Nokia E Series with Wireless LEAP Authentication

Avi Alkalay Mobility

So looks like some people are having problems to configure LEAP in their Nokia E-series phones as E61i or others. This is a guide:

  1. Go to Settings->Connection->Access Points
  2. Create a new access point with any name you want
  3. Use the following configuration:
    1. Data bearer: Wireless LAN
    2. WLAN network name: the SSID of your WLAN which is found by a WLAN scan or provided by your sysadmin
    3. Network status: it is probably Public, but my company’s WLAN name is not broadcasted, so I need to select Hidden
    4. WLAN network mode: Infrastructure
    5. WLAN security mode: although some people report WPA/WPA2 work for them, 802.1x is the only option that works for me
    6. Enter the WLAN security settings subpanel
      1. WPA/WPA2: EAP
      2. EAP plug-in settings: leave only EAP-LEAP enabled/checked using the Options menu
      3. Put the cursor over EAP-LEAP and select Options->Configure
        1. User name: Put the user name they gave you, in my case is my e-mail address
        2. Prompt password: I use No
        3. Password: your password (for LEAP use a very complex password for security reasons)
    7. Homepage: http://avi.alkalay.net/2007/08/leap-nokia-e-series.html so you will have bookmarked the source of this information 😀

With this configuration I am able to connect to my company’s WLAN, which uses Cisco routers and access points. By the way, EAP-LEAP is a proprietary WLAN authentication protocol created by Cisco, and looks like it is considered obsolete.

I also noticed that if the GSM SIM chip is not inserted (offline mode), the phone behavior of getting connected is more difficult. It does not recognize a Hidden WLAN and I had to force the connection. With a GSM SIM chip inserted everything works nicely and as expected.

Looks like only Nokia E-series phones (E61, E61i, E70 etc) running the S60 platform can connect to LEAP WLANs. Same generation Nokia N-series phones (N73, N80, N95) can’t, because they were not designed for business environments — the kind of environments that uses Cisco’s EAP-LEAP.

14 thoughts on “Nokia E Series with Wireless LEAP Authentication”

  1. Pingback: My New Cellphone :: Avi Alkalay

  3. Note on setting up to use a *hidden* wifi connection:
    http://simonleyland.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/wlan-problems-with-nokia-e61-fixed/#comment-407

    Above site says that it helps if you
    a) manually set up the connection ahead of time
    b) temporarily ENABLE the SSID broadcast on your router (so the network name shows up on scans)
    c) use your browser and other apps to connect to it
    d) modify browser and other apps’ settings to always use that specific connection
    e) go ahead and Disable the SSID broadcast again, and it should work fine.

    Reply

  5. Thanks Avi. The instructions were very useful to me. I am able to connect my E51 to my office WLAN

    Reply

  6. I am trying to do likewise (802.1x->PEAP->MSCHAPv2, with a hidden network), but currently don’t have a SIM in my E51, either. How did you go about “[forcing] the connection” when the phone didn’t detect it automatically? If I type in the hidden SSID it just lets me select open/WEP/WPA, and WPA only gives me the option of entering a password, so I must have made a wrong turn. Thanks!

    Reply

  7. Paul, to force a connection is to set a specific access point in some network application, like the phone browser. So instead of making the app “ask” which connection you want to use every time you shoot it, it will directly use a forced connection.

    Reply

  8. Thanks for the wonderful guide,
    but it only works for me if i always force the application (browser) to use a specific access point (the one that u configured).

    Reply

  10. i am Facing Great Difficulty in Connection Via WLAN. when ever i connect to WLAN it gives Error : NO GATE WAY REPLY.. i did every thing but still the error is the same..

    please suggest me Alternate Methods to Connect to WLAN

    i am Using E61i
    i tried to connect Cisco, libksys, ZyXEL But still i am Finding the Same Error..!

    Reply

  11. Is there any other way…i can Connect to Wlan…

    Cause i have to Avail this Service on my Cell…

    Reply

  12. I am using a Nokia E51 at the latest s/w level and I cannot see any ‘configure’ option for the EAP-LEAP protocol so cannot enter my userid and password supplied by my company, anyone else having this problem?

    Reply

  13. Hey Avi
    Thanks for your notes, it took a couple of attempts before I got it working but is good now.
    I work for the same people you do and, now that’s it’s working it seems far easier than my experience leads me to expect.
    Cheers,
    Tim

    Reply

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