New Intel Wireless Driver Posted

[GomJabbar]

New Intel 2200 /2915 wireless driver posted 8/22/05 on IBM/Lenovo. Haven't tried it yet. New Driver

[kaplanfx]

<9.0.2.31 - 1YWC38WW>
- (Fix) Connection speed fluctuates and disconnects.

Sounds like something people on this forum are looking for. I don't have any disconnect probs but I will install the driver after work tonight and give my report.

-kaplanfx

[GomJabbar]

UPDATE.

I installed the driver using ThinkVantage Software Installer. Everything went smooth. I still have Fn + F5 functionality for turning the wireless adapter on and off. So far so good. We'll see how it goes............


EDIT: I found that when I come out of Standby, I have to disconnect my wireless connection in IBM Access Connections, then connect again. Then it seems to work OK.

[JHaislet]

Yep, this is newer than the latest drivers on Intel's site (9.0.2.25).

Downloading now (~19MB).

[kaplanfx]

This driver does seem to keep my connection at 54 (it used to fluctuate between 54, 36, and 24) but alas all is well except coming out of sleep. Gom maybe you just need to wait a bit longer as my connection comes up but it takes a loooooong time (like maybe 30 seconds) where it used to pretty much be on when i cam back from standby and finished swiping my finger over the fp reader. I can't decide if I should go back to the older driver or stick it out.

-kaplanfx

[STS06]

To be honest, I probably wont be able to see the difference primarily b/c the wireless i have has been stable since I started using it (which was about and hour ago). But question....I was on wireless when i installed the driver....so do i need to turn off and turn on the wireless for the driver to take affect?

[GomJabbar]

But question....I was on wireless when i installed the driver....so do i need to turn off and turn on the wireless for the driver to take affect?

When I updated the driver using ThinkVantage Software Installer, at the end, a dialog box popped up telling me I had to reboot for the changes to take effect.

[GomJabbar]

Latest Update:

I have been having problems with the new driver disconnecting. I rolled back to the previous driver 9.0.1.21, which seems to work better for me on my T42 with the Intel 2200bg wireless adapter. I am connecting to a SMC 2804WBRP-G router.

One interesting note. I saw when you right click on the Intel 2200bg adapter in Network Connections, then click on Configuration, there are numerous settings that you can change. I tried changing a few of these to fix my disconnect problems, but nothing I tried helped.

[STS06]

Hmm...it asked you to restart (which I'd expect it to do). Darn, my didnt do that. I double clicked the icon and just let it go from there...no clue if there's another way to install. Seems so simple but I didnt receive any notifcation claiming that its installed...weird.

[kaplanfx]

When I get home today I will most likely roll back to 9.0.1.21 which although the connection speed fluctuated, it seemed to work better for me in general.

[kaplanfx]

Ok now im frustrated, I rolled back to the 9.0.1.21 driver, and now access connections is broken. I can connect to a wireless network using windows tools, however access connections says that a proper driver version is not installed, and claims the network adapter is not powered on even though it clearly is. Any thoughts? also fn+f5 tells me unable to change the state of the adapter please update driver, will everything be broken till I go back to the .31 driver?

[GomJabbar]

I rolled back to the 9.0.1.21 driver without a hitch. Fn + F5 works fine, and I have full functionality. All I can suggest is to uninstall the driver, reboot, then reinstall the 9.0.1.21 driver. If you still have problems, do the same with Access Connections. (Note: I have the Intel 2200bg wireless adapter).

You can download the above driver HERE, even though it is a Japanese site.

[kaplanfx]

In the revision list of the changelog for the 9.0.1.31 driver there is a driver listed 9.0.1.25 that is not available through the software installer as far as I can tell. Does anyone know where this driver can be found, or have any comments on the quality/stability of this driver?

Thanks

[JHaislet]

You can get 9.0.1.25 directly from Intel.

[kaplanfx]

You can get 9.0.1.25 directly from Intel.

Is it any good?

[JHaislet]

That's the one I've been using since it was released. I only upgraded to 9.0.1.31 when it was released since it's newer than the one on Intels site.

BTW, from what I've observed, both the IBM version & Intel version appear identical; as they both use the Intel ProWireless install application & tools.

I'm currently using 1.31 and don't have any connection problems. It appears as stable or more than 1.25, but I didn't have any problems with 1.25 either.

YMMV

[kaplanfx]

Do you have an issue where it takes a long time (maybe 30seconds or more) to re-establish a wireless connection (with access connections) after you have put the laptop into sleep mode or hibernate with the 1.31 driver?

[mdarnton]

I found that Access Connections, in all varieties, is MUCH slower to connect than Windows' own, and completely deleted Access Connectoins from my computer. Don't miss it a bit.

