Wireless PCI Card Issue

[imported_Rusty]

I recently reformatted my computer and had to reinstall the wireless D-Link DWL-G520 wireless PCI card. I followed the instructions from D-Link on how to install the card.

The card works but has a big issue when trying to connect to the network. On startup the D-Link icon is green indicating a good signal but it is not actually connected to the network. I have to go in and manually hit connect to get the network open and access the internet. I did not have this issue prior to the reformatting.

I have disabled Zero Config Wireless in XP Pro.

What else is there to disable?

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

 

[8ballcoupe]

Hi, Rusty. I was involved in your thread over in Operating Systems.

I know that the Wireless Zero Configuration service has had a lot of bad press. I was recommending disabling it (after connection was established) well over a year ago. But all of the wireless clients I've seen lately worked just fine with it. I have been able to use the built-in WinXP SP1 wireless features with Orinoco / Agere, Linksys, Cisco and SMC gear with no headaches at all for quite a few months now. I think that most brand name vendors have kind of caught up firmware-and-driver-wise. (And things should get better with SP2.) That being said, I haven't worked with any DLink stuff. I guess I just want to ask if you tried making it work with just the default setup, with WZC enabled? It might be useful to us to know how the card / wireless client behaves when it's configured a couple of different ways.

At least you have good signal strength. So we can figure that signal is not the issue. If you can tell us that the connection is maintained once you establish it by hitting connect that will help rule out some types of settings issues. Without WZC (or a proprietary replacement) running at startup I wouldn't expect the connection to get established automatically. It never did on systems on which I had disabled WZC. So if just getting the initial connection is the only problem, then maybe all you need to do with WZC is to set it to start automatically.

The problem that many allege that WZC has is that it is too promiscuous. It looks around for other networks and lets you know of their availability, often disconnecting you from the network you want in the process. I have never had that problem on any of our systems -- at least not after setting the client to connect only to infrastructure networks, and not to connect automatically to non-preferred networks. Supposedly this doesn't work so well if SSID broadcast on the router is turned off, but the two Linksys routers with Linksys wireless client networks I set up for two different friends recently had no problem with this. And I know that there are other SSID broadcasts visible in one of those locations. I think this issue must vary depending upon router model / client model / firmware / driver version. There are enough reports of people being unable to maintain consistent connections in the presence of other networks when they have SSID broadcast disabled on their routers that is has to be a real issue. Rumor has it that this problem, among others, may be fixed in SP2.

I'm hoping someone with experience with your specific hardware on this OS will show up to help out. When you're trying to walk on water it's always nice to know where the rocks are.

Ernie

 

[imported_Rusty]

Prior to the reformatting I had the wireless client set to not allow Microsoft to configure my wireless network. I later found the settings option to completely disable the wireless zero configuration. My reason for this was I installed the manufacturer software package and it "was" working well.

Signal strength is good and connection is maintained after I manually get the connection. I would be really surprised if anyone in about 500ft of my residence has a wireless network. The microwave is close to the access point but does not seem to be an issue.

As I am typing this I remembered the firewall was installed after the network card last time. This time I installed the firewall before the network card. Could this be an issue?

 

[8ballcoupe]

Well, if you have the manufacturer's wireless client software (which I know nothing about) installed then I guess you'll need to direct your query along those lines -- to see if someone who has experience with it can help. So, did the manufacturer recommend disabling the WZC service? If not, have you tried enabling it to see what happens? (I suggest NOT doing this if the manufacturer says not to do so.) You more or less have to choose who you want to manage the client, Windows or DLink.

BTW, just for grins, did you check the wireless network settings in the Windows networking applet? Is the "Have Windows manage my wireless network" (That may not be quite the name, but it's close.) UNchecked?

Ernie

 

[imported_Rusty]

The manufacturer has not been much help on this issue. If I have time tonight I will try to contact them again. I am also wondering if the card was possibly damaged when I removed it prior to reformatting (manufacturer install instructions are to install the software and driver then the card). But I had a grounding strap in place and put the card in the anti-static bag after removal.

Also the manufacturer has said nothing about disabling or enabling the wireless zero config. I had it enabled last night with no change in the present problem.

Yes the allow windows to manage my wireless network box is unchecked.

 

[8ballcoupe]

Well, that kind of exhausts my approaches to the problem -- unless you want to go through ALL of the router and wireless client settings one-by-one, something that would probably be best done by you going through one of the how-to step-by-step sites. I strongly suspect that you have already gone through this a number of times. There's always a chance that you might have missed something, but I'm thinking any real help is going to have to come from DLink. Sounds to me like something ain't quite kosher with the wireless client. It's possible a simple software or driver update may fix this behavior. Or it may be necessary to uninstall and reinstall the client while leaving WZC enabled on the system. Sometimes Windows just wants to be told twice!

