yoadrian

Same problem here with the Orinoco cards and Linksys AP. But I returned my linksys box because I think it is a flaky model. Maybe the wap11 works better but the BEFW11S4 (EtherFast Wireless AP + Cable/DSL Router w/4-Port Switch) just seemed like poor integration. Beside the unit itself, the support from Linksys sucks. Nowhere can you find documentation on the what all the wirleless settings are or what some of the other 'advanced features' do.

So I returned it and built a homebrew AP. I set up an old 200mhz Pentium I had with XP, a nic card and a pcmcia adapter with an old Orinoco bronze card. Installed the Orinoco drivers then added the reg entry APMode="1" in the right spot which I got from another thread here. I changed the OwnName and OwnSSID to "HomeBrew" and OwnChannel to "1" or whatever channel you want. After your clients can see the new AP, go back to your XP network settings and create a bridge with your nic and Orinoco card. Then the clients will get their ip and get on the net through your new wireless bridge.

Side bar: In the experiment I found a vast difference in the card types. With the Bronze card as the AP, it offers 2,5 & 8 mbps to the wireless clients. So if I have a silver card in my laptop, I get a 2mbps connection because the silver cards do not support 5 or 8. They have options of 2, 5.5 and 11mbps. So my other machine with a bronze card gets an 8mb connection but my silver ends up with a crummy 2mb... If I run the silver card in AP then the bronze clients get 2mb and if there were other silver clients they would get 11 mb I'm sure. I only have the one silver card here for this test. The linksys acts like the silver card and offers the same speed options.

-YoAdrian

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Adrian in Philly