Linksys WUSB54G: hardware may be OK, but the software's a disaster

I bought a Linksys WUSB54G (ver. 4) to use on an old Win98SE machine
that I use in conjunction with my Amateur Radio station. It was working
fine with the wired connection, but the network cable was violating my
lightning-protected safety zone. And yes, I know that Win98SE is old,
but all the software I need to run works fine with it, and the Linksys
WUSB54G claims to work with it. The wireless AP to which this is
intended to connect is a Linksys WRT54G that works fine with the WPC54G
in a notebook running WinXPProSP2.

The WUSB54G connection is flaky. The signal strength runs around 60%,
and most of the time it connects to the AP but often says it cannot find
the Internet. But what is most annoying is that the monitor program will
often crash when I try to change any settings and will have to be
terminated or will even lock the machine solid so that the only thing
that works is the power switch.

I looked on the Linksys Web site and found the latest and greatest
software pack that claims to have fixed crashes with Win98SE and
problems when the SSID is not being broadcast (as is the case here). I
downloaded it, only to find that it's the same as the version I already
have.

I read somebody's recommendation that the Boingo software works better,
but AFAICS I still need to use the Linksys software for basic configuration.

Any ideas?

BTW: I decided against using a wireless PCI card because the
USB-connected one allows me to locate the antenna in a better location.

"Perce"
(aka Alan NV8A)

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 13:13:11 -0500, "Percival P. Cassidy"
<Nobody@NotMyISP.net> wrote:

>I bought a Linksys WUSB54G (ver. 4) to use on an old Win98SE machine
>that I use in conjunction with my Amateur Radio station. It was working
>fine with the wired connection, but the network cable was violating my
>lightning-protected safety zone.
(...)

I don't have any particular recommendations for W98SE USB radios. I've
used DLink DWL-G120 and DWL-122 USB radios without much difficult on
Windoze ME laptops.

I agree with your comments about the WUSB54G software and drivers.
I've experienced the monitor and driver crashes. However, I find that
the few other USB devices that I've tried, do much the same thing.
However, I can offer a clue. I had Netgear WG111 that was driving me
nuts on an old Dell something laptop running Windoze 98SE. It had a
USB 1.1 port so the WG111 was running at 802.11b speeds. Just for
fun, I shoved in a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card and installed the WG111 there.
No lockups, no crashes, and everything worked as expected.

I also had a similar experience with trying to run the wireless card
through a USB 2.0 hub on a different machine. This was a W2K IBM A31
laptop with a DWL-G120 radio. Totally unreliable. Initial
connections often claimed that it couldn't get a DHCP address. If I
managed to connect, it would eventually hang or disconnect. Removing
the USB hub solved the problem. However, the IBM MiniPCI wireless
card arrived a few days later, and I didn't have time to do additional
testing.

Now, back to the original problem. Have you considered going to fiber
optic lightning isolation? 100baseTX to 100baseFX Fiber optic media
converters are not that expensive and far more reliable than wireless.
If you can live with 10Mbits/sec, the older 10baseTX devices are
really cheap. Many ethernet switches have plug in modules for fiber.
How's $12/ea for 10baseT to 10baseFX:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5826918189
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5826619725

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558