WLAN failures

[Dutchsemigamer]

Hello, first of all I want to say that I am not sure if this is the right forum. I might be blind, but this seems to be the right one.

Anyway, onto the problem. I have a SMCWPCI-GvEZ Connect? g Wireless PCI Card 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless PCI Card. I have the drivers installed correctly. The utility that came with the program absolutely sucks. It makes no sense at all. White fields where you are supposed to type things in, can't be typed in. (Sounds very strange, I hope you understand what I mean)
Also, it won't see our connection. So I turned it off and used the default windows connection. This one did find the network, I am connected as we speak. But the problem is, at random intervals, I am not able to connect to the Internet anymore. Browsers, MSN, all those will stop working. The strange thing is, the icon on the bottom of the screen will still say that I am connected, like nothing is wrong. After a minute or five, it will display that I am indeed disconnected. If I want to fix it, I'll have to use the repair feature, which does indeed fix it. Well, for a period of either 5 minutes or 5 hours, that varies.
Also, we have 4 other computers in the house using WLAN, they do not have any problems at all.
I hope this is clear enough, English is not my native language which makes it a bit hard to explain everything.

Some other general things:
Windows up to date? Yes.
Wireless NIC drivers up to date? Yes.
Firmware on the router up to date? Yes.
Unique SSID Yes.
Cordless phones? Yes, one. Doesn't conflict with the 4 other computers.
How's the signal? Very Good.
The computer is located 2 floors higher than the modem, under a desk. I've also had it 2 meters from the modem, in open air, same problem. LAN works just fine though.

Specs:
The specs:
Windows XP Professional x64
XFX 8800GTX
Corsair TX650
Asus P5K
Intel E8400 (Not overclocked (yet))
The SMCWPCI-G EZ Connect? g Wireless PCI Card
Samsung Spinpoint 750GB
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung 226BW monitor
The case (CM 590) has 4 fans, along with an AC freezer 7 pro CPU cooler. Core Temps are low 30 when idle, around 48 at load.
I'm not sure what kind of router we use. It's a sweex 11g with 2 antenna's, but I don't know the exact product number.

Ipconfig/all log when connected:
Microsoft Windows [Version 5.2.3790]
(C) Copyright 1985-2003 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>ipconfig/all

Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Game PC (Original huh)
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 802.11g Wireless LAN PCI Card
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-13-F7-D5-80-32
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.9
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.2
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.2
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.2
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : dinsdag 20 mei 2008 14:39:35 (Tuesday may 20th)
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : woensdag 21 mei 2008 14:39:35 (Wensday may 21th)

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Attansic L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000B
ase-T Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1E-8C-BE-01-A9


Thanks in advance, sorry if I forgot something.

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

This makes me a sad panda.

 

[ch33zw1z]

You can try uninstalling the crappy software that came with it altogether, and reinstall the card's drivers by itself. Let windows see the card from the install and config. Have you tried contacting SMC about it?

 

[spidey07]

It sounds like windows zero config and the utility are fight each other. Pick which one you want to use

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

@ CH33ZW1Z: I'll try that, see what it does. Should I put the disc with the software in to let it install from that, or should I see if it can install it by itself?
@ Spidey: I highly doubt that, I've had the utility turned off for quite a while now. I've also tried with both of them enabled, same error.

 

[ch33zw1z]

It doesn't matter if the wireless utility is turned off. I actually had that happen with Belkins wireless utility. It worked for up to a month sometimes, then windows would take over. eventually I just got rid of the extra software, it's not needed.

 

[acole1]

Question... why do you run a class A 10.X.X.X network? Do you really have 16,777,216 nodes?

You might try a class C 192.168.X.X network... the limit is 256 on that, but it should be sufficient. It might weed out some sort of underlying problem in the software or something.

Also, it might be a problem with the 64 bit driver.

I know the drivers for XP x64 were not the best, nor the best maintained.

Just my $0.02

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

To be honest, I don't even know what a Class A network is. My uncle set up our home network, everything has been fine until this happened. I suppose the 64 driver could be the problem, but why would that cause sudden disconnects instead of just not connecting at all? The driver support for this card is rubbish anyway, regardless of operating system. There have been no updates since 2005.

 

[ch33zw1z]

There's no updates because XP x64 is dead. You're lucky that card came with 'em Here's a quick run down of classful networks.

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

Thanks for the link ;-)
Mh, I suppose I was being a bit vague. There are no updates for the drivers for ANY OS, not XP x32, not windows 2000, not windows 98 and not vista.
I've had Peerguardian2 turned on since forever, I've disabled it now to see if it has any effect. I've also uninstalled the network utility, which had no effect.

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

Right, PeerGuardian isn't the problem. Boohoo. :<

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

Reinstalled the driver, didn't work either. Getting very annoyed, to be honest.

 

[JackMDS]

Uninstall the current drivers and utility.

I think that the card has Ralink chipset ( http://www.ezlan.net/wlan64.html ).

Log to Ralink, or who ever is the Card's chipset manufacturer, and download the OEM Driver only.

Why? http://www.ezlan.net/wireless.html

Give it a try, it does not work? get this card, Edimax - PCI http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16833315041

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

I'll give it a try. I'm from the Netherlands though, no newegg for me.

Edit: No luck. The card I have uses the RT2401 (or RT2400) chipset according to the website you gave me, the driver Ralink has for this isn't compatible with x64.

 

[JackMDS]

If the chip set is RT2400/1 then it is not 64 compatible.

However try this drivers, http://www.ralinktech.com.tw/d....0_101707_0.1.0.29.exe

If it does not work get the Edimax that I linked to above, it is a good card and rather inexpensive.

 

[Dutchsemigamer]

It didn't work, so I switched over to an Edimax (Not the one you linked though, one we still had) and Internet functions perfectly. No disconnects after 24 hours of connectivity. So I suppose the WLAN card was bad. Going to see if the store will take it back, if not I'll have to think of something else.