Warning - Netgear WG311T drivers (PCI wireless card)

Here's something I discovered by bitter experience, which I'll pass on to
avoid anyone else being frustrated:

The Netgear WG311T PCI wireless card fails to be detected by Plug and Play
if you use the latest non-beta drivers from the web - Software Version 3.2.
Having installed these drivers, when you plug the card in and boot up again,
P&P detects it as "Ethernet Card" rather than "Netgear WG311T" which means
that the drivers do not get associated with the card. The drivers that I've
downloaded are definitely for the WG311T rather than the WG311 (spot the
far-too-subtle difference!).

Instead you need to use the drivers on the CD that come with the card. As a
matter of course when installing hardware, I have tended to download the
latest drivers in preference to using the older ones on the CD. I'll rethink
that policy...

I've raised it as a support thread on Netgear's site and several other
people have responded to say that they are getting exactly the same
symptoms. The URL is http://forum1.netgear.com/support/viewtopic.php?t=7671.
One response on the thread seems to imply that there might be two different
versions of WG311T card in circulation, even though Netgear's web site
doesn't mention this on their driver-download page.

In article <42bfd991$0$2050$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Martin Underwood says...

> I've raised it as a support thread on Netgear's site and several other
> people have responded to say that they are getting exactly the same
> symptoms. The URL is http://forum1.netgear.com/support/viewtopic.php?t=7671.
> One response on the thread seems to imply that there might be two different
> versions of WG311T card in circulation, even though Netgear's web site
> doesn't mention this on their driver-download page.
>
Each card has a PCI ID. That PCI ID needs to be present in the .inf
file accompanying the driver.


--
Conor

-You wanted an argument? Oh I'm sorry, but this is abuse. You want room
K5, just along the corridor. Stupid git. (Monty Python)

Conor wrote:
> In article <42bfd991$0$2050$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> Martin Underwood says...
>
>> I've raised it as a support thread on Netgear's site and several
>> other people have responded to say that they are getting exactly the
>> same symptoms. The URL is
>> http://forum1.netgear.com/support/viewtopic.php?t=7671. One response
>> on the thread seems to imply that there might be two different
>> versions of WG311T card in circulation, even though Netgear's web
>> site doesn't mention this on their driver-download page.
>>
> Each card has a PCI ID. That PCI ID needs to be present in the .inf
> file accompanying the driver.

I think you'll find the downloaded drivers should update the drivers on the
CD ok.

--
Alan

(E-Mail Removed)
(viciously spam-filtered)

"Alan Walker" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:zf2we.11283$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Conor wrote:
>> In article <42bfd991$0$2050$(E-Mail Removed)>,
>> Martin Underwood says...
>>
>>> I've raised it as a support thread on Netgear's site and several
>>> other people have responded to say that they are getting exactly the
>>> same symptoms. The URL is
>>> http://forum1.netgear.com/support/viewtopic.php?t=7671. One response
>>> on the thread seems to imply that there might be two different
>>> versions of WG311T card in circulation, even though Netgear's web
>>> site doesn't mention this on their driver-download page.
>>>
>> Each card has a PCI ID. That PCI ID needs to be present in the .inf
>> file accompanying the driver.
>
> I think you'll find the downloaded drivers should update the drivers on
> the
> CD ok.

Except that the installation instructions tell you to uninstall an old
version before installing a newer version, so you don't get the chance to
upgrade an existing version.

Looks as if there's a mismatch between the PCI IDs in the .inf files and the
one that the card presents to P&P.

I've still not had any sort of response from Netgear after I raised it as a
bug...