WG511V2 disconnection and dropped out problem

Hi Bob!

I have similar problems with the WG511v2 and I'm trying to fix them at the moment. I also had a WG511v1 and gave it to my girlfriend. Two weeks ago I bought a WG511v2 and installed it into my notebook. I installed the WG511v2 utility + driver from the original CD and we used it with WEP for a while with a WGR614v2 Netgear Wireless Router. After some hours of use the connection to the router always dropped and I had to restart the router. I think the problem was the router and I hate this router because I had different problems with it and there are no more firmware updates. But as we all know this is what Netgear does - every couple of months they release a new HW version (most products have version 6 or so) and if you have an older hardware you never get updates for it... So I bought a new Linksys WRT54GS router where one can install any open source firmware. I installed the latest DD-WRT mod and it is amazing what you get - you can configure anything you like and I don't have to reboot the router any more. So based on my experience I give an advice to all who hate those little Firmware problems or features missing (with Netgear, D-Link and whatever). Buy only products like the Linksys router where you can put your own open source firmware and where you have normal stable Linux running. You won't be dependent on one company and a few developers who are not able to fix their bugs. But back to the WG511v2. A few days ago I swiched to WPA-PSK and since then I have the same problems like you. The WG511v2 software seems to run only if there is a very strong signal. I have the impression that the connection drops if the signal becomes worse. Just like you say - everything shows to be still connected but the internet connection is actually gone. I also noticed that the Netgear icon becomes yellow before the connection drops. And in contrast to the netgear utility, Windows shows most of the time a weak signal, maybe because of WPA-PSK. As far as I can see you can't download only a new driver from Netgear's page (without the wireless utility). I also tried to download the new version 2.3.x software from netgear but it does not install on my German windows because they did not make the installer for international WinXP versions (it looks for a use Guest which is not present) - thanks again Netgear - I hope many people are reading this. I wrote to the Netgear Support but unfortunately their support page was down today - what a pitty ;-) Finally I completely removed the Netgear utility and installed only the driver from the CD. The driver itself is version 3.1.0.19. Now with Windows controlling the wireless connection it seems to work (no disconnection in the last few hours). BTW: Before that I also tried to turn on SSID broadcasting and to apply this strange registry AuthMode patch but this did not solve my disconnection problems :-( Oh, regarding the new Netgear software: Because my girlfriend has an english WinXp I installed the WG511v2 with the latest 2.3.x software on her notebook too. When she started to browse her computer displayed a bluescreen time to time and rebooted. The WG511v1 software seems to be definitely more stable. That's enough dear Netgear...

Best regards, Anguel

I don't say Linksys is better than Netgear or D-Link. They just build routers which allow open source firmware to be installed and make you independent of Linksys that way. I also had a non-open-source Linksys VPN router which did not even support static DHCP. I gave it back immediately. But the WRT54G/GS are my favorites at the moment. Regarding the Netgear WG511v2: I use the older German software from the CD because the 2.3.x has a faulty installer and won't install on my German WinXP (It wants to set some properties for a group "Guests" which does not exist on my windows and the install is being canceled). So my driver version is 3.1.0.19. The config utility also shows it. The config ultility version is 3.1.16.300. BTW, do you know if the Firmware version becomes updated by the software? Which driver version does your device manager show for the Netgear driver? The bundled software version is not that important I think if you know the versions of the single components.

Anguel

Thanks for your report of the Netgear problem. The NetGear driver is NOT written by NetGear.

It is by some company Marvell. I am not sure at this stage I am willing to replace the router but I will keep that in mine.

My experience with LinkSys Router had not been good - that is why I replaced it with NetGear. It froze and sputtered. Eventually it will not echo ping - RIP. The service department was not responsive until I recommended people to stay away from it that someone in the tech department took pity on me (really one should not need to do this) and replaced it. It was not a wireless router and hence it has been my back up router.

I am totally confused (even I am a developer) by the seemingly crazy version numbering system. On their Web Site it was listing 2.3.20 but the driver and all the information that NetGear installed is 3.01.01.07.

It would be more advisable to quote driver version instead of some software version. One really should not need to install that wizard.

May be it is time to ditch NetGear as its product seems to have gone down hill. May be it is time to give LinkSys or even some Taiwanese router a try.

Bob

Hi Bob!

Maybe you misunderstood me - the problem with the router I described is just another problem with Netgear that I had - the router was probably dropping the connection. It is in no way connected to the WG511v2 problem.

Regarding our WG511v2 problem I will explain again what happens on my PC:

1. My config: I have the WG511v2 software installed with the Netgear utility. I use WPA-PSK. Even when I tell Windows to manage my Wireless the Netgear utility was still there for some reason...

1. Now to the problem: After some time my internet connection stops working. I have the impression that at this point the green netgear icon turns yellow (means losing the signal I suppose). And from then on I cannot access the Internet or my LAN any more, although the windows wireless icon in the taskbar shows an active wireless connection and the netgear icon is green again. So I have to select another profile in the netgear utility and then again my normal profile and the connection works again for some time. I think this has something to do with signal strength, maybe the driver does not reauthenticate correctly when it loses the signal for a second or so...

