Solving Linksys WRT54G router and Dell TrueMobile 1150 ada..

Archived from groups: alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

Hi Fellow WiFi Installation Sufferers:
Thought I'd share some of what I found useful in trying to get a
Linksys WRT54G wireless router installed it in a desktop PC running
Windows XP Home to work in 802.11b Only mode with a TrueMobile 1150
mini-PC card adapter in a Dell laptop running Windows XP Pro. The
cabled connection to my DSL modem worked fine after using the
installation disk provided with the WRT54G. The wireless connection
to the laptop would work fine for a little while showing a maximum
strength signal (11 mbps), then it would suddenly lose the connection.
Almost immediately the word cloud about the laptop's wireless network
icon in the system tray would appear saying that one or more networks
were available. I clicked the word cloud, a window popped up, I'd
select my wireless network, and it reconnected at maximum signal
strength. Then after four to five minutes it repeated this cycle. I
saw several comments on these newsgroups suggesting that it might be a
chronic problem with the Linksys box or firmware, but I wasn't eager
to return it to the store, since it seems that all of the major
routers have their problems and critics.

Tech support at Linksys was not very helpful, especially when they
heard that the adapter wasn't theirs (short-sighted – guess whose box
I would return to the store if I couldn't get it to work?) but they
did point out a potentially useful Web page listing knowledge base
articles that might apply, kb.linksys.com. On that page I selected my
router and was shown this page listing some articles:
http://linksys.custhelp.com/cgi-bi [...] /entry.php

The article that appeared closest to my problem was No. 696. I
followed the instructions by going to Wireless Network icon in the
tool bar at the lower right, then: right click > View Available
Wireless Networks > Advanced > highlighted my SSID > Properties >
Authentication Tab > removed the check mark for the "Enable network
access control using IEEE 802.1x" option. I have enjoyed almost
completely uninterrupted wireless access since then.

Some other tips that have helped me improve the strength and
reliability of the wireless connection:

1) Moved the laptop PC with the wireless connection to an area where
it was just on the verge of switching between 4 and 5 bars of signal
strength as viewed in the laptop's client manager, then went into the
control panel of the base station PC and tested all 11 channnels to
see which one gave strongest signal on wirelessly connected laptop.
There was a lot of variation among channels, but three of them
remained at strength 5 almost all of the time.

2) I then tried calling on my Siemens Gigaset 2420 portable handset
phone while close to the wireless laptop while testing each of the
three strong channels. Two of them were substantially degraded by the
Gigaset 2420 when it was in use (it does not appear to interfere much
at all when not in use). So I selected that remaining strong channel
as the one that I use most of the time.

With these steps I now have a reliable, stable connection using 128
bit WEP encryption (unfortunately Dell didn't bother to make the
TrueMobile 1150 mini-card adapter WPA capable, even though tech
support told me they had upgraded the 1150 PC card and 1150 PCI
adapter firmware to support WPA).