Any T42's with Centrino, WLAN probs w/WRTG54?

[ZPrime]

I've got a pair of WRT54G routers at a client.

My T42p, with IBM/Philips a/b/g, connects at G and holds a signal indefinately. The client's laptops, which are T42s using the Intel/Centrino wireless b/g, randomly drop connection with the routers.

I am currently running the Sveasoft firmware on the routers, but since the problem doesn't happen with my T42p I think it is something related to the Centrino chipset. Could it be the encryption type? I'm using WPA/AES (which is stronger than WPA/TKIP, but less common) across the board... again, my laptop has no problems but the Centrinos do.

Any ideas?

[csv96]

I've tested a Thinkpad with the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG connecting to a WRT54G with encryption off (MAC filtering only) and it works fine. Sounds like encryption.

[darrenf]

What driver version? There are known problems with all the drivers I've tried. Get me the version number and I'll get you details.

-darren

[Plinkerton]

T42 2378-FVU Centrino here, with a WRT54GS router. I have MAC filtering, and 128 bit WEP encryption. I've never had an issue at all. Initially configuring the WEP was kind of a pain, thru Access Connections, but besides that, it's always been fine.

[jdhurst]

I threw away the Intel 2100 wireless because it was so wretchedly bad. I purchased and use the IBM 11 a/b/g card in my T41 with the newest version of Access Connections and it is flawless (as you noted). I have a client with Intel 2200 wireless and it works fine with WEP and Access Connections, but I had trouble with WPA. There is a relatively new driver out from IBM for the Intel 2200 card. Even so, see if you can get your client to switch cards. ... JDHurst

[Plinkerton]

Oh I guess I should mention, as far as I know, the Intel chip I have is the 2200 one, as opposed to the 2100, so maybe that makes a difference.

[darrenf]

-Plinkerton,

As far as I'm aware there are not significant problems with WEP on the 2200BG, just WAP.

-darren

[lvlolvlo]

yeah my t40 with a 2200bg card gave me serious issues with my wrt54g and wrt54gs routers when i had wpa/tkip authentication. however, now i am running just the mac filter and it's working fine. although i am a little dissapointed in the fact that i had to turn on the broadcast of my ssid b/c my xbox's wireless adapter won't connect if my router isn't broadcasting the ssid.

p.s. i also have the sveasoft firmware flashed on the router

[ZPrime]

Ugh, I really didn't want to switch them to WEP instead of WPA, but that was what I suspected. The cards are the Intel 2200 b/g, I think they have the latest version - at least it was the latest as of mid-November.

I guess I'll try WEP and see if that helps... maybe wep with RADIUS and then a VPN on top will be good...

[darrenf]

ZPrime,

If you have the latest IBM drivers(8.1.0.28?), you should be fine with WPA except that you may experience data corruption with or without WPA. Intel blames this on power saving features not properly supported in the base station and suggests turning off the power saving features of the card. This might be worth a try.

The Intel generic drivers for the 2200BG (available on their website - 8.1.1.0 I think) don't seem to have this problem. I installed them for a while, but they require that you run the Intel PROset management software which hung up on my from time to time (mostly while shutting down) and the Intel drivers don't seem to be as power efficient as the IBM drivers.

BTW: I confess that I have not tried WPA/AES before. I run WPA/TKIP with the WRT54G. Perhaps you should try TKIP -- it must be better than WEP. Also, I removed AccessConnections some time ago, so that might be part of it as well.

-darren

-darren