Friday, May 20, 2005

Windows Wireless Suckfest Part Deux

Yesterday afternoon I went back out to the golf club where we installed a wifi hotspot. My goal was to get our customer contact's laptop online, along with the PC they have in their pro shop. Both machines are running XP. The laptop has a Linksys Wireless-G adapted, while the desktop PC has a Linksys UBS to 802.11g adapter.

In short, I was unable to get either PC online, using any combination of drivers or configuration utilities. The laptop could see the WLAN but not pull an IP. The desktop didn't even see the WLAN, even though my iBook sitting right next it had very strong signal. Both machines worked OK for a couple of weeks following the initial installation but eventually crapped out, almost certainly due to some "patch" from Windows Update.

I even tried installing my Netgear Wireless-G card in the laptop, using the latest available drivers and config utility downloaded from Netgear. No joy there, either.

Supposedly, the laptop can be used with other hotspots. So, we may go out again next week with different WAPs in tow to see if we can get them online. My concern, though, is that even if we do get them online with say, a Netgear WAP, who's to say some future software update won't kill functionality.

Grrr.

No comments: