Use Windows To Configure . . .

Here's one I thought I'd share with the group.

I have a Netgear MR314 wireless router and an SMC-2532W-B pc card in a Dell
Windows XP Home laptop.

The connection wasn't able to hold and would drop off every now and then.
And if it did drop off, I had to go back into the SMC WLAN Utility and
double click on my SSID to force a reconnect. That's a pain in the a**.

So I called SMC and the gal told me to remove the SMC Utility from the
Startup folder and bypass their software completely - not uninstall, just
remove it from starting when Windows starts-up. Then go to the Control
Panel - Network Connections folder and right click on the wireless
connection, click Properties. Put a check the box for "Use Windows To
Configure My Wireless Network Settings". This fixed the problem and all's
well. The connection holds and doesn't need to be manually started when the
computer is shut down or rebooted.

Hope this helps.

In my experience, 3rd party wireless config software creates issues in Win
XP. It's included primarily to support Win 9x and Win 2000 users.

JP

"Tom C." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Here's one I thought I'd share with the group.
>
> I have a Netgear MR314 wireless router and an SMC-2532W-B pc card in a
Dell
> Windows XP Home laptop.
>
> The connection wasn't able to hold and would drop off every now and then.
> And if it did drop off, I had to go back into the SMC WLAN Utility and
> double click on my SSID to force a reconnect. That's a pain in the a**.
>
> So I called SMC and the gal told me to remove the SMC Utility from the
> Startup folder and bypass their software completely - not uninstall, just
> remove it from starting when Windows starts-up. Then go to the Control
> Panel - Network Connections folder and right click on the wireless
> connection, click Properties. Put a check the box for "Use Windows To
> Configure My Wireless Network Settings". This fixed the problem and all's
> well. The connection holds and doesn't need to be manually started when
the
> computer is shut down or rebooted.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>

I've been running the vendor config on a D-Link AWG650 adapter for well over
a year on XP Home Edition with no problem. Initially, Windows would
disconnect me, but as soon as I figured out how to disable zero config, the
issue simply disappeared.

One disadvantage of using Windows is that you may lose features. For
example, the D-Link config supports a full list of four WEP keys, which I
need to have different transmit and receive keys. Windows config only
supports one client key. Also, Windows autoconnect does not always work well
with APs that disable SSID broadcast, while the D-Link config works just
fine. Plus, I prefer the way the D-Link interface is organized - it's not
perfect, but in my opinion better than Windows.

"Indy Tech" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:5IkHc.34352$(E-Mail Removed) gy.com...
> In my experience, 3rd party wireless config software creates issues in Win
> XP. It's included primarily to support Win 9x and Win 2000 users.
>
> JP
>
> "Tom C." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Here's one I thought I'd share with the group.
> >
> > I have a Netgear MR314 wireless router and an SMC-2532W-B pc card in a
> Dell
> > Windows XP Home laptop.
> >
> > The connection wasn't able to hold and would drop off every now and
then.
> > And if it did drop off, I had to go back into the SMC WLAN Utility and
> > double click on my SSID to force a reconnect. That's a pain in the a**.
> >
> > So I called SMC and the gal told me to remove the SMC Utility from the
> > Startup folder and bypass their software completely - not uninstall,
just
> > remove it from starting when Windows starts-up. Then go to the Control
> > Panel - Network Connections folder and right click on the wireless
> > connection, click Properties. Put a check the box for "Use Windows To
> > Configure My Wireless Network Settings". This fixed the problem and
all's
> > well. The connection holds and doesn't need to be manually started when
> the
> > computer is shut down or rebooted.
> >
> > Hope this helps.
> >
> >
>
>

I agree - I wish I could use the SMC utility that came with the card. Seems
to give way more info on the connection and has some nicer features than the
WinXP utility. But, I just couldn't get it to work with my system. So I
guess I'd rather have a connection than none at all.


"gary" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> I've been running the vendor config on a D-Link AWG650 adapter for well
over
> a year on XP Home Edition with no problem. Initially, Windows would
> disconnect me, but as soon as I figured out how to disable zero config,
the
> issue simply disappeared.
>
> One disadvantage of using Windows is that you may lose features. For
> example, the D-Link config supports a full list of four WEP keys, which I
> need to have different transmit and receive keys. Windows config only
> supports one client key. Also, Windows autoconnect does not always work
well
> with APs that disable SSID broadcast, while the D-Link config works just
> fine. Plus, I prefer the way the D-Link interface is organized - it's not
> perfect, but in my opinion better than Windows.