Wireless isn't ready for XP.

[JackMDS]

Useful info for the Wirless among us.

Read the content of the following link:

Wireless isn't ready for XP

 

[Jackhamr60504]

Moral of the story - use the Orinoco stuff... I have used their PCMCIA cards, their USB adapters, and a few of their AP's. I have had zero problems under XP.

 

[webninja]

I just set up a wireless LAN using the DLINK router/AP with Orinoco cards (one USB, one PC-Card) and it all installed fine. But now the signal wavers every few hours -trying to track that down, but the install was easy.


dave

 

[c0rv1d43]

Ya, I use the Orinoco cards and USB adapters with a wireless SMC Barricade at home, and it all worked perfectly on the first try. Getting the print server on the router to work did require download and installation of a "monitor" and a step-through posted in the form of a PDF file on SMC's site. Enabling WEP apparently slows data transfers a few percent on the wireless clients, but everything on the little wireless LAN at home is getting along famously. I didn't do much research on the purchases but just tried to judge by how the equipment and documentation looked and "felt". I guess I lucked out because I'm just not used to working with this type of machinery. I would be steamed if I spent a lot of time trying to get my budget house LAN to run only to find out I'd been screwed over this way by the device manufacturers.

I'd call any vendor who call his stuff WinXP-compatible when he's using workarounds like the one described in the article a lying sack of sh*t! I don't see why the author of the article took a shot a Microsoft on this, though. Unless Microsoft actually okayed the drivers / software. However, I didn't get the impression that this was the case.

- Collin

 

[cipher00]

Add the SMC wireless PCMCIA nics to the list.

I tried installing XP on one of my laptops a while back. Everything installed fine. Then I plugged in my SMC 2632W. "Microsoft certifies......and yours ain't certified, buckaroo, so do ya want to continue?" Sure.

XP: "Acckkk! This thing doesn't work. Hold on while I search the 'net for something useful from your friend Microsoft......."

But the laptop can't get to the 'net, because the card doesn't work......

I went back to Win2k Pro and am going to wait until things get sorted out. Or I bother to search MS for a driver that *might" work.

 

[manly]

The D-Link DWL-650, which is another Intersil Prism2 based card, works for me with Winblows XP and D-Link's downloadable XP drivers.

The throughput is a little sluggish though; hopefully it'll be up to speed when I try an ORiNOCO card instead.

 

[SR]

I have a Cisco 342 AP and their pcm342 with no problems. Maybe with the low end gear the problems creep up.

 

[ktwebb]

Yeah, thats an alarmist article. As long as you use Mfg's XP drivers off disk or website instead of the XP base drivers, and setup the LAN manually instead of using the buggy wizard, more often than not, everything will be ok.

 

[Nighthawk69]

I've got ORiNOCO USB adapters for my computers running off of an SMC Wireless Barricade router, but WinXP seems to crash the router every few minutes requiring a reset of the router--Win2k has never ever done that.

The adapters themselves seem to work OK though, too bad the router doesn't or I'd be running XP.

Regards,

 

[JackMDS]

It is really ?sad? beside a nicer interface, the XP mainly supposes to present improvement in Multi-user Network setting.

On the positive side, Win XP (when it is working), is faster and smoother then Win98, or Win2k.
I find XP Home much more cooperative, and less troublesome then Win XP Pro.

My advice if you really don?t run Double CPU, and you don?t have more then 5 computer on your Network, stick with Win XP Home (it is also $100 cheaper).

Here is a collection of Links concerning Win XP networking:

Windows XP Professional .

Windows XP Professional Ed. Sharing Disks /Folders

Windows XP : Access control Via Security.

Windows XP Protocols.

Windows XP Simple File Sharing

XP File Sharing Trouble

Microsoft Networking, WinXp Pro.

 

[c0rv1d43]

<< I've got ORiNOCO USB adapters for my computers running off of an SMC Wireless Barricade router, but WinXP seems to crash the router every few minutes requiring a reset of the router--Win2k has never ever done that.

