAC Address) Failed Authentication. Status Unsupported
Authentication Algorithm.

I have recently changed the WEP keys and it worked fine for a while. I
cannot understand what has changed to make it start doing this.

I understand that the "Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this
network" should not be enabled but in any case, I am not using Windows
to configure the settings. Instead, I am using the Atheros client
utility and I have yet to find an equivalent setting since I am not on
site to review it.

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you in
advance.

On 27 Mar 2007 03:55:57 -0700, "Rachel" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in <(E-Mail Removed) .com>:

>I have a Cisco Aironet 350 Series Access Point and several machines
>running Windows XP with HP WL500 wireless adapters.
>
>The wireless connection on every machine drops out about 2 or 3 times
>per day - sometimes for as long as 30 mins. They do reconnect / repair
>their connections themselves after that time.

The most likely cause is radio frequency interference. See wikis below
for info on possible sources and cures.

Does this happen when you put a wireless client about 6 feet from the
access point?

>The access point log shows the following entries each time and for
>each machine:
>
>Deauthentication (MAC Address) reason "Previous authentication no
>longer valid".
>
>and
>
>Station (MAC Address) Failed Authentication. Status Unsupported
>Authentication Algorithm.

Are you using MAC filtering in the access point? If so, turn it off --
too easily spoofed to be of any real value, and it tends to cause
problems.

Otherwise, check on DHCP lease renewals. Normally the renewal will be
attempted by a wireless client halfway through the lease.

>I have recently changed the WEP keys and it worked fine for a while. I
>cannot understand what has changed to make it start doing this.

You really should be using WPA -- WEP is too easily cracked to be of
much value.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_How_To>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>