Welcome to life in 802.11b/g compatibility hell.
I setup my neighbors ancient Micron Transport XKE laptop with a DLink DWL-G630 ver A1 PCCard 802.11g card. New installation running Windoze
98SE with all the latest updates and bug fixes. No worms or virus problems. Encryption turned off. DWL-630 driver is 1.00 (original version) from the Dlink web site.In my palatial office, the DWL-G630 worked just fine at 11Mbits/sec with my DLink DI-614+ router. I did lots of file copies so I know it was working.
I drag it home and try it with my BEFW11S4 v4 router, also 802.11b only, and find that I have a problem. It intially associates, give me excellent signal strength and S/N ratio numbers, but then disconnects after about 30 seconds. No amount of button clicking on the DLink AirLink plus driver utility will bring the connection back. Site survey shows no access points, even though there are 4 within range. Eventually the AirLinks software hangs. Tinkering with the wireless settings didn't fix it.
If I unplug the card, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in, it will come back to life as if nothing had ever happened. However, after about 30 seconds, it starts to screw up again and eventually hang.
I setup a WRT54G v1.1 router running Sveasoft 4.0, the DWL-G630 which works just fine. I did some testing just be sure and methinks it works exactly as it did with the DI-614+ router.
So, duz anyone have any idea why the DWL-G630 and BEFW11S4 don't get along and why this incompatibility would hang the wireless driver on the laptop?