Netgear Wireless Wizard

I just (foolishly) got a Netgear WPN311 card to replace a WGT311T card
which went faulty with a hardware error.

Well, I'd had my problems with the stupid WGT311T card and it's
'Wireless Wizard' and sure enough I'm getting even more problems with
Netgears absolutely braindead driver implementation this time too.


Firstly, the Netgear Wizard utility generally doesn't install when I
install the drivers. The icon is on the desktop, the programs are in
the folder on the HD but it can't be started.

I say 'generally' because one time, quite unexpectedly when I booted
the computer, it decided to pop up and install itself. However, even
though it then ran itself upon subsequent bootups it had about a 30%
success rate of actually configuring the card and connecting me to the
internet; on some boots it would work but mostly it wouldn't obtain an
IP/connect to the internet or just gave a cryptic error message. A
quick reinstall of the Netgear drivers soon resulted in it being
removed, never to be seen again (well, yet).

Secondly, the card won't configure through the WinXP built in
Utilities. It's there in the hardware manager, and apparently
functioning too. I've even got it to log on to my wireless network
with WEP security but an internet connection is not provided. Some
messing around shows that it is not being assigned an IP address.
Attempting to force it to load one with ipconfig/renew results in an
error message. Yes, the router (Netgear 634) is setup to dole out
IPs/DNS etc. on request to any MAC address on the network. I can use
the router via my old OEM $10 network card just fine to access the
internet.

Thirdly, what's all this dumb messign about having to load drivers
BEFORE inserting the card into the PC. That's just moronic. The OS is
Windows XP SP1.


I can't believe I'm the only one who has suffered this - anyone else
out there been through the wringer with this rubbish line of network
cards? I've just logged my second support case with their online
support site ... the first one is still unanswered after three working
days.

Gav

Unfortunately your not the only one, as I have had my rounds with the
wireless drivers supplied by Netgear. Actually the drivers are fine, it's
the wireless application that comes with the drivers that won't work with
XP SP2. What I did was to install only the drivers for the card, It will
ask you something like do you want to use the netgear app because it has
more control over the wireless card than the XP app, just say no, don't
install the app, just install the drivers and then you can configure the
wireless settings through the wireless app in XP. Works fine.

Duane



On 11 Apr 2005 12:23:20 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I just (foolishly) got a Netgear WPN311 card to replace a WGT311T card
>which went faulty with a hardware error.
>
> Well, I'd had my problems with the stupid WGT311T card and it's
>'Wireless Wizard' and sure enough I'm getting even more problems with
>Netgears absolutely braindead driver implementation this time too.
>
>
> Firstly, the Netgear Wizard utility generally doesn't install when I
>install the drivers. The icon is on the desktop, the programs are in
>the folder on the HD but it can't be started.
>
> I say 'generally' because one time, quite unexpectedly when I booted
>the computer, it decided to pop up and install itself. However, even
>though it then ran itself upon subsequent bootups it had about a 30%
>success rate of actually configuring the card and connecting me to the
>internet; on some boots it would work but mostly it wouldn't obtain an
>IP/connect to the internet or just gave a cryptic error message. A
>quick reinstall of the Netgear drivers soon resulted in it being
>removed, never to be seen again (well, yet).
>
> Secondly, the card won't configure through the WinXP built in
>Utilities. It's there in the hardware manager, and apparently
>functioning too. I've even got it to log on to my wireless network
>with WEP security but an internet connection is not provided. Some
>messing around shows that it is not being assigned an IP address.
>Attempting to force it to load one with ipconfig/renew results in an
>error message. Yes, the router (Netgear 634) is setup to dole out
>IPs/DNS etc. on request to any MAC address on the network. I can use
>the router via my old OEM $10 network card just fine to access the
>internet.
>
> Thirdly, what's all this dumb messign about having to load drivers
>BEFORE inserting the card into the PC. That's just moronic. The OS is
>Windows XP SP1.
>
>
> I can't believe I'm the only one who has suffered this - anyone else
>out there been through the wringer with this rubbish line of network
>cards? I've just logged my second support case with their online
>support site ... the first one is still unanswered after three working
>days.
>
>Gav

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Unfortunately your not the only one, as I have had my rounds with the
> wireless drivers supplied by Netgear. Actually the drivers are fine,
it's
> the wireless application that comes with the drivers that won't work
with
> XP SP2. What I did was to install only the drivers for the card, It
will
> ask you something like do you want to use the netgear app because it
has
> more control over the wireless card than the XP app, just say no,
don't
> install the app, just install the drivers and then you can configure
the
> wireless settings through the wireless app in XP. Works fine.

