D-Link WDA-1320 suddenly stopped connecting to router

[dcostalis]

I have a D-Link WDA-1320 Wireless PCI card.
My router is a Linksys WRT54G.

For several months, I had no connection problems. Everything worked great out of the box. A few weeks ago, it suddenly stopped connecting with no helpful error messages, and nothing in the event viewer pointing to an error.

After about 2 days, it suddenly started working again. It worked for another 2 weeks. For the last 4 days or so, I haven't been able to connect again. The only error message is the wonderfully helpful "Windows was unable to connect to linksys".

I can connect to my neighbors netgear router just fine.
There is currently no authentication required on the router.

Things I have tried:
3 sets of drivers: 2 from MS, and a vista 64 bit driver from d-link.
resetting the router
3 different broadcast channels
changing the SSID
uninstalling the wireless card and reinstalling manually.
uninstalling the wireless card, restarting, and letting windows find it.
physically moving the wireless card to a new PCI slot.
completely uninstalling my antivirus program
disabling all windows firewall options. disabling ipv6 in two different ways
trying to connect to a "linksys" ad hoc network (somehow that worked for someone)

and from the command line:
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh interface ip delete arpcache
netsh int ip reset reset.log
netsh winsock reset catalog

edit: I should also note that I've attemped with and without DHCP enabled, and with and without a static IP.

I'm officially stumped. Any help from you wonderful souls will be rewarded with e-chocolate.

 

[dcostalis]

Ha. It randomly started working again.

God I love computers.

 

[dcostalis]

I'm sorry for the bump here, but I'm still having issues connecting if anyone has any other ideas to try. It worked for about 3-4 days, and suddenly lost connection and won't connect again. No useful information in the event viewer unfortunately.

 

[SquonkSC]

I'm sorry for the bump here, but I'm still having issues connecting if anyone has any other ideas to try. It worked for about 3-4 days, and suddenly lost connection and won't connect again. No useful information in the event viewer unfortunately.

Hi dcostalis,

D-link and Atheros cards have been mentioned quite frequently regarding connection problems, routers rebooting etc..

I guess the drivers desperately need to be improved for W7.

All depends on the willingness of the manufacturers to provide speedy support.

Have you checked D-link's website support to see if there's something mentioned there?

greetings

 

[dcostalis]

Thanks for the info, SquonkSC,

I didn't notice a pattern with those chipsets until you mentioned it...

Unfortunately, D-Links website doesn't have anything about the issue; the last drivers they released were early 2007 I think, and doesn't look like they plan to keep supporting it :-(

 

[SquonkSC]

Thanks for the info, SquonkSC,

I didn't notice a pattern with those chipsets until you mentioned it...

Unfortunately, D-Links website doesn't have anything about the issue; the last drivers they released were early 2007 I think, and doesn't look like they plan to keep supporting it :-(

Yes, sadly most manufacturers use "sell and abandon" strategy.

Nowadays, long term support is one of my top 5 items when shopping for new hardware.

In the past I had hardware that saw only one update, and then after only one year a slightly improved product was introduced and my product was branded legacy.

A descent manufacturer would call the minor improvement, an update.
But unfortunately more and more of them just want to sell, and not support.

--------------

In case of having to buy new wireless, I recommend taking a look at powerlan.
I have installed many of them and it works like a dream.
Most important is that it's driverless, so it can't be outdated.

Powerlan works like this.
Suppose you have a PC in your living room, and one in the attic.

Plug one adapter in a wall powersocket, and connect an utp cable to the adapter and to the computer's NIC.
Do the same in the attic and you're done.

No drivers, no software. It works instantly.
And prices have dropped considerably.
Buy the cheapest, I always do and they work flawlessly.
The new models connect 300mbit (theoretically), and depending on the quality of the wiring in the house you get between 60% and 80% of that.

So it beats wireless by miles.

Hope that this helps you, in case you need to buy new stuff.

Greetings

 

[dcostalis]

I've seen things like powerlan before, we sold a similar product for telephones back when I worked at Radioshack. I might have to try something like that out.

Funny enough though, I picked up a different adapter and still have the same issues. The Belkin f5d7050 USB adapter has an Ralink RT2500 chipset in it, so it's not an Atheros problem. I'm connected right now, but it'll still go out now and then.

Oh well. Time to give up on it and just deal with it until I build a new machine next year. Thanks for all the feedback!