changing country/region of Linksys WPC11 PCMCIA Card

Hi

I've just bought a second hand laptop (few years old) that has one of
these with it to connect wirelessly. I've downloaded the latest driver
from the Linksys website and installed it (I did a fresh install of XP
too). It works but seems a bit slow , but the laptop is old so not too
surprised. Anyway, I looked at the Advanced tab of the details of the
card in Device Manager and I see it's using the wrong channel, and it
can only use channels 1-11 (which I understand is for use in the US).
There's nowhere to change the region in this dialogue box, nor in the
Linksys software (that I can see). How can I change it to Europe?

thanks,
Iain

"Iain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:48274a05$0$2481$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi
>
> I've just bought a second hand laptop (few years old) that has one of
> these with it to connect wirelessly. I've downloaded the latest driver
> from the Linksys website and installed it (I did a fresh install of XP
> too). It works but seems a bit slow , but the laptop is old so not too
> surprised. Anyway, I looked at the Advanced tab of the details of the card
> in Device Manager and I see it's using the wrong channel, and it can only
> use channels 1-11 (which I understand is for use in the US). There's
> nowhere to change the region in this dialogue box, nor in the Linksys
> software (that I can see). How can I change it to Europe?
>
> thanks,
> Iain

Iain, did you download the drivers from the US Linksys site or the UK one,
the drivers might be localised

ZZzz wrote:
> "Iain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:48274a05$0$2481$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hi
>>
>> I've just bought a second hand laptop (few years old) that has one of
>> these with it to connect wirelessly. I've downloaded the latest driver
>> from the Linksys website and installed it (I did a fresh install of XP
>> too). It works but seems a bit slow , but the laptop is old so not too
>> surprised. Anyway, I looked at the Advanced tab of the details of the card
>> in Device Manager and I see it's using the wrong channel, and it can only
>> use channels 1-11 (which I understand is for use in the US). There's
>> nowhere to change the region in this dialogue box, nor in the Linksys
>> software (that I can see). How can I change it to Europe?
>>
>> thanks,
>> Iain
>
> Iain, did you download the drivers from the US Linksys site or the UK one,
> the drivers might be localised
>
>
>

That's a good point. I checked and the site I downloaded it from was
definitely the UK one. I just looked inside one of the ini files in the
XP driver folder and I can see it listing all the channels but there's
only 11 of them. I'd try another driver but there's only one on the
Linksys site.

thanks,
Iain

Iain wrote:
> Hi
>
> I've just bought a second hand laptop (few years old) that has one of
> these with it to connect wirelessly. I've downloaded the latest driver
> from the Linksys website and installed it (I did a fresh install of XP
> too). It works but seems a bit slow , but the laptop is old so not too
> surprised. Anyway, I looked at the Advanced tab of the details of the
> card in Device Manager and I see it's using the wrong channel, and it
> can only use channels 1-11 (which I understand is for use in the US).

Not so, just that here in europe we get to use 12 and 13 as well.

> There's nowhere to change the region in this dialogue box, nor in the
> Linksys software (that I can see). How can I change it to Europe?
>
> thanks,
> Iain

If it can use channels 1 - 11 then you are only missing two, ie, 12 and 13 -
and they probably won't help anyway. When you say "it's using the wrong
channel", it probably isn't because the client should automatically use
whatever channel the router is using, and that begs the question, are you
sure you're connected to your own router?

First of all, change the SSID of your router from the generic one it came
with, ie, BT HomeHub, to something unique to you - mine, for instance, is
The Dragon's Lair. Next, download the trial version of Wirelessmon by
PassMark from here:

http://www.passmark.com/products/wirelessmonitor.htm

and have a look at the other wireless routers within range of your laptop -
I can see 13 around me (3 x BT HomeHub, 2 x BT Voyager, 3 x Sky, 2 x Linksys
and 3 x Netgear).

Using Wirelessmon will also show you what channels the surrounding routers
are using so you can then choose a "quiet" one, although most channels
overlap to some extent - only 1, 6 and 11 have the least overlap.

