[tbazza]

Hi, I am connected to the internet using a iinet BOB2 wireless modem and I'm using a Mac OS X at the moment.

When I enter my WPA key to connect to the network the dialog box says incorrect password. There are no issues with the password because I know how to change it and have tried various different versions in an attempt to explore the issue. Intermittently the connection does work however it then drops out again.

When I click the airport icon my network name appears as usual but a duplicate name also appears. I find this quite unusual, and the technical support person from iinet hadn't heard of it, because the name is the same but also has extra characters added to the end including garbled fonts (ie. wingdings). The name also appears and re-appears with different characters each time.

I share a wall with a neighboring university which has an extensive internet network covering a large area. I wonder if this is some kind of interference? or in a more sinister vein some kind of hacking attempt to get me to enter my WPA key?

I also have a Toshiba laptop which I've been using to double check the issues, but it has always had connectivity issues so I'm not sure its reliable. It is also intermittently picking up on this duplicate signal too but sometimes exclusively this and not the 'real' signal. When I try to connect to the 'real' signal it says acquiring network address and then stops and does not connect.

I'm at a loss of what to do, we had this issue with our first modem and ordered a replacement which encounters the same problem. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated and I can give more details if necessary. I'm currently using the ethernet cable to connect and there is no issue with this method but we do have more than one computer...

Thank you for reading this long-winded question!

[ilikemetal]

I believe some laptops create duplicates of a single network for both Wired and Wireless, whichever you connect with second gets the duplicated one. I find it helps to go to your Network and Sharing, click on "Manage Wireless Networks", and delete the ones you don't use. It causes issues because the computer considers each network to be different, when in actuality, its the same.

[TerryNet]

If the Toshiba is running Windows ...

Please attach a screen shot of the Networks page (don't collapse the Radar, Connection or Signal History) of the Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector. If you need help with that see TSG Posting a Screenshot. FWIW to take screen shots with Windows 7 or Vista I prefer to use the built-in Snipping Tool.

Also show ...

Open a (black) Command Prompt window:
Hold the Windows logo key and press r; in the Run box type cmd and click on OK.

Type the following command:

IPCONFIG /ALL

[Note that there is no space between the slash and ALL.]

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If necessary use a text file and removable media to copy the results to a computer with internet access.

[tbazza]

Thankyou,

I'll post it now. The screen shot of Xirrus didn't have enough room to show all the networks so I'll post another.

[TerryNet]

I have no idea about the duplicate named network, but your other problems are almost certainly wireless interference from those other strong networks. As you can easily see from the Xirrus output channel 11 is the worst possible choice. I'd try channels 3, 4, 8 and 9 to see if any of those help.