Wireless PCI NIC recommendation--with PROPER x64 drivers

Hi all,

I have a Linksys WMP54G wireless PCI NIC (v4) in a PC. Linksys doesn't have
64-bit drivers for this card, however after some Googling it seems that some
people are having success with the Ralink RT2500 drivers. I'm using them
and indeed, they seem to work.

The problem I'm having is that the signal strength is constantly fluctuating
between "Very good" and completely lost (for a few seconds)...and spending
most of its time closer to "Low" and "Good"...and only while I'm running the
64-bit version of XP. The router's less than 20 feet away, and other
machines even farther away have no problem maintaining a good connection.

If I reboot that very same machine with the very same hardware, under the
32-bit version of XP (and using the provided Linksys drivers), the
connection is rock solid--I've let Netstumbler run for half and hour, and
the signal strength graph showed a perfectly flat line. Unfortunately
Netstumbler doesn't work under x64 so I can't compare, but suffice it to say
that under x64, every couple of minutes I lose my connection for a few
seconds and I have to wait for the machine to get reassigned an IP address,
etc. Downloads are becoming impossible if it's gonna take more than a few
minutes, and browsing sites is becoming a crapshoot.

Some people in other discussion forums want to blame the drivers rather than
the card, and given that it works perfectly fine under XP x86, I would tend
to agree.

Does anyone know of "better" drivers for this card or, failing that,
recommend a wireless PCI NIC that is *known* to have proper XP x64 drivers
provided by the manufacturer?

I also have a wireless USB card (Linksys WUSB12), but that also doesn't have
x64 drivers, either from the manufacturer or third-party (that I could
find). I'm thinking that until I see Linksys changing their stance on x64,
I'm done with them...




Homer J. Simpson