WiFi hell

I have finally found myself in WiFi hell, despite using all name-brand
components and the "latest and greatest" drivers, utilities and firmware
upgrades.

My equipment:

Toshiba Tecra M1 laptop (Centrino blah blah blah with an Intel PRO/Wireless
2100 LAN 3B Mini PCI Adapter 802.11b WiFi card built in, latest driver =
1.6.0.46 from Toshiba's web site) running WinXP Pro SP 1

Linksys BEFW11S4 ver 2 Wireless Access Point Router with 4-port switch,
upgraded to latest firmware (1.45)

The problem:

Initially, no problems. I configured the WAP to use 128-bit WEP, enabled
MAC filtering and turned off the SSID broadcast (all three steps recommended
by knowledgeable wireless folks). I also setup the laptop for my
"preferred" network with the WEP key. The laptop connected quickly and
maintained the connection all day long.

In the last 2 months, more and more of my neighbors have been installing
WAPs, and as so many newsgroup posts indicated would be the case, my laptop
started trying to connect to other non-preferred networks, despite the
massively stronger signal strength of my WAP (sitting all of 3 feet away
from the laptop).

I learned that MS advised that disabling SSID broadcast was pointless, so I
reluctantly turned it back on. My laptop then started to connect to my
network again for a little while but then stopped for no apparent reason.
I'd get the infinite loop of "One or more wireless networks is available"--
click on my network -- "One or more wireless..." Frustration builds.

As so many folks have complained about the Zero Configuration Wireless
features of XP, I downloaded and installed the Intel PROset for Wireless
utility. It actually worked for a while, but now when I open it up, the
"Network connections" tree is completely blank, and the signal strength
meter that initially appeared in the system tray is gone, too. WTFO??

I've tried disabling WEP on the WAP, disabling MAC filtering (though the MAC
of the laptop WiFi card is listed in the table), uninstalled and reinstalled
PROset, scoured for other utilities to see if the laptop WiFi is working
(Boingo could see the WAP but not connect, and other posts in the NGs have
indicated this is common for the Intel 2100 Mini PCI card).

For no reason I can see WiFi has simply stopped working. My calls to
Toshiba (answered apparently by someone on the other side of the world since
he kept saying "morning" when it was night in the USA) were pointless and he
blamed the WAP. My calls to Linksys (answered by someone less conversant in
English but very adept at reading a pre-programmed script) were even less
helpful. Both MS and Intel direct me to go to the laptop OEM for help.
Great, mass fingerpointing across multiple continents and my wifi simply
doesn't work.

Does anyone have any useful suggestions before I lose my noodle? Is there
any hope of MS every fixing XPs moronic wifi software?

Thanks,

Chris

Thanks, Joe, I jacked the power up to highest and checked for the WPA patch.
It wasn't installed.

Still no luck. I'm in an infinite loop between the "one or more wireless
networks..." and the wireless network connection dialog.

Chris

Thanks, Joe, I jacked the power up to highest and checked for the WPA patch.
It wasn't installed.

Still no luck. I'm in an infinite loop between the "one or more wireless
networks..." and the wireless network connection dialog.

Chris