BlackBerry Bold WiFi connection problems solved

I have been looking all over for solutions to my problem connecting my BlackBerry 9700 Bold to my wireless router at home (using WPA2 security). 

I checked the BB Bold’s specifications here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Bold and found that it could support a lot of WiFi security: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, WEP, WPA-PSK (TKIP or AES), PEAP, LEAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-FAST, EAP-TTLS, EAP-SIM

I tried a lot of settings but I kept on getting the error: “failed to associate with the network”.

Eventually, I found the problem by chance – I tried playing with the router’s wireless mode (thanks to a posting on the CrackBerry forums).  I changed it from 802.11b+g to 802.11g.. in doing that the Channel changed from “Channel 13 (2.472 GHz)” to “Channel 1 (2.412 GHz)” and all of a sudden it started working!  Problem solved :)

So, here’s the solution in case anyone else has problems connecting the BlackBerry to a wireless router.

I have a Billion Bipac 7300GA modem/router and I have set it up as follows:
Wireless Parameters tab:
Mode: 802.11b+g
ESSID: MyWirelessSSID [can be anything]
Hide ESSID: Enable [I don’t want to let my neighbours know that I have a router]
Regulation domain: Europe
Channel ID: Channel 1 (2.412 GHz) <<--- that was the problem as I had it set to “Channel 13” initially
WMM (QoS): Enable
WMM-APSD: Disable

Wireless Security tab:
Security mode: WPA2 Pre-Shared Key
WPA2 algorithm: AES
WPA2 shared key: mypassword [remember, this is case sensitive]
Group key renewal: 3600

I then used the BB’s WiFi manual setup menu: Options->WiFi->New->Next->Manually add network->Enter your SSID->Add->Security type: “Pre-shared key (PSK)” (this works for WPA and WPA2 since there is no WPAx option)
Then enter your “Pre-Shared Key”: mypassword  [this must be the same as router’s “WPA2 shared key”]
Then click the “Connect” button.