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See question at bottom.
Thanks
Rod
http://www.networksetup.com

6:00 come to work not quite awake. Drinking coffee, I resume laptop from standby. Immediate reconnect to WPA access point. This is the same access point I used last. Good!
6:10 I pull power on nearby WPA access point, forcing laptop to roam to faraway access point (same SSID).
Within a minute laptop connected to other access point. Good! Connection weak but I can pass packets and read email.
6:34 plug power back into nearby access point. Windows starts to roam. IP still shows good DHCP ip.
6:38 laptop does NOT reconnect. I get validating identity. As shown below. IP address is now gone with NO ip showing up.
6:46 I pull power from nearby access point (wanting my laptop to connect again to faraway AP).
6:50 Laptop still stuck at ?¡é?€??validating identity?¡é?€??. Still no IP address.
6:51 I hit ?¡é?€??refresh network?¡é?€?? in wireless network connection. Still shows same ?¡é?€??validating identity?¡é?€?? with no IP address given.
6:53 I plug in the nearby AP. Now both access points are plugged in. I again hit ?¡é?€??refresh network:?¡é?€??.
6:55 Still no IP and stuck in same ?¡é?€??validating identity?¡é?€??.
6:56 Hit ?¡é?€??refresh network list?¡é?€?? on xp wireless.
6:58 Still no IP and stuck in same ?¡é?€??validating identity?¡é?€??.
6:59 I?¡é?€??m almost fully awake now with coffee finished!
6:59 I try to fix the problem, doing something crazy! I connect to a completely different, other WEP access point.
7:00 laptop wireless seems confused and almost locked up. Not responding.

After reboot and more coffee, I did test again with different laptop and a co-worker.
Co-worker noticed something. When roaming, when windows wireless zero config was saying ?¡é?€??validating identity?¡é?€??, it actually had good network connectivity and could pass data.
We did the test three times, and found roaming to somewhat consistent, usually taking 2 minutes or so. Sometimes longer.
Questions:
Is this normal behavior? Roaming is working, we just where not sure how fast WPA (with radius) should take to roam.
Thank you.
R