Wireless LAN help

[TK Doom]

Ok. I have a wired LAN and a Wireless LAN (via Linksys WAP11).

Roommate has a Toshiba with XP Pro. Works perfectly with multiple Wireless cards.

In January I bought a Dell (Win XP Home) and I couldn't get it to work with the network (wireless) with multiple cards. I orginally figured that it was the Dell not liking things.
The problem that happens is that I connect (WEP enabled), after awhile, I lose the connection and have to reconnect.

So I returned it.


Today I bought a Sony VAIO (Win XP Home) with my friends Orinco card and the same thing. Connection and random disconnects. I can't stay connected for more than 5 minutes.

Any ideas? Do I NEED WinXP Pro???

Thanks in advance.

[unixfan]

Its the cheap ass AP, you got, Linksys doesnt do WEP very well at all, try getting the Orinoco AP-500, the best in wireless LANs...

[TK Doom]

Well, in addition to the toshiba that is on the LAN (with the AP), is another Dell laptop (old school latitude) and a Mac desktop...they all work fine...

Plus I tried it with and without WEP.


That leads me to believe that it isn't the access point.

:confused:

[unixfan]

Do you have any power management enabled on the wireless card???

[TK Doom]

Doubt it, unless it is on be default...but I'll go check...

[TK Doom]

Nope, power management off...

[Greenstead]

Some other possibilities to consider. The Dell wireless card is a rebadged orinoco gold card so you get the same problems.

- Ensure you have SP1.
- Do not run the orinoco client manager, you only need it for pre XP systems. (You only need XP's wireless zero configuration - use XP's automatic wireless configuration in the conection settings).
- Ensure the WAP 11 has the latest firmware from the Linksys website.

Try that.
Works for me with a Dell wireless card and XP.

[unixfan]

I hate when people say not to use the client mgr, I use the Agere Client mgr for all my orinoco clients and it works 10 times better than the XP client mgr, plus you can do link tests with it and more wireless diag tools....

[TK Doom]

Originally posted by Greenstead
Some other possibilities to consider. The Dell wireless card is a rebadged orinoco gold card so you get the same problems.

- Ensure you have SP1.

- Ensure the WAP 11 has the latest firmware from the Linksys website.

Try that.
Works for me with a Dell wireless card and XP.


You are talking Service Pack One for XP Home correct?

[Greenstead]

Yes - SP1 for XP.

And I also said:

- Do not run the orinoco client manager, you only need it for pre XP systems. (You only need XP's wireless zero configuration - use XP's automatic wireless configuration in the conection settings).
This is advice directly from Microsoft. The Orinoco client manager may be a good manager for pre-XP systems, but will interfere with the wireless link on an XP system using wireless zero configuration. Ignore at your own risk.

[unixfan]

yea, and we all know how accurate MS is in alot of things, I run the agere client mgr on all my XP clients, NO problems and able to do alot more wireless troubleshooting, of course MS wants you to use thier tool....riiiigggghhhhhtttttt :)

[TK Doom]

Well, check this out. My wife solved the problem.

She is better at searching the net than me.

So she found a click that shouldn't have been clicked.

And voila. Laptop fixed. So that means the Dell I bought back in January probably would have worked. It also means that the people at Linksys and Dell tech support are idiots.

So the laptop I have is now...gulp, a Sony PCG-GRV670

P4 2.63
512 megs.
16" screen
40 gig hard drive
ATI Mobility 9000 Graphics card

[Greenstead]

Are you going to tell us which click she unclicked ?

btw Nice laptop. Are you sure thats a 16" screen ?

[TK Doom]

She unclicked the "Authenticate for 802.11x whatever" ...

I never looked at that because I thought for sure that my other laptop was set up the same way.

But she read something on the M$ site and she checked and...the rest is history.

Yes it is a 16" screen...