Buffalo WYR-G54 and RALINK 54G card - UK

Hi,

just bought two amazingly cheap (yeah, I know) 54g devices.

The Buffalo router is a small tin box with an aerial on the back.

The RALINK PCMCIA Cardbus card looks quite nice and is an impressively thin
profile.

Both seem to configure and work, but the link sometimes drops for no
apparent reason.

I an using Win2K Pro SP4 and AFAIK there isn't the XP problem with rescans.

The link suddenly just drops, then comes back after one or two rescans.

The loss of link seems to be tied to periods of inactivity but I am not
using the 'power save' feature on the PC card.

So - anyone used on (or both) of these?

Any known problems?

I have installed the latest drivers for the card, but not checked for
updates for the router yet.

Any help most appreciated.

Dave R

--

"David W.E. Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi,
>
> just bought two amazingly cheap (yeah, I know) 54g devices.
>
> The Buffalo router is a small tin box with an aerial on the back.
>
> The RALINK PCMCIA Cardbus card looks quite nice and is an impressively
thin
> profile.
>
> Both seem to configure and work, but the link sometimes drops for no
> apparent reason.
>
> I an using Win2K Pro SP4 and AFAIK there isn't the XP problem with
rescans.
>
> The link suddenly just drops, then comes back after one or two rescans.
>
> The loss of link seems to be tied to periods of inactivity but I am not
> using the 'power save' feature on the PC card.
>
> So - anyone used on (or both) of these?
>
> Any known problems?
>
> I have installed the latest drivers for the card, but not checked for
> updates for the router yet.
>
> Any help most appreciated.
>
> Dave R

Just to add:

I am using WPA-PSK authentication and TKIP encryption and wondered if this
might be a source of contention between differernt implementations.

TIA

Dave R

David W.E. Roberts wrote:
> "David W.E. Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>just bought two amazingly cheap (yeah, I know) 54g devices.
>>
>>The Buffalo router is a small tin box with an aerial on the back.
>>
>>The RALINK PCMCIA Cardbus card looks quite nice and is an impressively
>
> thin
>
>>profile.
>>
>>Both seem to configure and work, but the link sometimes drops for no
>>apparent reason.
>>
>>I an using Win2K Pro SP4 and AFAIK there isn't the XP problem with
>
> rescans.
>
>>The link suddenly just drops, then comes back after one or two rescans.
>>
>>The loss of link seems to be tied to periods of inactivity but I am not
>>using the 'power save' feature on the PC card.
>>
>>So - anyone used on (or both) of these?
>>
>>Any known problems?
>>
>>I have installed the latest drivers for the card, but not checked for
>>updates for the router yet.
>>
>>Any help most appreciated.
>>
>>Dave R
>
>
> Just to add:
>
> I am using WPA-PSK authentication and TKIP encryption and wondered if this
> might be a source of contention between differernt implementations.
>
> TIA
>
> Dave R
>
>
I have a RT2500 miniPC card which uses the same 3.0.2.0 driver(signal
did improve upgrading to this) and it runs without any problems.I use
XPSP2 and using WPA PSK-TKIP ,for the moment,to a Linksys Router.

NBT

"NBT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:d3led7$h2h$(E-Mail Removed)...
> David W.E. Roberts wrote:
><snip>
> I have a RT2500 miniPC card which uses the same 3.0.2.0 driver(signal
> did improve upgrading to this) and it runs without any problems.I use
> XPSP2 and using WPA PSK-TKIP ,for the moment,to a Linksys Router.
>
> NBT

Thanks for the info.
I am now switching both card and router to 802.11b.
This weekend I can test against other routers and cards which are native
802.11b and perhaps see if it is the router, the card, or both which are
having problems.
I will also try running in '802.11g only' mode to see if it is mixed mode
working which is causing the problem.

Cheers
Dave R

"David W.E. Roberts" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "NBT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:d3led7$h2h$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > David W.E. Roberts wrote:
> ><snip>
> > I have a RT2500 miniPC card which uses the same 3.0.2.0 driver(signal
> > did improve upgrading to this) and it runs without any problems.I use
> > XPSP2 and using WPA PSK-TKIP ,for the moment,to a Linksys Router.
> >
> > NBT
>
> Thanks for the info.
> I am now switching both card and router to 802.11b.
> This weekend I can test against other routers and cards which are native
> 802.11b and perhaps see if it is the router, the card, or both which are
> having problems.
> I will also try running in '802.11g only' mode to see if it is mixed mode
> working which is causing the problem.

Progress so far:

the problem also shows with card and router in '802.11b only' mode, but not
as frequently.

Using my normal home network on an Adaptec 802.11b router seems fine.
I have a number of profiles set up on the RALINK card (I hope it is not the
card, because the features are quite impressive) and can switch between
profiles, and thus routers, very easily.
I have been flipping between the two routers and have seen quite a few link
failures with the Buffalo router, but have so far not noticed any with the
Adaptec router.

From this I have to conclude that either the Buffalo is a dodgy router, I
have a faulty router, or there is some kind of firmware incompatability
between the RALINK and Buffalo devices.

My initial money is on the Buffalo firmware being the culprit.
I think this is a new router - it is still on the first release of
firmware - and so most likely to be at fault.
Given that, the RALINK card is still pretty new but it does work O.K with my
Adaptec router.

All a bit oif a bummer because I wanted an 802.11g setup.
What I have is an 802.11b setup which is slightly less flaky than an 802.11g
setup.

I haven't tried in 802.11g only mode yet, but am not very hopeful.

Cheers

Dave R