Compatibility issues between wg511v2 and Belkin Pre_N Wireless Router?

All,

Are there known/previously experienced compatibility issues between
wg511v2 and Belkin Pre_N Wireless Router?

Has anyone else successfully used one of the wg511v2 cards with this
new router? If so what if anything did you have to do to get them to
work?

We recently added several Belkin Pre_N Wireless Routers/Access Points
(F5D8230-4) to our network. Once configured all of our new Belkin cards
as well as mixed bag of Proxim, Orinoco, and older Netgear cards worked
flawlessly. However we have added a signifigant number of new wg511v2
cards and none of these is able to connect/stay connected to the new
Belkin APs.

We have tried the Netgear's current release of the
driver/firmware/client listed on the site as well as trying the beta
release also listed as of 1/4/05. For our testing, we disabled WEP,
enabled broadcast SSID and allowed access to all wireless clients in
place of restricting the MACs of wireless clients, but disabling all of
these settings did not affect the ability of the wg511v2's not being
able to connect. At the same time all other clients were able to
connect with or without the security settings in place. On occasion we
were able to see the AP in a scan with all security tools disabled, but
when attempting to connect the card would fail to communicate with the
AP. We are not new to the wireless game...however this is the only card
(wg511v2) that we are having problems incorporating into our network.

Our wireless environments include:

APs/BridgesRouters:
Orinoco 1000, 2000, 4000
Proxim Tsunami MP11
Netgear MR314, MR814v2
Belkin Pre_N(F5D8230-4)

Wireless Cards: Orinoco Gold (prisim)
Proxim a/g Orinoco Gold
Proxim a/b/g ComboCard
Netgear ma401
Netgear wg511v2


BTW: we have tickets open with both Belkin & Netgear, but no responses
yet.

Thanks in advance,

BurntEnd

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> All,
>
> Are there known/previously experienced compatibility issues between
> wg511v2 and Belkin Pre_N Wireless Router?
>
> Has anyone else successfully used one of the wg511v2 cards with this
> new router? If so what if anything did you have to do to get them to
> work?
>
> We recently added several Belkin Pre_N Wireless Routers/Access
Points
> (F5D8230-4) to our network. Once configured all of our new Belkin
cards
> as well as mixed bag of Proxim, Orinoco, and older Netgear cards
worked
> flawlessly. However we have added a signifigant number of new
wg511v2
> cards and none of these is able to connect/stay connected to the new
> Belkin APs.
>
> We have tried the Netgear's current release of the
> driver/firmware/client listed on the site as well as trying the beta
> release also listed as of 1/4/05. For our testing, we disabled WEP,
> enabled broadcast SSID and allowed access to all wireless clients in
> place of restricting the MACs of wireless clients, but disabling all
of
> these settings did not affect the ability of the wg511v2's not being
> able to connect. At the same time all other clients were able to
> connect with or without the security settings in place. On occasion
we
> were able to see the AP in a scan with all security tools disabled,
but
> when attempting to connect the card would fail to communicate with
the
> AP. We are not new to the wireless game...however this is the only
card
> (wg511v2) that we are having problems incorporating into our
network.
>
> Our wireless environments include:
>
> APs/BridgesRouters:
> Orinoco 1000, 2000, 4000
> Proxim Tsunami MP11
> Netgear MR314, MR814v2
> Belkin Pre_N(F5D8230-4)
>
> Wireless Cards: Orinoco Gold (prisim)
> Proxim a/g Orinoco Gold
> Proxim a/b/g ComboCard
> Netgear ma401
> Netgear wg511v2
>
>
> BTW: we have tickets open with both Belkin & Netgear, but no
responses
> yet.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> BurntEnd



Interesting...Sounds like a job for a wireless protocol analyzer.
There is one called Linkferret at http://www.linkferret.ws
that supports the Netgear ma401 and the Orinoco Golds. It has a 30 day
free evaluation. I would install it on a laptop
to monitor what is going on when a netgear wg511v2 tries to connect.
You have the option to turn off beacon capture
but should capture a few to a file. Then capture the card trying to
authenticate and associate with the belkin. To keep it simple
only have one device being captured. You can save these captures
(detailed reports) in html or text and if you have someplace to stick
them on
the web we could have a look or maybe you could attach them to the
group.
No promises, but it sounds like the only way to see whats happening
since wireless is invisible.

Airhead,

Thanks for the idea/link to 'linkferret.ws'. I will see about
liberating or purchasing another of the new Routers/APs and setting up
a test site to see about capturing the traffic from the cards. Right
now there is just too much wireless traffic in our environment to try
and just expose and capture the data from just one card, so I may have
to set this up at home were I can control the amount of chatter from
other APs.

As well for you and anyone else who want to jump in until I get this
data captured I am open to other ideas.

As an aside: Wireless is catching on in the residential non-IT
professional/tech junkie users, pre holidays there were two APs in my
neighborhood (mine and the guy next door from who works for SBC on
their VoIP network), now in the last three days there are more than ten
displayed, which means getting quiet places to test is going to get
tougher. I am not even going to tackle the lack of basic security being
implemented on all of these new APs.

Thanks again,

BurntEnd

Airhead,

Thanks for the previous ideas.

Turns out that none of the run of the newer Netgear cards we purchased
could connect to any of our sites that ran 'g' only and all had
intermittent issues with the combo protocol APs. A little more testing
(complaints to me from our support staff) found that there were issues
with all sites using these cards be it on the 'b' or 'g' side of
things, including but not limited to dropped connections when
connected, no connection at all. Transmitter/freq issue on this run of
cards? I had to make the decision that our tracking down the cause of
the problem did not fit our budget as our vendor was willing to replace
all the questionable cards as being defective. Although they (our
vendor) did not indicate it to us (we are a small account to them),
through a friendly rep via one of our partners (very large Fortune 100
company, that invested in us) indicated that they are hearing from
several customers that there are issues with their newly purchased
cards of the same make/model.

So as of now we have returned the lot and replaced with other cards, so
I will not be testing the issue mentioned in the previous posts.
Thanks again for your interest and suggestions,

BurntEnd