Good advice, never tell them you're using linux. Actually, it is not a hardware problem (though it sure looked like one). Mandrake issued a new version of initscripts that "fixed" wireless network link problems. And I installed it, however, I never rebooted my machine and the interface was already up, so I didn't notice the problem until this afternoon when I turned on my laptop. I read the comments for the updates and found the issue. Updates that break things, I'm having windows flash-backs. Wes On Saturday 02 November 2002 5:42 pm, Wes Allen wrote:
Hi gang, I've got a ma401 card from netgear. It worked beautifully under linux (better than in windows even). Today I switch on my laptop, and I no longer get a link to my network with the card. I figure I must've had a power glitch and my firewall isn't giving out dhcp address, so I restart it. Still no link. I check the settings of my wireless router, all good. I boot my desktop to see if my usb wireless card works, it does. None of my settings on my laptop have changed, I checked. I tweak with iwconfig until my hands are sore, no luck. So I finally call netgear because I figure that it is a hardware issue and I need to send in the card to have at least the antenna replaced. Tech support says, "I'm sorry but we can only trouble-shoot on windows so we can't help you." I tell them, "It's not a software issue, nothing has changed with my software from last night, everything is the same, the card is not picking up the link from the router, it's not functioning, it's a hardware issue..." They say, "But we need to troubleshoot in windows." I say, "Look, I've turned encryption on and off, I've tried different modes, I've tried different channels, I've turned rts and frag on and off [note: now it's not accepting values, another clue that this is a hardware problem]. Nothing works, your card is broken and I want to send it in." I'm told to hold. "I'm sorry, we cannot help you. We need to troubleshoot in windows." I slam the phone on the reciever so hard I think I nearly break it. Now I am pissed, and I still have a broken card.
Does anyone else have any history with wireless antennas not working all of the sudden? This card hasn't even been out of the house, I leave it here when I go out for crying out loud!
My next attempt will to disable encryption and go back to wvlan_cs to see if that jogs this thing. But I truly think it's hardware; nothing, NOTHING, on my laptop changed, I didn't even turn it on this morning!
Wes
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