Wireless Connects and Disconnects Immediately

[Klump]

Alright, I'm having a pretty odd problem so I'll explain it in great detail. I have owned this Linksys WRT54GS router for about two years now and it has been perfect. Last night however, my brother tried accessing the router through his wireless antenna and found he couldn't connect to it. I simply unplugged it and plugged it back in and made sure all the cables were in, but that didn't fix the problem.

Although I'm usually connected through a LAN, I tried my wireless connection and found that I too could no longer connect to it. I found this very odd, because I'm the only one who manages and knows the password to our home network. After reading search results through Google, I took a few suggestions and ended up updating the firmware and changing the wireless channel. I upgraded the firmware and changed the wireless channel from 6 to 11. I tried again, and it will display the text "Acquiring Network Address" and then it'll automatically be dropped and start all over.

I then decided to disable the WPA to see what happens. To my surprise, both my brother and I could now connect and get on the internet. I then decided to try to change the WPA shared key and SSID, but that was no use. I then tried switching over to WEP but that wouldn't work either.

I then decided to go ahead and factory restore the router to all the default settings. After I set everything up again, I tried again and the same problem is occurring. WPA and WEP always disconnects at the "Acquiring Network Address" text but we can still connect to it when there is no type of encryption. I have no idea how this thing has worked through WPA for two years and suddenly it just stops working.

Also, our Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) settings are set to Obtain settings automatically, so that isn't the problem. I have tried disabling both the router and PC firewalls, but that of course didn't help. I have also plugged and unplugged the router and cable modem multiple times to hopefully fix this problem, but that didn't help either.

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If there is no resolution available, I was thinking of maybe keeping it an unsecured network, but enabling the Wireless MAC Filter to "Permit only PCs listed to access the wireless network" and only enter our computer MAC Addresses so no one else can connect. However, will this be secure enough or can it be bypassed?

Responses would heavily be appreciated, thanks.

[johnwill]

Sounds like the router may have a problem.

MAC filtering is not secure at all, it would take me about 10 seconds to break that.