Monday, March 9, 2009

Dlink Wireless G USB Adaptor DWA-110


Google fodder: After upgrading the firmware on my DLink Wireless 108G Storage Router (XH0414) to v1.11, I found that a couple of my systems - one linux and one WinXP - were having trouble maintaining a stable connection with WPA encryption. More offline than online.

I was using WPA because the old DSE 802.11g USB WiFi adaptor (XH8227) I had didn't support WPA2. It also doesn't work with Linux, so I had the USB adaptor for Windows and an Atheros-based PCI WiFi card for Ubuntu.

As WPA2 was stable and worked just fine, the firmware upgrade forced the issue of WPA vs WPA2, so I went over to PB Tech in Wairau Valley and picked up a DLink Wireless G USB Adaptor DWA-110 for about $50.

The install on WinXP was trouble free, though as usual everything in the box had big warnings on it NOT to plug the device into the system before installing the drivers. OK...been down that path before and know not to ignore those warnings.

The new device worked just fine with WinXP, so I rebooted to Linux to see what would happen.

I soon found that I was connected to the WiFi AP with TWO adaptors - both the USB adaptor and the PCI card. The new device just worked out of the box, acquired an IP address via DHCP and went for it. Now I can retire the PCI card if I want and go with just the one device.

I love that. Yet again, Linux was easier than Windows.

2009-07-30 UPDATE: This device has not worked automatically with any 'standard' Ubuntu 9.04 kernel revisions after 2.6.27-14. I continue to use 2.6.27-14 and related modules.

2009-03-10 UPDATE: I removed the PCI card and now use the USB WiFi on both sides. Had to add the options statement to /etc/modprobe.d/options to get the device to see channels 12 and 13. (My AP is on channel 13). Then I was away laughing!
Posted by Steve Withers at 1:32 AM
Labels: , ,

3 comments:

  1. XChequerMarch 13, 2009 1:36 PM

    Actually (and I hate to do this) the same result happens with Vista.

    XChequer
    http://thenzhomeoffice.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Steve WithersMarch 13, 2009 3:46 PM

    Thanks. Yeah, Vista a lot better than XP as far as device support is concerned. Vista is much more like Linux now....though Vista is relatively slow and resource hungry on the same hardware. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. PieterMay 09, 2009 2:14 AM

    I'm using the same wireless card on my computer, which has Xubuntu 8.04 and Windows 98 installed. The Windows installation was alot easier (partly because I didn't read the Xubuntu documentation first...), but now it works on both systems.
    However, when I'm using Xubuntu, the wireless card starts producing a high pitched whine which is not that loud but becomes pretty annoying after a while. The card doesn't always start whining immediately, usually after about 15 min. Any idea how to fix this? I've searched the Ubuntu forums, but with no luck.
    Another question: which driver are you using?

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for deciding to share your thoughts here. In commenting on this blog, you can express any opinion you like, though any opinion expressed should make some attempt to be consistent with verifiable reality. Say what you like, confident that I won't delete any comments that are polite and respectful of me and others who may comment here. Civility aside, SPAM comments will be deleted if only because they are usually far too long and selling rubbish anyway. (Comments on posts older than 30 days are moderated. I'll approve them as soon as I can.)

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)