Help: D-Link wireless DWL-650+ card quit responding to DI-614+ Router

[dakata24]

had these both since around early december (got the di-614+ from black friday bestbuy sale for $50 AR).

all setup fine and dandy without a hitch. just as easy as setting up my wired linksys router when i got it a few years ago. just a few more settings like creating WEP keys, MAC address filtering, etc. i use static ips on all my systems. didnt use the wireless much (just got it cuz i got also got the toshiba laptop for $650 at black friday as well) just cuz it was so cheap. but had been working flawlessly. hadnt installed anything new (in fact, i even reinstalled WIN XP to make sure that wasnt part of the problem)

well, fast forward to now, i cannot get a wireless connection if my life depended on it.

the toshiba is running Windows XP Home and had the 2.2b drivers for the DWL-650+ wireless card. and the DI-614+ had the 2.10 firmware (that i originally had when i first set it up and was working fine)

ive tried everything. power cycling, hard reset (to default settings). turning off WEP, changing the SSID to default.

when i have SSID broadcast disabled, im not able to see the router at all when i goto site survey in the dlink wireless utility. when i turn SSID broadcast enabled, i can see the router, but if i recall correctly, the little icon should have a red lines to tell that it's broadcasting or something? and all i get is that black tower thing icon.

ive even tried setting up the laptop DHCP and that didnt work as well. of course it wouldnt, it cant even find the router at all.

im at a loss of words. i dont know what else i could be missing. ive also upgraded to the latest firmware.drivers (firmware 2.16beta for the di-614 and drivers 3.00beta for the DWL-650+) to no avail.

i notice that when i goto the stats page, no matter what i have it set to, that the Recieve never receives any packets (always = 0) and even with SSID enabled, the Transmit packets is very low (i had it disabled which then i had # of transmit packets = 0) and now after enabling it and refreshing after a min or two, it just says transmit packets = 1. shouldnt it be creating more traffic since it's broadcasting the SSID?)

i dont think i clearly spelled everyting out. sorry, i can clarify anything if needed.

i'd appreciate any help. thanks

 

[amnesiac]

Is windows finding the wifi card ok? Because I made the initial mistake of installing the card before loading the drivers off cd and that caused some problems..

have you tried reinstalling the drivers for the card?

How far is the router from the base station?

Also when the network is enabled the icon in the networking menu should be jsut the black antenna, no red lines.

*edit*

IM me at amnesiacv2 and I'll try to help you out

 

[passivex]

Solution: test out the wirless adapter when it's next to the router. If that works then move it away from the router to determine range.

I have the same router but using it with a belkin USB adapter. I used to get extremely poor reception at around 50 feet (with about 5 walls in between). My reception kept jumping around 2-7%. After upgrading the driver on the USB adapter, everything went up to around 50-70%. Try to use winXP's Wireless Zero-point configuration service instead. it works very well.

Also, check the default SSID on your adapter. It should be set to ANY or the ssid that you chose on the router. It is a good idea to set the SSID on the router, disable WEP, enable SSID broadcast (no wireless access is possible with this feature disabled no matter what SSID you set on both devices). Also, don't forget the broadcast channel. Set it to a certain channel on both devices.


Hope this helps.

 

[dakata24]

tested the wireless card next to the router but still no connection.

windows Xp detects the wireless card alright (even tried it in the other PCMCIA slot). device manager says it's working properly.

tried using the default settings ( SSID set to default for both router/wireless card, Wep Off, and SSID broadcast enabled) with no luck.

no wireless access is possible with this feature disabled no matter what SSID you set on both devices

until it quit on me, it was working fine with SSID disabled on the router. the laptop had no problem finding the router and worked flawlessly until now.

thanks for the suggestions.. im going to try every combination of drivers/firmware and see if taht will solve this problem. i'm about to goto bed, but when i get at it agau sometime tomorrow, will definately IM you for some help amnesiac. thanks alot.

