Hello,
So, my friend decided he wanted to go wireless in his apartment and asked me for my help since I work in IT. I recommended and proceeded to buy him a DIR-655 router and a DWA-552 card for his desktop computer. The only other device that uses a wireless connection in his apartment is a PS3. Here are my actions.
I initially set up the router through the hard wired NIC in his computer, it's a MSI motherboard but I don't know the model # off hand, but the NIC uses a VIA chipset. The router out of the box had a hardware revision of A2 and a firmware version of 1.11 which I left unchanged. I configured the router's wireless settings with the following settings: I renamed the SSID, set the 802.11 mode to mixed 802.11n, 802.11g and 802.11b, disabled auto channel scan, set the wireless channel to 1 since no other wireless networks in range were on that channel, set the channel width to 20/40Auto, and left the visibility status on visible.
For the wireless security mode, I selected WPA-Personal, then set the WPA mode to WPA2 only, the Cipher Type to AES only and left the Group Key Update Internal unchanged. Under Advanced I disabled WISH, and Wifi Protected Setup, but left all the values under Advanced Wireless unchanged. I also locked the WAN port speed under Advanced Network to 100Mbps.
At that point, the router and the desktop were in the same room and the PS3 was in an adjacent room. We went through the PS3 configuration and we we were able to get online on the very first try! So far so good we both thought.
Then I proceeded to install the DWA-552 into this same desktop. The first step was installing the KB917021 hotfix for WPA2 support which I decided to install instead of KB893357 because it says right on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917021 that "This update replaces hotfix 893357". As I stated in the topic, this computer is running Windows XP SP2 32-bit. I also went to dlink's website and d/l'ed the 1.30 version of the drivers. After installing the hotfix I turned off the computer and installed the DWA-552. During bootup I put the CD into a drive prior to logging in; once I did log in (as his account name, not Administrator, although his account has Administrator privileges) Windows automatically found the drivers on the CD and installed them with no errors or prompts before I could point it to the newer drivers on the HD. At that point, I decided to upgrade the drivers to the latest version, 1.30 by using the Update Driver button through the Device Manager. At this point the WZC (Windows Zero Configuration Utility) alerted that wireless networks were in range and I proceeded to create an entry under the Wireless Network Connection properties, in the Wireless Networks tab for the DIR-655 router. It connected again on the first try. I tried hitting a couple webpages and noticed a definite lag between hitting them wirelessly and through the hard wired connection but I didn't think it was that much different. I thought that this was going to be a pain free installation (famous last words/thoughts). Since I don't personally know of any way to determine what mode the card was connecting to the router in through WZC, I thought that maybe the DWCM (D-link Wireless Connection Manager) would show that information as well as provide a better signal strength meter. So I started the Setup.exe that came in dwa552_drivers_130.zip but it wouldn't get past the first page, saying turn off your computer, install the DWA-552 and then run this setup again. I tried several times but it wouldn't let me continue. So, I decided to just install the DWCM off the CD.
Here is where my problems began. The install completed successfully but it would just say disconnected. Ultimately when I pressed the Modify button for the connection I saw that the cipher type was set to TKIP, after that I was able to connect but the connection was super slow. I pinged the router in a command prompt and would either get 50 or 75% packet loss and the one or two connections that would respond were about 85-135ms. I then logged back into the router which much hassle, and went into the Status section and clicked on Wireless to monitor what the router saw for signal strength. Much to my surprise, the router was showing values for the DWA-552 of Mode: 11ng, Rate: 39mbps, and Signal %: 34. This was the high end of the range for the signal strength, it would fluctuate between 16-34. Meanwhile, the PS3 in the OTHER room was showing values of 11g, 54mbps and a signal of 100! So at this point I thought maybe I would play with the antennas even though I thought that couldn't be the problem because the router and the computer were about 3 feet away from each other, the computer on the floor and the router on top of a desk. In any case, I did set the antennas on the router and the card in identical positions, the middle antenna at a 90 degree angle to the horizontal axis, and the two antennas on the sides at 45 degree angles so they were pointing out from the middle, just like I've seen it in all the pictures. This didn't help improve the signal strength at all. I started just moving the antennas in all sorts of configurations; only one where one antenna on the router and the card were parallel to the floor did the signal strength improve to 41 according to the router. This didn't improve the speed however. In the meantime, the computer, either the WZC or the DWCM showed that the signal strength was excellent. Unfortunately, hitting a webpage was slower than dial-up so I switched back to the WZC hoping that it would improve the situation, it didn't so I figured I would reboot. Then the real fun began...