Don't forget that any changes made to the router also have to be made to the
laptop and you should be using at least WAP and a good strong password (you
can get one from here https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm)

HTH,

John

Simon Zerafa wrote:
> Hi,
>
> If you can set European or Japanese settings in the wireless adapter then
> you could get channels 1 - 13 or 1 - 14 respectively.
>
> This would give the following non-overlapping channels for
>
> U.S.: 1, 6, 11
> Europe: 1, 6, 11/12/13 and 14
>
> Channel 14 just overlaps Channel 11 but it might be worth trying in extream
> cases.
>
> Many new laptops and adapters are NOT correctly configured to use the
> correct channels in Europe so checking the Wireless Adapter properties can
> sometimes change the region or channels which can be used.
>
> Using Channels 12, 13 and 14 can make is difficult for incorrectly
> configured wireless adapters to locate the access point. This can be a good
> and a bad thing depending on your intentions.
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Simon
>
>
>
>

Thanks guys

I can vaguely remember reading a warning when installing a wireless
adapter for someone that you needed to choose the correct zone (US,
Europe, etc) for the card or you would cause radio interfernece and
would be whisked away by the RF police. Anyway, there are no options to
change the 'zone' - only the channels from 1-11. My router and other
equipment is set to 13 - if they had been set to 1 - 11 I might not have
noticed.

Iain

"Iain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:482a0f7f$0$26087$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Simon Zerafa wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> If you can set European or Japanese settings in the wireless adapter then
>> you could get channels 1 - 13 or 1 - 14 respectively.
>>
>> This would give the following non-overlapping channels for
>>
>> U.S.: 1, 6, 11
>> Europe: 1, 6, 11/12/13 and 14
>>
>> Channel 14 just overlaps Channel 11 but it might be worth trying in
>> extream cases.
>>
>> Many new laptops and adapters are NOT correctly configured to use the
>> correct channels in Europe so checking the Wireless Adapter properties
>> can sometimes change the region or channels which can be used.
>>
>> Using Channels 12, 13 and 14 can make is difficult for incorrectly
>> configured wireless adapters to locate the access point. This can be a
>> good and a bad thing depending on your intentions.
>>
>> Kind Regards
>>
>> Simon
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Thanks guys
>
> I can vaguely remember reading a warning when installing a wireless
> adapter for someone that you needed to choose the correct zone (US,
> Europe, etc) for the card or you would cause radio interfernece and would
> be whisked away by the RF police. Anyway, there are no options to change
> the 'zone' - only the channels from 1-11. My router and other equipment is
> set to 13 - if they had been set to 1 - 11 I might not have noticed.

Is your windows region set to usa?
The card may be using that.

Iain wrote:
> Simon Zerafa wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> If you can set European or Japanese settings in the wireless adapter
>> then you could get channels 1 - 13 or 1 - 14 respectively.
>>
>> This would give the following non-overlapping channels for
>>
>> U.S.: 1, 6, 11
>> Europe: 1, 6, 11/12/13 and 14
>>
>> Channel 14 just overlaps Channel 11 but it might be worth trying in
>> extream cases.
>>
>> Many new laptops and adapters are NOT correctly configured to use the
>> correct channels in Europe so checking the Wireless Adapter
>> properties can sometimes change the region or channels which can be
>> used. Using Channels 12, 13 and 14 can make is difficult for incorrectly
>> configured wireless adapters to locate the access point. This can be
>> a good and a bad thing depending on your intentions.
>>
>> Kind Regards
>>
>> Simon
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Thanks guys
>
> I can vaguely remember reading a warning when installing a wireless
> adapter for someone that you needed to choose the correct zone (US,
> Europe, etc) for the card or you would cause radio interfernece and
> would be whisked away by the RF police. Anyway, there are no options
> to change the 'zone' - only the channels from 1-11. My router and
> other equipment is set to 13 - if they had been set to 1 - 11 I might
> not have noticed.
>
> Iain

Well if your router is set to 13 and your adapter is 1 to 11, then you'll
have to change channel in your router and other equipment or it'll never
work properly. I've never seen any wireless adapter software ask for
country/region setting but, in the early days of internal software dial-up
modems, they did - sure you're not getting confused with that? Have you
taken my advice from my earlier posting to download the trial version of
wirelessmon and see what other channels are in use around you?