 

[dakata24]

havent had time to mess with the wireless, so..

BUMP! for any other suggestions until i do. ty

 

[Cybordolphin]

I am having a similar problem.

No matter what router I try to connect to, the wireless card just cycles on (connection found), then off (loses connection), within a few moments. Keeps dropping the connection.

I have tried installing the driver software prior to installing the card, and also made sure to use the newest drivers.

 

[dakata24]

ok, finally had time to mess with this. downloaded the latest non-beta firmware (dated late march). uninstalled old wireless card drivers plys the d-link utility, shutdown, removed wireless card, installed new drivers for wireless card, and then re-inserted wireless card into pcmcia slot. first took the router out of the loop and re-installed my linksys befsr41 to my network just to be on the safe side and so i can mess with it and not disconnect everyone else from the internet.

i think it's faulty hardware. not sure whether it's the wireless card or the router. reason being, when i set everything up (ssid broadcast on, wep off, etc. default settings and my laptop using a static ip), the only time it will connect is when i physically bring the router to like 6 inches away from the laptop. when i tried it with it like a foot away, it wouldnt connect. but bring it really close, it's able to establish a connection. afterwards, im able to move around the house and still keep the connection. though im unable to ping the router with the wireless connection (able to ping the router fine when connected to a hardline)

so i guess it can either be the antennas, the router itself (though the M2 light isnt light which is supposed to indicate a router failure), or the wireless card (though device manager says it's working properly). anyone care to guess which it might be from my description of my testing?

 

[Cybordolphin]

I have tried everything, and still cannot get a working connection, Mine just kees cycling the connection ... on .. then off.

I tried every driver they have. made sure to install drivers first. I have two other cards that work just fine (different brands).

Anyone else have a problem with this card?

 

[NICKel]

Hey, just wanted to thank everyone ... I was killing myself for 4 hrs wondering why I couldn't connect my laptop after intialling setting up WEP ... Doh! I shut off SSID !! no wonder I couldn't freaking see the router! Sometimes its the little things ... Oh and updated my drivers for my SMC card.... seems much faster now!

 

[dakata24]

good to hear you got it solved. on my end, i thought it was the router so i RMA'd it. got the new one. and it still was acting the same way. ended up buying another wireless router (netgear mr814) and it did the same. no connect unless i get close. so.... as it seems, it's the pc card that is defective... time to RMA again..

 

[dlk9s]

dakata24 --

Without getting into the sordid details, I have pretty much the identical problem you have, except mine is with the DWL-120 (wireless NIC - usb adapter) for my desktop. I have the DWL-650 for my laptop, which works perfectly fine, both connected to the DI-713P router.

I think it's a D-Link problem with XP Home compatibility. I say this because a) you are having problems with XP Home, and b) my card was working brilliantly with Win 98SE. Just got a souped up Dell a couple weeks ago with XP Home and the adapter won't work. Same stuff - windows says it's working fine, everything is set up right, I took off all security, etc., but it's not finding the network. My laptop has XP Pro.

I, too, RMAed the thing (bought it late last summer) and received my replacement adapter this past Friday, 6/20. Installed exactly how the instructions said, and no dice. Another thing that makes me think it's an XP Home compatibility issue is that at least in the DWL-120's case, the enclosed CD does not come with XP drivers - you have to download them plus download different install procedures.

I called D-Link back Friday night and told them I would like them to send me an updated version of the product that would be compatible with XP Home, since this one is obviously not. Of course, they won't do that - will only replace the exact same item. After they offered to send yet another one to me, I told them to forget it and just have UPS pick the one up I just received. Problem is, they won't do that until they know for sure that it's defective. So, I now have to be on the phone at 6:30pm today with a "product specialist" going through all the troubleshooting steps only to find out it won't work.

I bought an SMC wireless usb adapter for $50 a couple weeks ago and it worked on the first try. It ain't my computer that's screwed up - it's D-Link.