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Thread: Wireless Problems

  1. #1

    Question Wireless Problems

    Just in case the question comes up, I'm posting this in security because there are some security settings in question regarding the problem. That said --

    We just recently added a wireless AP to our LAN so that employees can bring in laptops and connect via wireless cards. So far, that's worked great. We're using a USRobotics 5450 AP.

    Yesterday, however, an employee brought in his laptop (W2k) with a DLink G650 wireless card, and I can't get it to connect for the life of me. I contacted DLink support, and after two separate and very long troubleshooting sessions, they determined it was a router-side problem and sent me off to USRobotics. So, I go through two more very long troubleshooting sessions with USR, and they (knowing DLink sent me to them) determined it was a software problem and sent me back to DLink. Now DLink (knowing they've already sent me to USR who just sent me back to them) assures me it's a USR problem and to call another USR tech.

    So, needless to say, I'm going nowhere really, really fast (and will have a new post for my "Tech Support Woes" thread!). Here's what I've tried:

    USR advised me to remove ALL security (great advice!) and then surely it would connect. I did this long enough to see what would happen, and it indeed it didn't help matters.

    I turned off encryption.

    I modified features known to interefere with DLink cards:

    Set preamble to long.
    Enabled SSID broadcast.
    Disabled turbo.
    Disabled MAC filtering.
    Disabled WEP.

    So, now though my wireless network is wide open to attack, this dumb card still won't connect! It detects it, but tells me it's not broadcasting (even when I sit right beside the AP with a 100% signal detected). Today I put the card in another laptop -- same results. So, it looks like I'm out of options. Am I just screwed, or does anyone know any tricks? Have any of you run into this USR/DLink problem before?

  2. #2
    Regal Making Handler
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
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    1,668
    What wireless standard is the card and what is the APs standard
    What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad. - Dave Barry

  3. #3
    Both are 802.11g. Sorry I omitted that.

  4. #4
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
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    460
    i have used dlink and linksys products primarily in my past, and one thing i have noticed is that their software for windows 2000 [gloworange]sucks[/gloworange].

    One thing i suggest is trying a software like BOINGO.

    another thing to try is try using the card in a windows xp laptop and see if the card will work once you install the drivers and use the native windows xp wireless management.

  5. #5
    If you have another wireless card, try that in the 'not working' machine, and try the 'not working' properly wireless card in another working system. That will at least let you know that it should work IF it works when you swap around the hardware.

    If everything works when you switch it, then there is a problem with that card and that laptop.

    If the known working wireless NIC doesn't work in the 2k laptop, then there is a problem w/ that laptop.

    If the not known working wireless NIC doesn't work in another known working laptop, then bad evil NIC.

    Keep up the good work Angelic. I have read most of your posts and know that you are getting some good experience at your job.

    ~Halv

  6. #6
    Thanks. Indeed, I've already swapped cards with another laptop to no avail. I'm installing Boingo as I write this, will see what happens.

  7. #7
    Boingo didn't work either, so it has to be a card problem. Looks DLink simply won't communicate with this USR card no matter what I do. Any suggestions on good USR cards to buy? I'm about to go look some up now...

  8. #8
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    274
    I have seen a very similar problem with orinoco equipment (lucent chipset, I don't know who makes the USR stuff)

    Let me ask you this....is dchp being used? We found that if we set both the ap and the workstation with static addresses everything would work just fine.

    If the AP was static, and the workstation was dhcp with WEP disabled, everything would work just fine.

    If the AP was static, and the workstation was dhcp with WEP enabled, it would take about 20 minutes before the workstation would find the AP

    If both the AP and the workstation were set to get an address through dchp and WEP was disabled.....we don't know how long it took for them to finally find each other, it happened sometime over night.

    With WEP enabled, it took three days.

    Strangely, when we took the ap to other sites, we had no problems at all. We concluded it was something with our dhcp here in this building, but as of yet, have not been able to track that gremlin down.

  9. #9
    DHCP is being used. AP's IP is fixed, and laptop's IP is set to automatically obtain an IP address.

  10. #10
    Regal Making Handler
    Join Date
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    Does a working card from another box work in the problem box?
    What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad. - Dave Barry

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