John

Hi,

Many cards and laptop adapters do have settings for region which you can
reach via the configuration settings for the network adapter.

In XP Hightlight the Adapter in Network Connection, Right Click and Select
Properties.

On the Properties Tab press the Configure" button next to the adapter name
and then select the Advanced Tab.

The options here will be different for each adapter and may have either
Country or Channel selections.

Windows Vista has similar options.

Kind Regards

Simon

dennis@home wrote:
>
>
> "Iain" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:482a0f7f$0$26087$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Simon Zerafa wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> If you can set European or Japanese settings in the wireless adapter
>>> then you could get channels 1 - 13 or 1 - 14 respectively.
>>>
>>> This would give the following non-overlapping channels for
>>>
>>> U.S.: 1, 6, 11
>>> Europe: 1, 6, 11/12/13 and 14
>>>
>>> Channel 14 just overlaps Channel 11 but it might be worth trying in
>>> extream cases.
>>>
>>> Many new laptops and adapters are NOT correctly configured to use the
>>> correct channels in Europe so checking the Wireless Adapter
>>> properties can sometimes change the region or channels which can be
>>> used.
>>>
>>> Using Channels 12, 13 and 14 can make is difficult for incorrectly
>>> configured wireless adapters to locate the access point. This can be
>>> a good and a bad thing depending on your intentions.
>>>
>>> Kind Regards
>>>
>>> Simon
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Thanks guys
>>
>> I can vaguely remember reading a warning when installing a wireless
>> adapter for someone that you needed to choose the correct zone (US,
>> Europe, etc) for the card or you would cause radio interfernece and
>> would be whisked away by the RF police. Anyway, there are no options
>> to change the 'zone' - only the channels from 1-11. My router and
>> other equipment is set to 13 - if they had been set to 1 - 11 I might
>> not have noticed.
>
> Is your windows region set to usa?
> The card may be using that.

Good point - I checked that, it's all set to UK.

John wrote:
> Iain wrote:
>> Simon Zerafa wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> If you can set European or Japanese settings in the wireless adapter
>>> then you could get channels 1 - 13 or 1 - 14 respectively.
>>>
>>> This would give the following non-overlapping channels for
>>>
>>> U.S.: 1, 6, 11
>>> Europe: 1, 6, 11/12/13 and 14
>>>
>>> Channel 14 just overlaps Channel 11 but it might be worth trying in
>>> extream cases.
>>>
>>> Many new laptops and adapters are NOT correctly configured to use the
>>> correct channels in Europe so checking the Wireless Adapter
>>> properties can sometimes change the region or channels which can be
>>> used. Using Channels 12, 13 and 14 can make is difficult for incorrectly
>>> configured wireless adapters to locate the access point. This can be
>>> a good and a bad thing depending on your intentions.
>>>
>>> Kind Regards
>>>
>>> Simon
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Thanks guys
>>
>> I can vaguely remember reading a warning when installing a wireless
>> adapter for someone that you needed to choose the correct zone (US,
>> Europe, etc) for the card or you would cause radio interfernece and
>> would be whisked away by the RF police. Anyway, there are no options
>> to change the 'zone' - only the channels from 1-11. My router and
>> other equipment is set to 13 - if they had been set to 1 - 11 I might
>> not have noticed.
>>
>> Iain
>
> Well if your router is set to 13 and your adapter is 1 to 11, then you'll
> have to change channel in your router and other equipment or it'll never
> work properly. I've never seen any wireless adapter software ask for
> country/region setting but, in the early days of internal software dial-up
> modems, they did - sure you're not getting confused with that? Have you
> taken my advice from my earlier posting to download the trial version of
> wirelessmon and see what other channels are in use around you?
>
> John
>
>

John - it was definitely a wifi card. A netgear one I think. Anyway, I
did download wirelessmon, for a quick look. I'd already established that
13 was the best channel for me by using netstumbler. The laptop connects
okay (using channel 6) but I was more worried about why I wasn't seeing
1-13 as an option. Oh well, not to worry. Thanks.