It's not in doubt that the WiFi Alliance has done a wonderful job in bullying all makers of WiFi gear to make compatible equipment. What is in question is whether they have good quality control in these very low-margin devices.

Any experience of unanticipated failures?

For what it's worth, the Netgear bridge appears to be the source of many complaints. It seems to be a rogue piece of kit.

Edited by author 03-04-2004 01:38 PM
Indeed. And Linksys is very much of the same opinion as you are!

Maybe something to spin on to. Try using a NetGear GA-302T (Giganet adapter) and then start for example, a bittorrent download or have it host a webserver. It'll fail miserably and die, so bad that anything past localhost will not work until you reboot.

This has been confirmed by NetGear that
simply states, (and offer no solution.)

<quote>
Dear Sir/Madam

The GA302T cannot support a large amount of simultaneous high-traffic connections that exist when using programs such as a bittorrent client.

Regards

William Stewart
Netgear Support
<end quote>

This was tested at even 10Mbit and the problem persists.

Imagine NetGear having a card that is both unstable and deliver less than a $2 ISA Network card. It worked flawlessly with an IBM Pro, 3Com 905b and a 3Com 920b so
there is no doubt about the NetGear card being the culprit.

I've found the same problem, my Linksys G router and my NetGear bridge won't talk. I hope this problem gets fixed soon.

OTOH, A NetGear USB 802.11G interface talks fine to my Linksys G router.

I originally had a NetGear 802.11G router, but it would lock up every few days.

Richard

In fact the WRT45G is and isn't certified...because there are three versions of the product:-

Ver 1 has the Broadcom WiFi card as a plug in Mini-PCI card on the motherboard and is certified for 802.11b ONLY

Ver 1.1 has the WiFi built into the motherboard and is certified for 802.11b ONLY

Ver 2 has the WiFi built onto the motherboard, has an upgraded processor and more memory and is certified for 802.11b and 802.11g

However you can't buy a version 2 in the UK at the moment (and no-one knows when you will be able to!!). The WRT54G has also been extensively hacked and there is a Linux firmware set available for it that supports substantially more functionality.

Paul

It seems the iceberg is bigger than it looks, as usual! - see this report where WiFi Alliance marketing boss Brian Grimm concedes there is a problem...

I think security is just smoke and mirrors for 'it don't work'

I recently installed a DLINK wireless broadband router (the DSL604+), and added a DLINK 520+ to a linux server to bridge onto the wired LAN all absolutely peachy, everything on the wired lan could get out over the DSL.

When I switched on a laptop that had a netgear card in it
the 520+ disappeared off the network along with the wired lan. Every time.

Switch out the netgear for a Dlink 650+ in the laptop suddenly not network downtime.

How many others have done the same as me?

-AD

I posted this elsewhere on the site but in reply to Guy's post - "Here is some more of the 'incompatible wifi iceberg. I have d-link 11g cards in 4 of my family's PCs. They connect to a 3-com 11g wifi broadband router/modem. Things are not too bad with 3 PCs booted, but as soon as a 4th one kicks the signal strength is report at 0%. The router happily, according to the status lights, says there is a wifi network/ADSL connection. However the only answer is reboot the router and drop to 3 or less PCs. I’ve tried different channels, antenna orientation and voodoo. Forget it if the signal has to go through two 4.5 inch brick walls. In my case, I have the router sitting on a chair in the lounge doorway. Wireless is no answer in a bungalow, and my solution is to use the rj45 port and cables now because I am fed up trying to tweak something that isn’t of merchantable quality. My advice is, unless you have studded walls, leave well alone until a company has designed a system that works in UK houses built before 1960.
"