Eliminating winXP wireless zero config; linksys wusb11 drivers

[YankeePork]

I'm using a linksys wireless usb network adapter to connect to an access point in another part of my house, but I experience moments of lag, 404 errors, etc that last only a second or two. I've been told that this is the winXP "wireless zero config" looking for available wireless networks at regular intervals. Someone suggested that I stop this, and install linksys drivers for the network adapter in win2k compatibility mode, it had worked for them.

So I stopped and disabled the zero config utility, rebooted, and then ran the drivers for the linksys wusb11 v2.6 in win2k compatibility mode, but when I reboot after installation there are no available wireless networks. In fact if I click on "view available wireless networks" the whole window is grayed out. I've tried using the older drivers, 2.5 and 2.0, but they dont work either.

I was looking at the help file which wasn't very helpful, but it showed a bunch of options pages: Linkinfo, Configuration, Site Survey, Encryption, Advanced and About. How do I get to these? I have not set anything on these pages, that's probably me problem. But when I try and run the WUSB11Cfg app it says that application is already running. I can stop it with the task manager, but when I restart it manually I still dont have the ability to edit these options, nor can I find the options anywhere under Network Connections.

Any ideas?

 

[andyfasthands]

I was setting up a computer with the Linksys USB Wireless Network adapter today and experienced major lag, although the configuration utility reported an "excellent" and "strong" connection to the Mac Airport. I would also appreciate an answer...

 

[orion7144]

Click on start than find my computer (this is from memory may be control panel) Right click and select manage and then under services find the zero config and disable it.

 

[mcveigh]

I have had major problems with the latest WUSB11 software, I have reverted back to their previous version. (can't remember which version though)

 

[prosaic]

I experimented with the TEMPORARY stopping (NOT the disabling) of Wireless Zero Configuration a few months ago to help prevent periodic lagging and / or loss of connections to wireless networks. But you don't disable the service. If you do, then you won't be getting a connection at all.

There are a lot of different factors at work here. First of all you have to realize that you don't see periodic lagging of a connection because of WZC unless there are problems with NIC drivers, NIC firmware, or AP / Wireless Router firmware. The real fix is good equipment, up-to-date firmware, and good drivers.

You eliminate the lagging and recurrent disconnection problems by establishing the wireless connection first THEN stopping the WZC service. You don't have to do that through the admin tools GUI. Just create a batch file containing

net stop wzcsvc

and make a shortcut to it for your desktop or wherever. You connect, you use the shortcut, and the Wireless Zero Configuration service stops messing with the connection. You make another batch file containing

net start wzcsvc

so that you can turn the service back on. (If you don't disable it and change its startup behavior from the default the service will restart automatically the next time you restart the system, too.)

When it comes time to establish a wireless connection in Windows XP you won't be accomplishing that without that service running, AFAIK.

Other things to check:

Turn off promiscuous mode. / Tell the clients to connect ONLY to infrastructure (APs/routers). No ad hoc, no non-preferred networks. That changes WZCSVC's behavior.

And if you are actually getting disconnected every three minutes then turn off 802.1x authentication. You don't need it and aren't supposed to be using it without a RADIUS server. Windows XP will disconnect every three minutes (default value) if that authentication is turned on and there is no certificate being issued. This bit me once even though I already knew about it. It turns out that some Windows XP installations just turn that authentication back on under certain circumstances -- especially when you are applying updates to the OS. I had a notebook disconnecting every three minutes, but I stubbornly refused to check the authentication setting because I KNEW that I had set it right! Well, I had set it right, but Windows had turned it back on for me. (NOTE: I don't think this is an intended behavior for the OS. I think it just happens. On some notebooks I've never seen the problem. On others, it is a recurrent issue.)

I hope some of this rambling may be useful to someone.

- prosaic

Remember what I said about stopping the service not being a "fix". If all of the OS settings are correct and you are seeing frequent lagging or disconnections then you need proper equipment / firmware / drivers / combination of all three. It is high time that the vendors got their stuff together on this issue. *grumble, grumble*

 

[orion7144]

The only way I get a stable connection is to disable it. I know With the Dlink you have to install the software for it then disable the Zero config, reboot and put in the adapter or else it will not work correctly. Main problems are a dropped connection every few hours requiering a reboot. The MS KB articles say that you should use either the Zero config or the adapters software but not both or it may cause conflicks.

Originally posted by: prosaic
I experimented with the TEMPORARY stopping (NOT the disabling) of Wireless Zero Configuration a few months ago to help prevent periodic lagging and / or loss of connections to wireless networks. But you don't disable the service. If you do, then you won't be getting a connection at all.

