Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 mini PCI card with Linksys BEFW11s4 router

That is certainly a better way of doing it than I came up with!  Alas it seems this has not fixed my problem either.  While my connection is definitely more stable, it still drops after a period of time, and I'm unable to connect.  After much troubleshooting today I've found that if I simply change the wireless channel on my router, my laptop connection "wakes up" and is enabled again.  It lasts for a while, and then drops.  I'm still stumped.

I've tweaked the advanced wireless settings, flashed the firmware of the router, removed and re-installed the Intel software on my laptop, enabled/disabled windows control of the wireless connection, experimented with static vs. dynamic ip address assignment, tried every channel setting on the router.  It's been a looooooong Saturday and I'm exhausted. 

I think I'm just going to get a new router.  If anybody has a suggestion of a BETTER brand than Linksys to work with my Intel wireless card, I'd love to hear it.

Cheers,

Jeff CDO

I was having the exact same problem. After delving into the archives here, I tried changing the data rate to 1-2 Mpbs, from 1-2-5.5-11 Mpbs (the TX setting on the Linky's admin page). My wireless connection came back on immediately :)

Don't know if that'll help you. It's actually kind of annoying. Hopefully, there will be a fix soon, either Linky firmware or an Intel driver update.

~ Dave Leichtman

Actually, sorry about that. It didn'[t fix my problem. But it did indicate the broader problem. It worked again for a short period of time after I changed the setting and then it stopped working again (say 20 minutes). Changing a setting in the router config actually quickly reboots the router. Recycling the router's power has the same effect. For some reason, when the router is rebooted, the card will pick it up for 20 minutes or so, and then it will drop its connection. Now I nkow the router is working fine because I have other things attached to it and working fine (i.e. maintaining their wireless connections indefinitely). But that puts me back at square one and thinking that there's just some incompatibility with the Linksys router and the Intel card. I have the most current version of everything, so that's not it either. This is highly disappointing. Makes me not want to use more Dell products. This Linksys router (BEFW11S4v4) is a quality product. For the Intel 2100 not to work with it out-of-the-box is ridiculous.

~ Dave Leichtman

I agree with Dave and the problems with the Inspiron 600m's Intel PRO wireless Mini PC card.  I was having the exact same problem - a dropped connection after visiting a few websites.  Dell tech support were hopeless and I know that my Linksys router is fine since we have an IBM laptop with a removable wireless card that works flawlessly.

I too spent frustrating hours with telephone tech support to no avail.

I tried changing the channel also.  Linksys support also suggested selecting "antenna diversity ON" from the Advanced, then Wireless tabs of the router's setup pages.