Linksys wifi cards driving me mental

SolarNexus

I have a linksys wireless adsl access point which serves the internet to all the computers in the household, and beyond.

All computers that are equipped with a Linksys wireless network card are just horrible at connecting. For no reason connectivity stops, and wont resume - cant even get an ip address from the dhcp server on the linksys access point. At this very moment, the computer next to me which has one installed cannot get an ip address let alone anything else.

In contrast, any computer that uses another card, this apple iMac for example, or the a Dell Laptop, works fine.

I also rarely (fairly rarely I might add) get the odd software crash/error message when exiting windows from the linksys network monitoring software.

I'll name my first born after anyone who helps me solve this issue, its been bugging me for ages. I'm seriously contemplating dropping the wireless and just moving the access point to the most required location and wire up all the computers there.

A little additional info:

I doubt its signal loss due to the fact that computers within 1ft of each other offer completely different experiences; ones with linksys cards cant get an ip address whilst others can.

looking at the wireless access point from the network connections shows that there is between 60-90% signal quality depending upon the weather. Mostly at somewhere around 79%.

setting a static ip doesnt work either; just confuses matters more by not showing any error messages.

techie

More info needed:

Have you Mac filtering on?
Have you wireless encryption on?
What model is the access point and what firmware version is it?

SolarNexus

I used to have mac filtering, but its currently disabled, either way the linksys machines were included as allowed access

wep is enabled, 128bit pass

router model: wrt54G
firmware version: 1.01.03

also please note that at this time the wifi is working erratically on the machine with the linksys adapter installed, but the connection is significantly more sluggish - less than dialup at times.

techie

I use Linksys all the time, disable WEP and use WPA instead, more secure and also causes less grief, check Linksys website and if available update the firmware and then you should be sorted.

irlrobins

Moving to wireless forum.

And to save me a double post, the firmware on that WRT54G (which is a router and not an AP) is seriously old. Update the firmware on it, and drivers on the linksys cards and it will prob fix.

SolarNexus

I didnt realise there was a wireless forum, sorry about that.


Turns out the model number I gave was incorrect - its a WAG354G, which I can only find GPL source code for. I cant find any 'compiled' firmware.

I like the fact that its open source, but if I cant update it, whats the point.

edit:
and btw, wpa is not an option. literally, not an option on this router.

irlrobins

Try here.

Edit: do you have the WAG354G or WAG54G??

SolarNexus

definitely the wag354g

irlrobins

Ok the link above is valid so. And the datasheet says it provides WPA.

SolarNexus

Thank you.

Everything appears to be working now after a firmware update, and full reset. I hopefully wont have to keep power-cycling (plug out, plug in, plug out etc.) to get the adapters recognised.

I am still surprised that at version 1.05 of the firmware, they're still spelling password as passwrod. Makes me wonder what else they missed, speaking of which, the dhcp button is always disabled even though the dhcp server is active (can still access the dhcp routing table page if I enter it in manually though).

thanks again.

irlrobins

SolarNexus wrote:

I'll name my first born after anyone who helps me solve this issue

Robin is a great name for a kid. It's unisex and all :P

MunsterCycling

God help them... "ROBIN COME IN FOR YOUR DINNER AND STOP ROBBIN THOSE APPLES..." :rolleyes: