I do not have WPA on my old wireless router. I never could set up WEP and still can't with VISTA. The goddamn thing will either not connect or connect with limited access and cannot connect to the internet. I have tried 64 bit and 128 it. I've tried 5 or 13 characters and 10 or
26 characters hex. Why won't this crap work right? I connect fine with it disabled on both ends.-- Claude Hopper :) ? ? ¥
What colour is it?
-- Adrian C
I've used an original (graphite with one ethernet port) Apple Airport, EdiMax and D-Link 11mbps routers, and Linksys access points with Windows
98 and XP, MacOS 7.6-10.4, and Linux using 64 bit WEP and have had no problems.The most reliable one when it comes to intial connections, was the Apple.
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM
and
You got that right. The NIC drivers were not included in Windows and each manufacturer had their own drivers. Many companies OEM'ed the Lucent cards (WaveLan aka Orinoco) and used their drivers, but others did not.
It wasn't until service pack 2 of Windows XP that full WiFi support was included in the operating system.
Meanwhile it was a moving target, as it were, to get a WiFi card work with a particular router.
The best thing to do, IMHO if you need Windows 98 support is to buy one a card and router/access point that internally use an original Orinoco card or the chipset.
One thing to avoid if at all possible is a USB dongle, USB support under Windows 98/SE was not good.
Geoff.
-- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM
and
Ralink chipset USB WiFi sticks work well under Win98SE upwards. One brand using this chipset is Sweex. I've been using a Sweex LW053 stick with WPA encryption under 98SE for the last two years with no significant problems. It is also good for WEP and unencrypted. No notable problems hot plugging it either. It is USB 2.0 capable but works fine on a USB 1.1 port (I DONT reccomend running it off a hub). It will run OK on a minimum spec PC (early Celeron or PII with 32MB ram) but you wont be able to do much with the resulting connection ;-)
The only problem I've encountered is that if you are repeatedly scanning for networks, the driver can occasionally get borked with the result the networ list is empty or contains old information. Easily fixed by closing the utility, unplugging the stick, waiting for the tray icon to change then plugging it back in.
Its the only brand/chipset I've found that is stable and supports WPA on old PCs.
For significantly better USB support for storage devices under Win98SE, install Maximus Decim Native USB ver.3.3 for generic drivers for storage devices. Memory sticks, Cameras and MP3 players that use a drive letter, external hard drives and CD/DVDs just work. I've even had good results with an external DVD writer and NERO!
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.