I'm having such interesting results with my other thread that maybe I'd better get my other problem worked out as well:
I have a box that is running Win98SE because it supports a legacy outboard device without drivers for a later OS. OK, I should like to get it to access my wireless router with a wireless card, but I am having a real headache getting that up and running. This is sort of a compound mess, but I'll try to be as organized as I can in describing the problem:
I have a couple of new PCI g-cards I can use, an AirLink101 (Ralink 2500 chip) and a CompUSA (RTL8185L chip). I'd prefer to use the Ralink because it appears to be better shielded and this is going into a dedicated audio recording computer where added noise is highly undesirable.
The problem is with the supplied istallation packages on the CDs. They attempt to force-install proprietary wireless utilities to start on load, which Win98SE doesn't like, plus they do that irritating thing of requesting the Win98SE install CD to set up a network, which I don't want. Needless to say, my Win98SE install CD has a screwed-up file on it that's required for that rigmarole anyway. [sigh]
When I finally get the drivers and the utility installed, Win98 won't boot properly until I remove the wireless utility and clean up the registry mess. Typical Win98SE headache!
What I want to do is this: Install the drivers of the wireless device and get it set up WITHOUT a network, at least not yet. I then want to have the wireless utility, or _some_ wireless utility, NOT try to load on boot and just be available to invoke when I want to use the wireless to access the Internet...without all the bluescreens and corruption and crashes and registry cleaning attendant to anything Win98SE finds the least bit frightening. Doesn't seem like asking a lot, but I haven't been able to get it done.
Yes, I could just do an Ethernet connection, but that would require a really bad cable run I'd like to avoid if I can just get a wireless-g card working.
As always, thanks for any help!