[dlbeck]

I have a Linksys 802.11B wireless broadband router. We have three computers hooked up wirelessly with no problem. My new notebook computer runs XP Home and I bought a wireless G card for it. I've upgraded the firmware on the router and checked the driver on the card. But for some reason when this computer isn't hardwired into the router the wireless card just doesn't seem to work. I use encryption with hardcoded mac addresses. It tells me it has an excellent connection to the network yet sits there and does nothing. Any suggestions?

 

[10forcash]

Have you tried the card in a known good machine?
or tried a known good card in the machine with problems?
do you have MAC filtering enabled?
Cheers,
10forcash

 

[dlbeck]

I've not switched the card into another machine mainly because the other machines use wireless B cards not G and I didn't want to go through that hassle. I spent some time out on Linksys support site and just disabled MAC filtering. Prior to doing that I noticed if the notebook was right next to the router I was getting throughput. If I took it to the kitchen even with an excellent connection the throughput seemed to go to a crawl or to nothing at all. As I write this response I'm sitting next to the router. After I post this I'm going to try other parts of the house and see if disabling the MAC filtering helped. Our other computers work all over the home with no problem. Hopefully this will be resolved. I'll let you know.
Don

 

[dlbeck]

OK here is what I've done and the results so far:
1. Changed the channel from 6 to 11 on the router in case of interference from a 2.4 ghz phone.
2. Changed beacon interval from 100 to 50 because Linksys's support site suggested this.
3. Changed fragmentation threshold to 2304 for the same reason as 2.
4. Disabled MAC filtering because this forum and linksys suggested it. Hate to turn this feature off but if it helps I'll do it.

Current results:
I'm sitting in our basement getting good throughput at the moment. I've seen this happen before only to go from good throughput to no throughput. I'm waiting to see if this happens again. Earlier today I was getting no throughput in the basement so things seem a bit better.

Question: Why does turning off MAC filtering help this wireless G card on an XP computer?

Thanks ..... Don

 

[dlbeck]

Per usual after having great throughput for about 15 minutes I start getting messages about dropping the wireless connection then reconnected etc. After all that I had no throughput again. This seems to be known at Linksys. I've done all they've asked. The only way I'm currently back up and running is a power down and reboot. Any suggestions?

 

[dlbeck]

Latest update to those who may be watching this thread. I took out the wireless G card and put in a wireless B card from my daughter's notebook. So far the wireless B is running like a champ. Maybe the G card, combined with a B router, combined with XP isn't as compatible as advertised.

 

[dlbeck]

Here's the latest on my problem of poor performance with my Linksys wireless G card on my new HP notebook computer. My company's IT guy says he has seen this twice before and says if I switch the card from Linksys to Netgear the problem will go away. He says there is some compatiblity issue between HP and Linksys that no one will admit to but when he switches the card to Netgear it goes away. I'm starting to believe this because my Dell notebook with the identical card in it doesn't have the problem at all. My wife's gateway computer running the same OS doesn't have the problem at all. Cisco/Linksys support folks blame it on HP. Wow no surprise there. I wonder what HP would say if I bothered to call them?

 

[dlbeck]

I returned the Linksys Wireless G notebook card and bought a Microsoft wireless G card. Microsoft couldn't even see the network even though the wireless router was one foot away. Returned that and bought NetGear. NetGear installed and has been working fine for hours even in places where the Linksys couldn't work. I guess my IT guy was right. Linksys wireless adapters and HP notebooks running XP just don't get along very well. So far so good with the NetGear Adapter.

 

[dlbeck]

I think my IT department was absolutely correct when they said HP notebooks and Linksys adapters don't like each other. The Linksys Wireless G card was slow and the connection very unreliable. At IT's request I bought a Netgear Wireless G adapter. Keep in mind my router is a Linksys Wireless B which works great. The netgear adapter has been up and running for a day now and works great. The connection is strong in places the Linksys would lose the connection at. The throughput is very good. Netgear works with HP notebooks thank God.

Warning: Netgear has a way to go to catch Linksys when it comes to ease of installation and ease of driver upgrades. The Netgear CD puked when it discovered I didn't have netscape on my computer. I manually pointed it to IE which most end users wouldn't know how to do. I had to tweak the settings for 20 minutes before it connected. Again, users shouldn't have to be doing this. Then I went to Netgear's support site to check for driver updates. They list three drivers for this adapter which were basically New, Old and Oldest. Why list outdated drivers? Following their instructions on installing the driver also failed. I finally force fed the newest driver into place. I'm happy this is resolved. Not sure I'd trade in my older Linksys B router for Netgear.

Don