Obtaining signal problem. I've run into this problem a couple of times at hotels with the same D-Link wireless network system.

I've got a standard NetBlaster 802.11b wireless card. The supporting driver/utility allows me to select "ANY" to find any Wi-Fi network, or I can enter in the specific SSID.

Have never had a problem getting a signal from anyone...TurboNet, WayPort, T-Mobile, etc, etc...either using "ANY" or entering their known SSID.

But at properties that have the D-Link 2.4ghz 802.11g Wi-Fi system, I can't seem to get a signal, even with the correct SSID. It's supposed to be fully compatible with 802.11b. No encryption...it's disabled at both ends. I've gone over all the settings and such and messed around with them trying to find if one might be the magic bullet, but no luck yet. Hotels insist everyone else has no problem getting a signal and on the wireless network.

I've loaded D-Link's CD driver the hotels provide, along with a loaner D-Link wireless card...

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=11

...and then everything works just fine, of course. But I'm trying to get it to work with my NetBlaster wireless card so I don't have to rely on if the hotel/location has a loaner for me to use.

Any ideas why I'm not getting a signal? Thanks.

Your guess is good as anyone's. D-Link makes subpar wi-fi equipment, in my opinion.

I looked into their PCI wi-fi card, the DWL-520 and 520+. After doing a search for problems on the internet, I discovered that:

1. The D-Link PCI card is incompatible with a Soundblaster PCI card, so it's one or the other.

2. The D-Link card causes Windows XP to fail to boot, unless it is removed, in certain motherboards.

I compared this to a Netgear wi-fi card, and the only complaint I could possibly find about the Netgear card was some thing with Linux OS.

I stay away from D-Link equipment.

I have never had a problem with the DWL-650 cards, and I have 3 of these. Also have a Netgear and a Billiton card or whatever. All are 802.11b and easily handle the d/l rates encountered in normal home/cafe/hotel use. One older laptop don�t like the DWL-650's with other cards at the same time in the PCMCIA slots. Dlink changes chipsets at the drop of a hat. You might return it and get another one. The last one I bought was $12.

MisterNice

First question, were these hotels outside of North America? If so, there's your problem. For instance you need a Euro card for ETSI countries. Otherwise you'll have intermittent failures due to the extra channels they have there.

As for D-Link, I was thinking of buying their new ABG card since it has AES

The 2 extra channels Europe uses won't be too much of a problem, France on the hand will be a problem as they have a limited amount of channels...

2 hotels and one coffee shop, all in the U.S.

All 3 had this particular D-Link system. They even broadcast their SSID and it's entered automatically into my NetBlaster Utility, but the signal strength remains zero.

They "say" that no one else has a problem getting on. They "say" that there is no MAC addressing restrictions (when they understand what I'm talking about). But do they really know that for a fact?

I've never had a problem getting on any of maybe 25 different wireless networks before. Seems strange to me that my only 3 duds were this particular D-Link 802.11g system, that's supposed to be fully 802.11b compatable.

D-Link uses 802.11b+, which is supposed to be an enhancement over the 802.11b spec.

I can't find any evidence of incompatability between D-Link and NetBlaster, but this difference is common in all three situations.

D-Link also has 802.11g+ as well. They both require D-Link cards of course.

This is what all 3 of these places had. They call it the D-Link "AirPlus Xtreme G." At one they had the D-Link loaner cards...

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=11

...which of course worked fine (after you loaded their supporting CD/driver software). But the D-Link instruction sheets also said it was compatible with any 802.11b wireless card, and even gave general instructions on how to configure other cards.

Of course, this was unsuccessful.

[This message has been edited by PremEx (edited Dec 12, 2003).]