R40 wireless connection issues

[istermeko]

Wife's R40 2722 3DG, going on 3 years. Running Windows XP. After I bought a new wireless router (Buffalo Airstation WHR-G54S) and set it wide open, the laptop is experiencing connection problems. Seeing as I would like to use WPA-AES encryption anyway, I upgrade the wireless drivers for the R40 from Lenovo to 1.2.4.41.

Now, the problems are even worse with the laptop losing the connection and reconnecting every 10-15 minutes. I have tried both WPA-AES, WPA-TKIP and no encryption. My work laptop (HP Scumpaq) is having no problems connecting and keeping the connection for hours on end, so think I can rule out the router as the sole source of errors. When I say sole source, it's because the Thinkpad has less of a problem keeping the connection to other networks in our apartment block (owners have been notified and consented to us borrowing their net, before you ask ) so it might be the combination of router and R40 that is giving me a hard time.

I'm trying to borrow a PCMCIA wireless card off one of my colleagues to try and confirm the source of the problems as being the Intel wifi chip. Any other ideas for troubleshooting? Anybody else experiencing problems like these?

[Wayne]

with the same frequency bandwidth?

[istermeko]

Got a cordless phone. Don't know which bandwidth, but we've used it without having problems with the wireless for 2 years.

Think I tracked it down to IBM Access Connections being installed when I updated the wireless driver, and then competing with XP Wireless Connection Manager over who got to configure the network. So after discovering this, I got stable wireless by unchecking "use Windows to configure my wireless network settings" - but only at 5Mbps; IBM Access Connections reported all networks in range (about 15) as being 802.11b. Mind you that I have concurrently been running my own laptop with wireless at reported 24-48Mbps and an ssh connection kept open over 10 hours now; no problems there.

So I could apparently keep IBM Access Connections and get stable but slow wireless - but when I close the laptop and open it again, it does not reconnect automatically. Uninstalling IBM Access Connections makes the symptoms with intermittent connections reappear.

So, it would appear that I have successfully hosed my wife's wireless by updating the driver. Where does one find the old version of the drivers from Lenovo?

[Wayne]

does she have?

I don't use the IBM Access Connections. Too much trouble. I have an Intel BG2200 wireless card and use the Intel drivers. I don't even let Windows manage my connection. This is in my R-40 and my wife's T-30. Exactly zero problems.

May I suggest, uninstall Access Connections, download and install the drivers for the card.