The adapters themselves seem to work OK though, too bad the router doesn't or I'd be running XP. >>



I can't understand why (or how) WinXP would be crashing the Wireless Barricade. I've installed several of these units on WinXP systems with nary a problem with any of them. I suspect that there may be some other culprit in the mix. Insofar as the router itself is concerned, is it running the latest firmware, version 1.41?

- Collin

 

[Nighthawk69]

No, it is running v1.10, which it came with. I never upgraded it because it was working fine out of the box... I wonder if that would fix it.... I'll take a look at the latest firmware and see if that has a fix in it.

 

[Nighthawk69]

Boom, new firmware fixes the following:

"6. Solve the lock-up issue when communicate with the wireless client which is running windows XP."

That sounds like it is probably the problem...

If I were to install WinXP Pro on a different hard drive (with 2k Pro on my main one) would it automatically dual-boot with the bootloader screen and 2k would still be accessable? I would like to see if this fixes the problem....

Thanks!

 

[Nighthawk69]

Actually, that was the wrong firmware for mine, the one for my 7004AWBR does not have that fix as they have special firmware for this particular product numbered 7004AWBR. Strange...

If what I asked above regarding WinXP will work, I'll give it a try anyway.... Let me know!

Thanks.

 

[SaigonK]

All my cisco stuff works fine with my XP boxes...sad to see some gear doesnt work

 

[c0rv1d43]

Hi,

Sorry to be slow in replying. I was out for a while.

I suspect that you need the firmware upgrade, regardless of what the release notes say. I'm thinking that just about all of these consumer-grade broadband routers were flakey when running their first incarnations of their firmware under WinXP. I think many of the problems may have had something to do with the TCP/IP stack implementation of WinXP not getting along with the firmware.

If I'm understanding your intentions regarding dual booting, yes that should work. There's really no functional difference between installing Win2K on the first physical drive and WinXP on the second physical drive and simply installing Win2K on the first partition of a given physical drive and WinXP on the second partition of that drive. WinXP will place its own boot loader files and make the appropriate changes to the MBR on the first physical drive. The boot.ini file will be written in such a manner as to produce a boot menu for you so that you can choose between operating systems at boot time. You must simply remember that if you ever have to perform a repair on the Win2K installation, you will then have to perform a repair on the WinXP installation. That's because the Win2K repair procedure will replace the WinXP boot loaders with its own, and those won't work for booting WinXP.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and hope that this works out. I've found networking with WinXP to be extremely solid. I'm a relative newcomer to Windows, having started with it just before the release of Win2K. I was horrified by Win98SE and WinME, but have been very surprised and pleased by Win2K and WinXP. (I'm an old big iron and AIX / VMS guy, but I'm no snob.) I'm having the time of my life, information technology-wise, with WinXP. I think it show tremendous promise, and there are so many toys you can use with it!

- Collin

 

[Nighthawk69]

OK, that works great! I got WinXP dual-booted with 2k and 2k still works and the firmware has fixed the WinXP bug!!! I'm a happy camper now! I may go to XP full-time after a couple weeks or so of making sure I like it... wireless was a complete snap this time around--not one problem with the ORiNOCO gear and SMC router!

Thanks for your time! I appreciate it greatly!!

 

[manly]

Strangely enough, the latest firmware update for my Compaq wireless router also describes the same WXP lockup issue

So WXP could be doing something different/unexpected.

I haven't upgraded my router yet since I don't use WXP much; Linux is my primary OS. I'm wondering if/when manufacturers will implement WEPplus or other improved encryption schemes into current products. Agere is the first and only so far.

 

[c0rv1d43]

Hi, Nighthawk69!

Glad to see that it worked out for you! I hope your luck with the OS is as good as mine has been.

- Collin

 

[Nighthawk69]

c0rv1d43: So far my luck has been great this time around with WinXP... thanks for the help!