I doubt very much that you have damaged the wireless network card. These things are actually fairly robust these days, and it sounds as though you took more care with it than most people do.

I'm looking forward to hearing what DLink has to say.

Ernie

 

[imported_Rusty]

Thanks for the help.

I did have the wireless zero config disabled when the card was installed this time. Perhaps this is another source of the problem.

If there is time tonight I will remove the wireless card and all software, then remove the firewall. Reinstall the network card per the manufacturer's instructions and reinstall the firewall. I will leave the wireless zero config enabled this time like it would have been when I first installed the card.

 

[8ballcoupe]

I wish I could be sure that I was being helpful. If you can try connecting to the router (The connection to the Internet through the modem does NOT have to be enabled when you do this.) BEFORE installing the third party firewall software that might be instructive, too. It can be best to try for proper behavior with the simplest configuration first and then add security. Just be sure you get all of the security set up before you finally connect to the Internet.

I'm hoping that this may fix it, but I want you to understand that I was reaching a little when I made the suggestion about uninstalling and reinstalling. It may well work. Sometimes the second attempt just goes better for some reason, and not necessarily because you did anything wrong the first time around. But I would suggest having all of the default services up and running when the wireless client gets installed. If you decide later on to disable any of them, or set any of them to manual, you might want to do them one-at-a-time and test for networking (and other) functionality after each change. That can be a little bit of a chore, but not as much of a chore as making a bunch of changes, suffering failure of something important, and then trying to figure out which change(s) broke your system.

Good luck!

Ernie

 

[imported_Rusty]

Well I worked on it for a bit tonight but no good news.

Here is what I did:

1) Removed hardware from device manager
2) Uninstalled D-Link Utilities
3) Removed D-Link folder
4) Removed D-Link from registry
5) Removed McAfee firewall
6) Shutdown computer
7) Removed PCI card
8) Rebooted
9) Installed D-Link Utilities
10) Shutdown computer
11) Installed PCI card in another slot
12) Rebooted
13) Configured wireless network through D-Link Utilities. Device manager says this is network card #2 and wireless network #4. I also checked in the Add/Remove Programs menu and some of the Win XP updates are gone (probably an unrelated accicdent on my part).
14) Connected to internet
15) Rebooted
16) Problem continues....

I am not having much luck here...any ideas?

 

[8ballcoupe]

You have my sympathies. Sounds like you've done your part.

This is going to turn out to be a) some little thing you've overlooked (unlikely, IMO) or b) some little thing that DLink has overlooked -- in their driver or in their software (likely, IMO). Convincing them of that is not necessarily going to be that easy. If you let them know you're having trouble, and other people let them know the same, then you eventually will get new firmware / driver / software / whatever.

You should talk with them, but you should also keep looking. I took a hard look for references to the DWL-G520 online today, and I didn't find a hint of trouble anywhere. That doesn't mean that no one is having trouble. Is this a pretty newly introduced piece of hardware?

I'm sorry I haven't been of much help. This seems to be "cutting edge" consumer technology. Cutting edge often means you bleed a little for the privilege. I hope someone with experience with this hardware will be good enough to drop into your thread to give you a hand. I can't think of any setting, other than the one I already mentioned, that would prevent you from connecting automatically and yet behave itself perfectly in all other ways. That is the situation, isn't it?

Ernie

 

[dmcowen674]

I've had and seen the same kind of trouble.

There are other ways to, what I call "Shoehorn" in the hardware. You can go through device manager and force a driver update. You can go through the add new hardware wizard.

Also I've seen removing the software but not uninstalling the hardware work a few times. Bizzare but it works especially on laptops.

No indication that the device is in the system yet it works.

Just when I thought we made some progress with XP it seems we are going backwards again.

 

[imported_Rusty]

Well, it appears as this may be an OE problem on my part. I found a thread though google about a problem similar to mine. It had to do with the winsock (I think that is correct) being corrupted during the installation. The corruption comes from having a firewall or virus scan enabled while trying to install the hardware.

While there was a patch for the problem my solution is going to be reformat and make no changes to XP until all of the hardware is loaded. I do not know if I want to exchange the card for another before reinstalling though. The positive of all this is I found how to use WPA-PSK on my network.

 

[8ballcoupe]

-- crosses fingers --

Please post back to let us know how it goes. Good luck!

Ernie

 

[imported_Rusty]

Update: 6.12.2004

I am pleased to report that this message was sent on my computer. The network card went in much better without the firewall in place and by comparison the firewall went in better with the network card installed.

Wireless zero configuration is on automatic for now, it may change later though. Windows is not managing my wireless network as the D-Link software is in place. Also WPA-PSK is enabled as opposed to WEP 128-bit. The signal "seems" to be better than before so hopefully everything continues to go well.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[8ballcoupe]

This is very good news. I'm glad you got it figure out and working more to your satisfaction. Thank you for letting us know.

Ernie