Apple Airport Extreme, Palm TX, WEP security solution

I just picked up a new Apple Airport Extreme. To my surprise Abby’s Palm TX doesn’t want to play nice with it. The TX was released late 2005 and has yet to receive any updates regarding the growing new WIFI security standards. Currently, it only handles up to 104bit WEP. What makes it worse is the Airport Extreme hides the 40bit option for WEP security. It only shows the 128bit option. Anyways, to solve this problem, refer to this post by EricSan. It tells you how to enable the 40bit WEP option. You won’t be able to use the N technology though and it’s a lower security. I hoping for at least 1 of 2 things to happen: 1) Abby gets off her lazy but and uses the computer right in front of our bed or 2) Palm releases a patch to address the new security technology.

By the way, I also tried the WPA security. When using this, the router will give you a 64 character paraphrase to enter on the Palm. Unfortunately, the box to enter this only handles 63. Get it together Palm!

On a side note, if you are going to call Palm support, make sure you ask for at least a level 2 support. I spent 32 minutes with their level 1 support (aka I got this job coz I know how to answer a phone) and here’s what happened:

– level 1 support: Okay what’s the problem you are having

– me: I can’t connect to my new Airport Extreme router using WEP security. It works without the security. But when I enable either WEP or WPA security, I can’t connect anymore. My G5, MBP, PSP, and a Windows XP machine can connect with any configuration. I’ve tried … blah blah blah

– level 1 support: Okay hold on for a second and I will see what my manager says

… 1-2 minutes later

– level 1 support: Try … blah blah

– me: Okay (I tried it anyway even though I know it won’t work

… etc etc for 32 minutes.