Should have left well enough alone...

Like many people these days, I have a wireless network at home (and so do at least 3 of my neighbors). I had things set up fairly securely -- SSID broadcasting turned off, WPA encryption, all that good stuff. It worked well with the matching card for my old notebook, the built-in card for the new Dell notebook, the little Zonet USB adaptor for my desktop, and my trusty PSP. The only dim spot was the creaky old CF card for my Pocket PC, and since I seldom use it anymore, it didn't matter.

So, into this harmonious situation I introduce a bit of chaos, an older Microsoft adaptor. I'm setting up a computer to run sequencer software for my studio, and decide to use the Microsoft card in the notebook (the notebook has only 1 USB port, and I need that for the MIDI interface, so I can't use the Zonet adaptor). The Microsoft card doesn't do WPA -- I look for updated software and/or drivers. No luck. So I downgrade the security on the router to WEP and set up the long string of hex numbers for the encryption key. I enter that nonsense into the notebook with the Microsoft card, and every thing's happy there. I edit the profile in the PSP -- the good times keep rolling. I get out my Dell laptop, tweak it's settings, and it's golden. Then I grab the wife's notebook that has the card that matches the router, and my night takes a sudden turn for the worse. This thing sees every other network around but mine -- even when I tell it specifically where to find it. I struggle with it for a half hour or so, until I finally turn the SSID broadcast back on. Then, it worked. So much for my advanced security measures.

I'm hoping now that everything is set up and working, that it will stay that way when if I turn the SSID broadcasting off. On the plus side though, my Pocket PC can link up to the Internet now too.

But have you ever tried to web surf with a Pocket PC?