2. How I solved the problem for me: I completely uninstalled the netgear software to remove the netgear utility and the driver. Then I installed only the WG511v2 driver which I found on the WG511v2 CD (driver version 3.1.0.19). You can't get this stand alone driver from their website. WinXP is now managing my wireless with WPA-PSK and TKIP. This works and I don't lose the connection any more. Ok, after some hours of work sometimes a message appears that a wireless connection has been established but this happens automatically and does not cause any problems.

My suggestions to you:

1. Have you tried to use an older driver and let WInXP manage your connection? If you don't need WPA-PSK with AES this should be ok.

1. If you want to use the Netgear utility you shoud disable the Wireless Zero Configuration under system services. Netgear support told me that this is important so it does not interfere with the Netgear utility.

My personal opinion is that WinXP wireless zero + Netgear utility can't work together if they are both installed.

Let me know if this helps...

Regards, Anguel

Not sure. Usually people talk about firmware, they are talking about what is on the WiFi card and not so much about the driver. To get the version information of the driver used is very simple. You can get it from the Network Connection.

I was using the 2.3.20 beta which contains the driver 3.1.1.7 firmware version 302.51.40.3113

You see NetGear's versioning and naming convention really sucks. On their support web site, they were calling their Firmware 2.3.0 while their v2 wizard is showing 302.51.40.3113.

A bunch of amateur!! I guess when they round up software from Tom, Dick & Harry and then sell it to poor customers like us, they have no control of their versioning.

Yes I do not care much about their software, I only want a decent driver that works.

One thing that intrigue me with you assertion that the problem was caused by the router. Now if it were the router, why would it cause the 511v2 card's driver to prevent even the IPConfig /release *con* in some instance.

If the router is not reponding, it should not affect the driver on computer side. At times it is so stubborn that affects my reboot - the only way to resurrect the junk. In this day and age, having to reboot an XP to solve a problem usually indicating driver problem. The most unfortunate thing is they did not write anything into the event log to help to diagnose the problem.

If NetGear is monitoring this and if you want someone to find your trouble, please let me know where to get the diagnostic tool.

While responding to this message on a different computer, I set the fping going on the 511v2 card with the above driver and after 185 second, the connection is lost. IpConfig /all shows all addresses are intact.

Windows' Wireless configuration recognise that the media appears to have been disconnected and then attempted to repair the connection, on my command. But it went on and on and could not even be cancelled.

NetGear is getting worse I guess.

Thanks for the explanation.

Yes I have tried all version of driver from the one shipped right up to beta.

On MA521 (802.11b) card, I do not run their utility and I use the XP Wireless configuration. Works fine.

What is more, their software - the utility for MA521 even with XP Wireless Configuration give reduced functionality - does not work if your XP account belongs to the Users group. In other word, the least privilege account. (I write program in this mode to ensure my program meet the Windows Security model).

Sadly NetGear's utility for MA521 does not meet this requirement and its just disappears. But the MA521 still powers on unlike it supposedly v2.

The more I look at their software I more I see that being developed by inexperience developer.

In their 511v2 wizard, you cannot use Ctrl-V to pass the WEP key into that field. You have to use right-mouse click | paste. Clearly their developer makes a boo-boo there.

Do you know if the router WGR614 support WPA-PSK and TKIP?

I can't agree with your observation. MA521 is a case in point. I all situations, I do not always want the vendor's rubbish on my machine. Hence I do minimal installation - just their drivers.

I am now back onto the original 3.1.0.19 bare bone installation. But I doubt that would last too long.

Bob

Hi Bob!

The WGR614v2 supports WPA with the latest firmware and it should use TKIP. The question is how good this works, as far as I remember I had problems with WPA on that router so I had to use WEP. BTW I have found out the following things about the WG511v2:

1. As I told you at home I use it with WPA-PSK and I have a stable connection only when the Netgear utility is NOT installed, I have to use driver only + Windows wireless config.
2. At our company we use WEP because there is a wireless camera with no WPA. There I had to install the Netgear utility, otherwise the connection was dropped every few minutes with driver only + windows.
3. Netgear support told me that they could reproduce my problem with the bad installer which does not like localized WinXP versions and they will try to fix this problem. I wonder why I am the first discovering / reporting such a problem. There must be thousands WG511v2 sold worldwide every day... It's a shame how Netgear can provide such crap software for these cards.

Ok, I will try your trick with the b-only mode + WPA-PSK cause I'm at home now, I don't have the patience to uninstall that Netgear utility once again - it really sucks! But I don't think the problem is the router, maybe it's the card. I mean I use the thing with my Linksys router and the problems are the same.

Regards, Anguel

Hi,

I think I have found 'a solution' to the problem. You are given me a clue and you are probably correct.

The router may be the culprit of not keeping up with the throughput of WG511v2 in 802.11g

Hence I locked down the router from 'b or g' mode to 'b' mode forcing the WG511v2 to operate in 802.11b limping mode.

So far it has gone on for more than an hour with using the XP Wireless Configuration and the original driver 3.1.0.19

So wait until my router dies, I will just run it in 802.11b.

Bob

Hi Bob!

Yesterday I returned the Netgear WG511v2 in the shop where I had bought it. Now I got a Siemens PC CARD 54 for the same price. Yesterday I installed it and it runs without a single problem. The Siemens driver supports WPA-PSK with TKIP and the new AES too. Ok, WPA can't be used with the card's utility but it runs fine with the WinXP wireless config. The signal is much stronger than with the Netgear and the connection is very stable.

Regards, Anguel