So you’ve managed to watch movies and videos on your windows mobile device and you’ve managed to check your e-mail without a data plan. But you can’t seem to manage to connect to those pesky WPA-PSK and WPA-PSK2 networks, is that right? Well probably not, but that’s exactly what happened to me so hopefully this post will help someone.
My home wireless network is set to use WPA-PSK2 security which is currently the strongest security that is publicly available and supported. Unfortunately, it’s not supported by all devices such as my i-mate SP5. So the first thing I had to do was to set my network to WPA-PSK & WPA-PSK2 dual compatibility mode. You could also opt for just WPA-PSK but I would highly recommend against choosing WEP as a solution since it can be easily cracked within minutes using easily obtainable tools.
Now Windows Mobile 6 appears to have issues connecting to WPA-PSK networks but there’s a little trick I found on the PPCGeeks forum to get it to work. Just follow these steps:
- Restart your device (optional but recommended)
- Connect to your desired network and input the proper settings. Here are mine:
- Authentication: WPA-PSK
- Encryption: TKIP
- The key is automatically provided: no
- Network key: <your network key>
- When it attempts to connect, go back to the Connection Manager and turn OFF Wifi.
- Wait about 1-2 seconds and then turn Wifi back on.
- WM6 should now be able to connect to your WPA-PSK network.
It really shouldn’t be this complicated but until Microsoft fixes these issues with Windows Mobile 6, this is a nifty little workaround.
