Less than Positive Experience installing Linksys WPC54G/WRT54G on Win2K SP4.

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snowdog512 21 years ago

Hoping this will help someone else that's in Linksys Techsupport Hell

(if you've called them you know what I mean).

I bought the router and wireless adapter from BestBuy. Had no trouble

installing the router at all but the adapter was a problem. Following

the instructions and installing with the wizard resulted in the

following error:

Installation Failed

ErrorCode=-3

ErrorDesc=Required data not found or disk space not enough.

After spending a day and a half running around with Linksys techsupport

(their final analysis was some registry lock problem and that I had to

call MicroSoft), I struck out to surf the various forums I could find.

I found that I was not the only one with this problem as was implied

by Linksys TS's lack of insight. I had even gone so far as to buy a

separate WPC11 Linksys adapter (one of their suggestions) and try that

but had the same result. I was able to have my laptop (Dell C600)

recognize the WRT54G adapter without any problems and it seemed to

install the drivers automatically but it wouldn't connect to the router

and I had no monitor program due to the above error. When I did the

same with the WPC11 adapter I had bought, it installed the drivers and

amazingly it connected to the router!! Of course I still had no

monitor to view signal strength but I figured if that could connect

with the WPC11 then there was no reason I couldn't get the WRT54G

adapter working.

I started from scratch and tried installing from the

'

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files

instead of the CD and still had the same problem. So after about a

million reboots and more than twice as many curses, I realized that the

downloaded stuff (and probably the stuff on the CD) had ./Autostart and

./Utility directories. So I double-clicked on the Setup.exe in the

./Utility directory. This launched a less fancy (ie. more useful)

installation wizard. It worked fine with the exception of a "Severe"

error popup referring to a problem reading a key from the registry (but

it didn't specify which key). After clicking to the popup, the

installation wizard continued fine. When all was said and done the

wireless monitor was working finally.

I still didn't have a wireless connection though. The monitor gave an

inaccurate status saying I was connected to the router but the router

was not connected to the internet. If I plugged in a wired connection

to the router then I had connectivity (obviously) and the monitor was

happy. I went into the Network and Dial-up Connections portion of the

Control Panel and disabled the Local Area Network connection. After

waiting a few minutes, the wireless adapter suddenly connected to the

router and now seems to work fine.

Anyway, I plan on sending this back to Linksys with my rather low opion

of their Techsupport service and would advise everyone else who had

problems to do the same. Hopefully if they get enough negative

feedback they might actually improve things (but I'm not holding my

breath).

mike

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Jeff Liebermann 21 years ago

I've seen this before once. It was caused by spyware trying to modify the registry at the same time as the installation. Only one program can scribble to the registry at a time. Methinks (not sure) that Linksys non-cleverly tries to hold the registry open and locked for most of the installation. If another program comes along and wants to make changes to the registry, you get a lock error or some bogus error message.

Yep. That's it. My traditional guess(tm) is spyware. However, with all the installs and removals of software you've been doing in the last day and a half, methinks it best to roll back the system to where it was before you started. You didn't bother to specify the operating system, but if it's XP Pro, run the "System Restore" and roll it back to before where you started. If XP Home, my may be lucky and had some program create a restore point for you. The Dell C600 comes with XP so it's a fairly good guess.

For Spyware removal, I use two programs as I can't seem to find one that catches everything. Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D. Both are free and available from:

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would also suggest running a virus scan with whatever program you find useful.

Time for a mini-rant. You should try doing system troubleshooting over the telephone. It's not easy. It's like back seat driving while blindfolded. However, you're correct about their lack of insight. The common trend in this newsgroup is for people to supply a detailed and often artistic description of what they had done, without supplying any information about what problem they are trying to solve or what hardware/software they have to work with. That makes "insight" important as my crystal ball and Ouija Board run on insight.

That should be a clue. The chances of two different card drivers having the same error are quite small. That also limits the cause of the problem to something in your operating system.

Ok, you have it partially installed. The monitor icon in the system tray probably (not sure) is initiated (started) by the driver. If the driver doesn't start, the icon won't appear. Methinks you're seeing the effects of a partial driver install, not a seperate problem.

The Netgear monitor icon and Wireless Zero Config are mutually hostile. I've seen systems where either the Netgear monitor, WZC icon, or sometimes both appear. However, this is the first time I've heard of neither one appearing. I suggest you dive into: Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Services and disable (not remove) Wireless Zero Config, and see if the Netgear icon appears.

Ok, you win, maybe.

Hold on. My idea of "connected" includes delivering a DHCP assigned IP address from the router. What did you get? Start -> Run -> cmd to get an MSDOS window. Run: ipconfig If the wireless IP address is 169.254.xxx.xxx, you didn't get a DHCP assigned IP address. If it's 192.168.1.xxx, then it's working. If it's 0.0.0.0, the driver is toast or you didn't give it enough time.

Ok, so we can assume that the router is working normally on the LAN ports.

Oh good. It's working, maybe. However, it doesn't sound like this is going to be a particularly reliable connection if it takes that long to connect. Something is still busted. Incidentally, while you're in the Network window in the Control Panel, see if you have a "Network Bridge" icon. If so, remove it as it screws up connectivity. Here's what it looks like:

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rid of it.

Yep. Tech support is responsible for fixing what methinks is a screwed up XP system. Methinks if you tried some of the other vendors tech support, your results and probably your opinion of their "insight" would be similar.

Well, let's see.... You probably spent about 2 hours on the phone with free tech support. My guess is that cost Linksys for outsourced support about $60. The WPC54G cost about $50 with about $5 profit to Linksys. Therefore, if 12 people bought WPC54G cards, and you were the only one to call tech support with a problem, Linksys would break even. How much more are you willing to pay to have support improve?

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RED 21 years ago

Don't you love the Tech Support Gurus from Bangledesh!!!!

Will we ever see good old American tech support again? We have just switched over to an outsource group in Bagalore at Honeywell, and it is Customer Service HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jeff Liebermann 21 years ago

They're the only people on the planet that can tolerate the job. Burnout rate for domestic tech support people was about 18 months average and about 12 months median (half the people quit within 12 months).

Probably not. Think of it as a subtle hint to learn the programs, operating system, hardware, and RTFM to be able to support your own job function or system. This way you won't need to deal with Bangalore support. There is some hope as Dell is fighting the trend:

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(Hint: I buy and recommend LOTS of Dell hardware).

No, I think you mean internal support hell. Customer Service is for paying customers, not employees.

This is for ISP's, not wireless hardware vendors, but there are quite a few domestic outsourced support companies.

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, that doesn't come close to the number of such companies in India:

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, reading the "Outsourcing Times" should ruin your day:

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Si Ballenger 21 years ago

There is plenty of good old *american* tech support available at your local full service computer store. Just look in the yellow pages. When you decide to be cheap and buy discount at BestBuy you are agreeing to solve your issues yourself. I doubt that there is anything wrong with the equipment. Sounds like it is some type of issue with your computer.

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