Okay, here's the scoop:
Description of Network:
I have a Motorola SB4200 going into a Linksys BEFSR41. From there,
everything else was ordered from Dell as a package. The package
consisted of: Three Dell TrueMobile 1150 PC Cards and a Linksys WAP11
v1.1. Regarding firmware, the BEFSR41 v2 is running v1.45.7, the WAP11
v1.1 is using firmware 1.4j1, 2 of the TrueMobile 1150 PC Cards are
using Dell vA20 drivers and associated firmware. The other is using
Dell vA22 drivers and firmware. One of the systems will be upgraded in
the future to A22, the other I'm having problems upgrading - the
install complains about a missing file but refuses to tell me the
filename. (See this posting for more details if curious:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...essage.id=3736)
Anyhow, this problem has been happening even with all three systems
with vA20 drivers. Finally, all systems are running Windows XP SR1.
And I'm broadcasting over typical AP settings - Channel 6, and those
other Frag/RTS settings. Supposedly, I'm in Infrastructure mode.
Configured the router using UPnP, everything's working beautifully
with the router. One of the PCs is on the ground floor, one is
upstairs and one is downstairs in the daylight basement.
Brief Description of the Problem:
The last time I enabled WEP, 128-bit OR 64-bit, the network crashed
and I had to restart the router and the access point.
Lengthier Description:
First, a caveat - the last time I tried enabling WEP, the router and
the access point had different - factory - firmware, and I haven't
retried recently. But anyways, what happened is that if I enabled
128-bit WEP, the router crashed within 10-30 minutes, with all systems
displaying "Wireless Network Not Available." If I enabled 64-bit WEP,
it seemed to affect the time involved - more like 45-60 minutes,
although I could be mistaken. Only thing that seemed to help was to
power off - then power on the access point. Sometimes, even changing a
setting in the USB configuration and clicking Apply and then changing
it back and clicking Apply was enough, other times the router needed
rebooting too, to get the network running for the next hour. I tried
running a program that pinged the access point for it to "stay awake"
(I read something about problems with sleep mode kicking on?), that
didn't work. Additionally tried changing the broadcast channel,
RTS/Frag settings - didn't work either, so I set the settings back.
Workaround:
Disabling WEP and enabling MAC address filtering seems to be enough to
satisfy the managers enough for security reasons. However, I'd
eventually like to enable WEP, even WPA - the new Dell TrueMobile 1150
vA22 drivers support WPA, but there doesn't seem to be an upgrade for
the WAP11 v1.1. Looks like I'll have to get a replacement for that, I
think - unless there's a hack. OTOH, I fear adding WEP - signal
strength at some areas only 25 ft. from the WAP11 right now as things
are makes the network connection fall to 2mbps - good enough for the
cable modem, but BAD for sharing files between PCs. And I've heard
that enabling WEP drastically drops network performance. And I still
experience intermittent dropouts which I haven't troubleshooted yet, I
pray it's related to the Siemens 2.4GHz telephone system...
I just added a cheap WiFi card to the mix - a "TecNew WL1001" PC Card
- really an AMD AM1772-based card, uses AMD drivers - same as an SMC
SMC2602W. Low, LOW price - my cost as an employee of a computer sales
store was $17.00 USD. Other problems with that as well - I'll post
later.
I'll take suggestions and questions on this problem here, though. Do
you think the firmware updates fixed the problem? Is the interference
here too bad to do WEP (shouldn't be - I'm out in the middle of
nowhere!)? Are you guys gonna force me to try enabling WEP again, and
get me huffing-and-puffing up and down the stairs? ;-)
- Greg
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