Unfortunately, even though the card _appears_ installed in Windows
(device drivers installed, device reporting functional, network card
logged onto my home wireless network) it isn't actually functioning.
It doesn't get a TCP/IP address even though it's set up for DHCP.

If I try to 'repair' the connection I'm told that "TCP/IP is not
enabled for this connection" even though I can pull up the 'wireless
properties' and see that it is indeed attached to the card. Weird.
And that's without SP2 installed - I've deliberately avoided installing
it because of these sorts of potential problems.

Of course, the dedicated Netgear Wireless Assistant doesn't work AT
ALL. Wonderful work there from Netgear, well worth paying 2-3x the
price of a generic OEM card for their branded product.......


Gav

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Unfortunately your not the only one, as I have had my rounds with the
> wireless drivers supplied by Netgear. Actually the drivers are fine, it's
> the wireless application that comes with the drivers that won't work with
> XP SP2. What I did was to install only the drivers for the card, It will
> ask you something like do you want to use the netgear app because it has
> more control over the wireless card than the XP app, just say no, don't
> install the app, just install the drivers and then you can configure the
> wireless settings through the wireless app in XP. Works fine.
>
> Duane
>
>
>
> On 11 Apr 2005 12:23:20 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>
>>I just (foolishly) got a Netgear WPN311 card to replace a WGT311T card
>>which went faulty with a hardware error.
>>
>> Well, I'd had my problems with the stupid WGT311T card and it's
>>'Wireless Wizard' and sure enough I'm getting even more problems with
>>Netgears absolutely braindead driver implementation this time too.
>>
>>
>> Firstly, the Netgear Wizard utility generally doesn't install when I
>>install the drivers. The icon is on the desktop, the programs are in
>>the folder on the HD but it can't be started.
>>
>> I say 'generally' because one time, quite unexpectedly when I booted
>>the computer, it decided to pop up and install itself. However, even
>>though it then ran itself upon subsequent bootups it had about a 30%
>>success rate of actually configuring the card and connecting me to the
>>internet; on some boots it would work but mostly it wouldn't obtain an
>>IP/connect to the internet or just gave a cryptic error message. A
>>quick reinstall of the Netgear drivers soon resulted in it being
>>removed, never to be seen again (well, yet).
>>
>> Secondly, the card won't configure through the WinXP built in
>>Utilities. It's there in the hardware manager, and apparently
>>functioning too. I've even got it to log on to my wireless network
>>with WEP security but an internet connection is not provided. Some
>>messing around shows that it is not being assigned an IP address.
>>Attempting to force it to load one with ipconfig/renew results in an
>>error message. Yes, the router (Netgear 634) is setup to dole out
>>IPs/DNS etc. on request to any MAC address on the network. I can use
>>the router via my old OEM $10 network card just fine to access the
>>internet.
>>
>> Thirdly, what's all this dumb messign about having to load drivers
>>BEFORE inserting the card into the PC. That's just moronic. The OS is
>>Windows XP SP1.
>>
>>
>> I can't believe I'm the only one who has suffered this - anyone else
>>out there been through the wringer with this rubbish line of network
>>cards? I've just logged my second support case with their online
>>support site ... the first one is still unanswered after three working
>>days.
>>
>>Gav


Ive encountered the same prob above with - it turned out to be a newer
version of a file called PCANDIS5.sys present in windows/system32. The
Netgear card dosent like it - it wants to use its own. Delete this file and
re-install the Netgear drivers and away you go - FYI, if you do a google on
this, you will find it dosent just affect Netgear .............
>