Edimax EW-7128G 54Mbps Wireless PCI Card

[jotch]

Hi,

This thing is kicking my a$$...I have a cable modem (NTL) and it's in the lounge so rather than having a long cable through to my office I thought I'd get a Linksys WRT54GC v2 router and an Edimax EW-7128G PCI wireless network card. Plugged it all in, set it up correctly and got the router working when wired from my ethernet network connection, access to the internet and everything works through the network ports on the router. Setup the WEP code so that it's secure and switched to wireless.

It worked...so to make sure that it's working correctly I shut down the PC and tried to connect through wireless again...it worked for about 3mins and it then dropped the connection...odd, I thought...so, disabled the wireless and plugged in the ethernet cable to make sure it's all still working and it was, I could access the internet and everything. Back to wireless and it lasted about 3mins and then dropped, repair connection..."limited connectivity".

What is that I've got to do to get this thing working permanently!? Why does it drop the connection?

If there's more info you need to help with a solution then let me know and I'll provide it, but any help will be grately appreciated...I'm starting to think that they're not compatible.

Currently running windows XP Pro.
DHCP is on auto.
TCP/IP is on auto as is DNS.
WEP is on and the configuration utility matches the WEP code.

I'll provide some ipconfig for the connections later if needed.

Rich.

 

[nweaver]

I would start by moving the machine closer to the router (same room) and turn of WEP. Test it for a while, then turn WEP on, and test again (note, I would use WPA PSK if possible). Then turn WEP off and move to the other room, test again, turn encryptiong back on and test again.

 

[jotch]

Originally posted by: nweaver
I would start by moving the machine closer to the router (same room) and turn of WEP. Test it for a while, then turn WEP on, and test again (note, I would use WPA PSK if possible). Then turn WEP off and move to the other room, test again, turn encryptiong back on and test again.

I've got it in the same room, so that's not an issue....I'll turn all security off and see if I can keep a stable connection, if I can't I'll be back on here asking for any ideas that might help...I'll be home from work in a couple of hours and will be able to see if the security is the issue.

Thanks for the response.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Update the drivers to the latest from the RALink website. Use the RALink management software instead of XP's. That's how mine worked when I was using it in Windows.

 

[jotch]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Update the drivers to the latest from the RALink website. Use the RALink management software instead of XP's. That's how mine worked when I was using it in Windows.

Thanks for the suggestion, I thought I'd upgraded that but after looking at the RALink website I don't think I have...will do that first. Thanks.

 

[jotch]

Originally posted by: jotch

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Update the drivers to the latest from the RALink website. Use the RALink management software instead of XP's. That's how mine worked when I was using it in Windows.

Thanks for the suggestion, I thought I'd upgraded that but after looking at the RALink website I don't think I have...will do that first. Thanks.

Looks like that has done the trick...boy do I feel silly...I'd got the edimax update but not the ralink one...d'oh!

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: jotch

Originally posted by: jotch

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Update the drivers to the latest from the RALink website. Use the RALink management software instead of XP's. That's how mine worked when I was using it in Windows.

Thanks for the suggestion, I thought I'd upgraded that but after looking at the RALink website I don't think I have...will do that first. Thanks.

Looks like that has done the trick...boy do I feel silly...I'd got the edimax update but not the ralink one...d'oh!

Don't feel silly. There's a lot of RALink bashing around, and I think it's because the drivers are a bit picky about certain things. I personally love the chip.

 

[jotch]

Well the card still isn't enjoying WEP and for some reason I can only set up WPA so that it changes the Passcode every day....how does that work?!

I currently don't have a laptop so this means that all the admin is done wirelessly and as soon as I lose connection or access to the admin stuff on my router then I've got to lug my PC about, which isn't the point of this wireless network......I've currently just setup some mac filtering and stopped broadcasting my SSID so hopefully it should stop the casual hacker...hopefully.

 

[n0cmonkey]

What's happening with WEP? What WPA options are you using?

 

[jotch]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
What's happening with WEP? What WPA options are you using?

Well WEP 128-bit likes to drop the connection after about 2-3mins like the initial problem, I was having, so I've put it down to WEP security just not working for this combination of router and card, 64-bit was the same. I've got all the latest drivers for the hardware, so it's not that anymore.

I've got the options of WPA and WPA 2 but both have these timeout settings...between 1 and 99999 seconds for the passphrase, and without a cabled connection to the router changing the passphrase each time becomes annoying. Why does the WPA security have a timeout on the passphrases?