[JHaislet]

I too don't use access connections. My wireless connection turns on & acquires its IP address (thru DHCP) almost instantaneously.

[JL Shelton]

I called Tech support at IBM the day after I got my T43, just a few days ago, because my wireless was constantly kicking out. He had me unistall Access Connections completly and said if I didn't need various profiles with which to constantly changes be changing offices, between wireless and hard-wire, etc., that XP could do a better job. All problems were solved instantly and Fn F5 still worked to turn on and off the wireless. However, this morning when I got a notice of the new driver, I installed it and it does seem to be working fine until now.

[FreeSolaris10]

well..I just upgraded the wireless driver and it looks like the Access Connections software is completely imcompatible with this new driver..it doesn't work...when I boot up windows wireless connection establishes itself pretty quick, but the access connection indicates the attenna is turned off....
I am about to roll back to the old wireless driver since it was working fine before....let me know if any of you faced the same situation

[monkey243]

I installed the latest driver 9.0.2.31.Everything seems to be OK.But never up to 54M,because my AP is only 11M.

[kaplanfx]

I have installed the 1.25 driver from Intels page and finally all is good again. After installing just the driver it did not work, but when I installed proset I was able to use Fn-F5 and access connections. Plus, the wireless comes up very quickly after sleep or hibernate which is what was really broken with 1.31 for me. I'm just going to wait it out until we get a newer driver from Lenovo as 1.31 just doesn't cut it.

[beaker]

I used the Software Installer to install version 9.0.1.31. This driver installs as a service.

GO TO start > click RUN > type "services.msc". Scroll down to "Intel NCS Service". Double click it and choose "Automatic" startup. If you don't, your startup _will_ be longer because the service will have a manual start.

Using the Event Viewer, I used to have two tcp/ip events for each startup; now there is only one. My startup is one minute less as well.

[soliton]

[quote="beaker"]
GO TO start > click RUN > type "services.msc". Scroll down to "Intel NCS Service". Double click it and choose "Automatic" startup. If you don't, your startup _will_ be longer because the service will have a manual start.
------------------
That service purports to be "Supports Intel PROSet for Wired Connections" and seems to have nothing to do for WIRELESS. I have disabled it for the longest time without problems.

However, getting back to this thread, the 9.0.1.31 driver seems to incompatible with Access Connections 3.71 and so I'll give 9.0.1.25 a try... I am not sure I want to ditch AC yet!

[kaplanfx]

1.31 worked fine with access connections 3.71 for me, so I can't say exactly what your problem may be, however I did have issues with the speed that the wireless connection came back up after sleeping or hibernating. I don't know if this problem had anything to do with how the driver/AC was installed but I do know that at least one other person (Gomjabber) had problems with the driver as well. Seems that other people are having any number of different problems so there are obvioulsy some issues with 1.31. 1.25 seems to be working nicely for me so I will be sticking with it for the time being.

[jdhurst]

I have the newest Intel driver working with Access Connections 3.71. It takes a while to start (as was mentioned earlier) but otherwise is working fine. My router (Netopia) is a bit older now, so it works at 11 Mbits and therefore I haven't been able to test at faster speeds. ... JD Hurst

[soliton]

well, it seems Access Connections and the driver combo seems to be really messed up. Both 9.0.1.31 and 9.0.1.25 don't work for me. However, 9.0.1.21 however, used to work just fine with me. The IBM support guy from Atlanta (who didn't really sound like he knew what he was talking about) told me that AC is incompatible with the latest driver, and your testimonies prove that thats not a problem. I guess I'll just stick to the Windows tool for now, with the 1.25 driver.

[beaker]

If you go to your control panel and click on the icon for that installed driver "Intel PROSet Wired", and it will open up and there will be a tab for wireless connections.

So yeah, you can "disable it without any problems". However, if it is enabled it _reduces_ bootup time. I am running Access Connections 3.71 with the Intel driver 9.0.1.31 with no problems. Network performance is better, and bootup performance is better. Why would you disable it?

Just enable the service associated with the 9.0.1.31 driver, as per my post above.

[soliton]

Well, I eat my words in assuming that the service only deals with wired connections (i have since turned the service on). However, enabling and re-installing Access Connections 3.71, apart from uninstalling/re-installing 1.25 and 1.31 drivers did nothing to allow me control my wireless profiles with Access Connections. It simply doesn't detect the wireless card as being turned on and/or detect any of the networks by scanning (same as FreeSolaris10's problem), thereby rendering AC totally useless.

I've run out of patience, and will just live with XP's wireless tool for now...