Upon rebooting, and re-selecting the checkbox for "Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings", I scanned for available networks and tried to connect, it just spun its wheels for awhile and then would just go back to the "Choose a Wireless Network" page like I had never even tried, I thought maybe it was an encryption issue, so I tried connecting to an unsecure network in the area and it wouldn't even do that! Did Dlink Wireless Connection Manager break the winsock? Switching back to the DWCM did not allow me to connect again, in fact after uninstalling DWCM, the WZC still wouldn't allow me to connect to ANYTHING, I had the great idea of RE-installing the DWCM again thinking maybe this was all a fluke but at that point not only would it not connect to the DIR-655, but when I would scan for networks with it, it wouldn't show ANY networks, like I was in the arctic tundra or something. The WZC never lost the ability to see networks, it just wouldn't connect to any of them.
So then, I tried deleting all the Network Adapters out of the Device Manager in Safe Mode, a trick I learned from my Win98 days. Only problem was I couldn't delete the whole category because of a bunch of WAN Miniport Drivers (L2TP, PPPOE, etc) and it kept saying to me that this device was required for boot. Upon restart the box just found all the drivers for everything and didn't need any human intervention. I even tried DOWNgrading the drivers to 1.00 again even though it did work with 1.30 in the very beginning. No dice.
So then I tried System Restore. Yes, I actually made a backup point prior to installing the card just in case of catastrophe which I thought I had definitely reached. Only problem is when it finally "restored" it said the restore failed, although in certain cases, the DWCM sometimes wouldn't be there but the config details would always remain in the WZC. I tried uninstalling the KB917021 hotfix and reinstalling with no effect.
I decided to tap out and call technical support. While waiting on hold I heard in the recording that in order for them to help you you needed to install Network Magic. So I did, and two things happened. One, when I tried selecting the DIR-655 it told me that it doesn't work with/support WPA2 and to pick another router (wtf?!), and two, the wireless icon in the system tray from the WZC showed a connection for a second and then back to the red X. I quickly switched back to Windows control again and all of a sudden after hours (yes I know that's an oxymoron) I was connected to the DIR-655! W00t, right? Except that now when though the WZC was in control, when I pinged the router I was getting 50-75% packet loss, a distinction only the DWCM had done before. Webpages were *about* dial-up speed. I got disgusted, plugged the computer hard wire into the router and went home. If you've read this far without skimming I appreciate your time and want to thank you for it as well as assure you you don't have ADHD.
If you're wondering why my friend wants a wireless card if the router is that close to the computer it's because his g/f wants the router out of the bedroom because the lights are blinking and too bright, so this is an untenable situation.
My questions are thus:
How do I make this work and get a nice, fast 802.11N connection for this PC?
Specifically though, how do I get my restore the computer, reg entries and winsock/networking part of XP to a point prior to the installation of the d-link wireless manager utility? Or how about before I ever put the card in the computer and did anything? If I have to reinstall the OS I will never recommend D-link or buy it for my company or myself ever again.
What is the explanation for the poor signal strength even when everything was working? I am not even experiencing 802.11B speeds, nevermind N. How are you supposed to position the antennas? Do I have a physically defective card?
According to the manual for the DIR-655, under mode you're either supposed to see 11n or 11g, not 11ng, so what the heck is that?
In the Dlink Wireless Management Utility it would say that it was on Channel 11 when it couldn't find any wireless networks when it scanned for them? In the manual of the DWA-552 under troubleshooting there is a statement that sound similar to this, namely "Make sure that the Radio is not locked down to a different frequency" However, it says nothing about what to do if it does, and the Utility is pretty sparse in the buttons department there doesn't seem to be any way to edit that through the program at least, so is this a likely culprit and if so, is there a fix?
Why wouldn't the 1.30 drivers setup.exe work, and does it have a newer version of the wireless manager utility which would be the only reason why I really care?
Thank you for your help in advance.
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Topic: DWA-552, Windows XP SP2 & a DIR-655, multiple problems please help! (Read 8117 times)