There are a lot of different factors at work here. First of all you have to realize that you don't see periodic lagging of a connection because of WZC unless there are problems with NIC drivers, NIC firmware, or AP / Wireless Router firmware. The real fix is good equipment, up-to-date firmware, and good drivers.

You eliminate the lagging and recurrent disconnection problems by establishing the wireless connection first THEN stopping the WZC service. You don't have to do that through the admin tools GUI. Just create a batch file containing

net stop wzcsvc

and make a shortcut to it for your desktop or wherever. You connect, you use the shortcut, and the Wireless Zero Configuration service stops messing with the connection. You make another batch file containing

net start wzcsvc

so that you can turn the service back on. (If you don't disable it and change its startup behavior from the default the service will restart automatically the next time you restart the system, too.)

When it comes time to establish a wireless connection in Windows XP you won't be accomplishing that without that service running, AFAIK.

Other things to check:

Turn off promiscuous mode. / Tell the clients to connect ONLY to infrastructure (APs/routers). No ad hoc, no non-preferred networks. That changes WZCSVC's behavior.

And if you are actually getting disconnected every three minutes then turn off 802.1x authentication. You don't need it and aren't supposed to be using it without a RADIUS server. Windows XP will disconnect every three minutes (default value) if that authentication is turned on and there is no certificate being issued. This bit me once even though I already knew about it. It turns out that some Windows XP installations just turn that authentication back on under certain circumstances -- especially when you are applying updates to the OS. I had a notebook disconnecting every three minutes, but I stubbornly refused to check the authentication setting because I KNEW that I had set it right! Well, I had set it right, but Windows had turned it back on for me. (NOTE: I don't think this is an intended behavior for the OS. I think it just happens. On some notebooks I've never seen the problem. On others, it is a recurrent issue.)

I hope some of this rambling may be useful to someone.

- prosaic

Remember what I said about stopping the service not being a "fix". If all of the OS settings are correct and you are seeing frequent lagging or disconnections then you need proper equipment / firmware / drivers / combination of all three. It is high time that the vendors got their stuff together on this issue. *grumble, grumble*

 

[prosaic]

Well, that would explain the difference in our experience. I refuse to use third party client software for wireless configuration after having been abused by the Orinoco stuff a few months ago. I just make sure that the hardware and drivers I use work properly with the client Windows provides. Anything that doesn't work with the OS gets tossed.

There does seem to be a consensus on this from the standpoint that you go all one way or all the other way.

- prosaic

 

[orion7144]

I use the Dlink stuff which in my opinion is 1st party not 3rd. And also since they have the 4X mode, that you can use if running the zero config, my xfer rates are much better (not the 44mbs they claim but more than double of the zero config).

Originally posted by: prosaic
Well, that would explain the difference in our experience. I refuse to use third party client software for wireless configuration after having been abused by the Orinoco stuff a few months ago. I just make sure that the hardware and drivers I use work properly with the client Windows provides. Anything that doesn't work with the OS gets tossed.

There does seem to be a consensus on this from the standpoint that you go all one way or all the other way.

- prosaic

 

[prosaic]

Whether you think of it as first party or third party depends, I suppose, on your outlook. To me everything revolves around the OS, whichever I happen to be using at the moment. I install just as little as possible under the OS on a critical machine, and only that after thorough testing on systems that are reserved strictly for testing purposes. I'll use an operating system's own option or feature whenever feasible rather than something written by another party -- because, if the people who wrote the OS are doing their job, their own components have been tested against the rest of the system far more thoroughly than those from other sources.

And, if the people who wrote the OS aren't doing their job, I probably shouldn't be using it in the first place. Old-timer's philosophy gleaned from having seen just a little too much innovation with a little bit too little thought behind it. YMMV.

I have to admit that some of the botched security updates from MS in the past few months have started making me wonder. I have a big iron background and used to feel some disdain for what I saw rolling out of Redmond. Then I started getting the idea that they were really beginning to nail things down. That's hard for them to do considering their user base (both its extensiveness and its variability). But a security patch ought not to do more harm that whatever it was that it was intended to fix. Q811493 managed to mess up a couple of system configurations to the point where the long-term solution for fixing them was a clean reinstallation. (This extreme case was very dependent upon the installation and configuration history of the machines, but those machines had been handled very carefully. Having to reconfigure them from the ground up was something that put a little sand in my salad.)

- prosaic