my new wireless router

I didn't own a wireless router because I don't own a laptop/notebook (a modern laptop anyway). But since I still have my cousin's Toshiba Satellite laptop which hasn't been picked up for like a month and I wanted to test the wireless connection, I decided maybe to get a router for future testing of laptops. And one day, I guess I'll get one of my own.

Anyway, I went to Best Buy. The cheapest one they had was a Belkin for like $40. Then I went to Wal-Mart and saw the same thing for $31. Wal-Mart it is.

I set it up and the laptop connected readily enough with no security.

Then I set up WPA security. Unsuccessful connection. Evidently the laptop doesn't support WPA? Because I didn't see that option on the network card properties.

Switch to WEP. Type in the key. Still couldn't connect.

Go back to Setup software and save configuration to flash drive (for some reason it didn't work on my old 512MB flash drive, so I used my 2GB one). Plug flash drive into Toshiba. Run Wizard. Hey it connects! Maybe I had typed in the key wrong?

Shut down. Reboot. Now it cannot see anything (no networks anywhere).

Beats me. Go outside and dig some weeds.

Come back. Hey it's working now. (Don't ask me why.)

I see on the net that the Toshiba Wireless LAN Mini PCI Card does support WPA with a newer driver.

Installed the drivers. It updated from 7.62.0.390 to 7.82.0.550.

Change encryption to WPA2. Run setup and copy setting to flash drive.

Delete old settings on computer. Run Wizard from flash drive.

Hey it's now working on WPA!

network authentication WPA-PSK
data encryption TKIP

Move computer to patio (so it's not right next to router).
Still working OK. Though the connect bars is one less than maximum (though it was max when I first moved it.)

So now I finally have a working wireless router connected to my DSL modem. (I guess I'll be using it instead of my 10 Mbps hub to connect my desktop.)

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[12/30/09] One thing I notice is that I lose connection when I run the Microwave. The Toshiba then automatically connected to the Kokua Wireless. Well, it was $31 after all..