Dell Wireless Draft N not working with Belkin Pre N Router.

Question

I also have the same problem as some other users with a brand new E1705 with the wireless Draft N anyone that will not work with my six month old Belkin pre N router. The laptop sees the Belkin card but will not connect to it. Any suggestions? Has anyone made this work yet? I wish Dell has alerted me to this incompabitily problem when I was purchasing/configuratingy my system...

Bobmitmen · Answer

Actually, if you reference the driver update page for the Dell Draft N 1500 card...it is pretty clear about Netgear, Linksys and Buffalo routers being most compatible...

All three forementioned brands use the Broadcom chip with "Intensi-Fi" technology...as does the Dell card. With Pre N products...it is advised to stick to the same chipset when possible. Hopefully, when N is ratified...a firmware upgrade will solve all the incompatibilities...

BTW..so far, according to some published reports..."Intensi-Fi" is leading in the race for ratification.

Also...If you have a G rounter laying around...the backwards compatibility with the Dell 1500 is easy. I use my Draft N with a Buffalo WHR-HP-G64 router with absolutely NO problems

Bob

BCScott MacD · Answer

I couldn't get mine to work, despite changing out for another 1500 card. Ultimately, I swapped out for an Intel 3945 card, received a $40 credit and will wait until N sorts itself out. The Intel card works very well, giving me around 300 ft of range. I have an open network for my resort guests, so I don't do any file sharing. I bought a Belkin pre-N wireless card for guests in the farthest cabins, but since it doesn't fit in my express card slot, I haven't tested it yet.

Entropy42 · Answer

@BCScott MacD wrote:

I couldn't get mine to work, despite changing out for another 1500 card. Ultimately, I swapped out for an Intel 3945 card, received a $40 credit and will wait until N sorts itself out. The Intel card works very well, giving me around 300 ft of range. I have an open network for my resort guests, so I don't do any file sharing. I bought a Belkin pre-N wireless card for guests in the farthest cabins, but since it doesn't fit in my express card slot, I haven't tested it yet.

Pre-N and Draft N are NOT the same thing. They are not in any way compatible, other than the fact that unless it is disabled in router or card setup, both should fall back to 802.11g (54 Mbps) mode.

My suggestion is to stick with 802.11g until 2008 or so when the 802.11n spec is finalized AND the Wi-Fi alliance starts certifying products as N-compatible.

BCScott MacD · Answer

My point was that the 1500 card did not fall back to the g standard. The 1500 card could see my network, but refused to connect, even with my laptop sitting beside the router.  When I changed it out to the Intel card, I connected with my Belkin router without any problem. If I had problems connecting with my router at home, I surmised that I would have problems with other networks also. What really ticked me off was that I spent over an hour on the phone with Dell tech support BEFORE I ordered my Inspiron to ensure compatability between the 1500 card and my specific router and was assured that if the n standard did not work, it would fall back to the b or g standard. This is NOT what happens with this card. The Belkin pre-N router and the Dell 1500 draft-N card do not work together.

SantaClaus11 · Answer

I spoke with Dell Support yesterday and they confirmed that Dell' Draft N Card is not compatible with the Belkin Pre-N router. They are shipping me out a Dell G wireless card at no cost. However, had I known this ahead of time of the lack of compatibility I would have purchased a nice HP latop with a PCMCIA slot.

Entropy42 · Answer

@BCScott MacD wrote:

My point was that the 1500 card did not fall back to the g standard. The 1500 card could see my network, but refused to connect, even with my laptop sitting beside the router. When I changed it out to the Intel card, I connected with my Belkin router without any problem. If I had problems connecting with my router at home, I surmised that I would have problems with other networks also. What really ticked me off was that I spent over an hour on the phone with Dell tech support BEFORE I ordered my Inspiron to ensure compatability between the 1500 card and my specific router and was assured that if the n standard did not work, it would fall back to the b or g standard. This is NOT what happens with this card. The Belkin pre-N router and the Dell 1500 draft-N card do not work together.

There's a good chance that either the router or the card was set up improperly, disabling fallback mode. (It is possible, I know I can force my Netgear WPN824 router to 108 Mbps-only mode if I want to, I do the exact opposite and force it to only do plain 802.11g instead)

I have heard of some issues with the N card, although many of them are with Belkin products, and my experience with Belkin routers in the past makes me think it was most likely the router. Belkin's wireless routers are unreliable junk.

mjlambie · Answer

I have also had the same problem with the dell e1505. I can't connect it to a number of wireless G routers. I have tried it with a Belkin, D-Link DI-624, and most recently a Linksys WRT54GX2 SRX200. I have tried it with many differing configurations, no security, w/ WEP, WPA, WPA2, and nothing seems to connect it. I even tried using a d-Link wireless G USB network adapted with the laptop, and it wouldn't connect to the D-Link router (even though the d-link USB worked on other laptops). I think it may be beyond the N adapter and be a problem w/ the computer. Maybe the Dell Home Networking network adapter drivers? Or the Dell Security drivers? it is very frustrating indeed. has anyone been able to get their e1505 to work w/ either the D-Link or Linksys?

Chief Okemos · Answer

Got a new E1505 with the Draft-N card. Of course it did not work.
Dell support downloaded the new recently-released driver update
for the draft-n 1500 minicard. He also changed a few settings
in the card's configuration.

With the new driver I can now connect to my Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4
at both 11 and 54 Mbps rates (which is all I expected/hoped for).

With the new driver, the Dell 1500 draft-n card is now compatible with the Belkin Pre-N F5D8230-4 albeit not in N-mode.

mjlambie · Answer

Ah, thanks Chief. As of the last i talked to Dell no one had told me of any such new updates (12/07/06). I will have to call them up again, and have try that. Hopefully, it's exactly what i'm looking for.
thanks!

BCScott MacD · Answer

Too late for me, as I've already switched out. I will say ,though, that on a recent trip to Vancouver, I had no problem whatsoever connecting with various networks in the airport, at friends houses, etc. with the Intel card. I'll wait for the N standard to be finalized before I try again.

Gina Q · Answer

Please refer to this thread for assistance in getting the 802.11n portion to work.

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=si_wireless&message.id=28695

(updated link)

Message Edited by DELL-Gina on 03-22-2007 09:50 AM

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

Dell Wireless Draft N not working with Belkin Pre N Router.

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