Inspiron 8600, TrueMobile 1400, wireless A does not work!

Question

I am an experienced computer professional. I just recently purchased a fully loaded Inspiron with the Broadcom TrueMobile 1400 mini-PCI card. I have no problems whatsoever recognizing and connecting to any 802.11b/g network, but this system steadfastly refuses to even recognize the presence of ANY 802.11a access points. I have both a D-Link and an SMC 802.11a AP on my network. Neither is recognized. I have a couple of of 802.11a PC cards I have tried, and they both work flawlessly with either of the 802.11a AP's. I have totally disabled all the security features of both AP's with the very same result. The TrueMobile 1400 absolutely positively refuses to even recognize the presence of any 802.11a AP's. Folks, this is NOT a configuration problem. I am confident of that! I had Dell ship me an additional TrueMobile 1400. No success. I've called Dell support twice and both times encountered little help. They seem absolutely confident it MUST be user error. I am absolutely confident it is not. At this point I believe that either the 1400 is simply not compatible with most 802.11a AP's or else the A antenna inside the 8600 is defective. Has anyone out there been successful with the 1400 and and 802.11a AP's or router combos? If so, which units? Thanks. Scott A. Blystone, Rochester, NY

jhernand1102 · Answer

I have an inpiorn 8500 with a truemobile 1400. I have no problem connecting to the A band on my netgear WAB102 acess point. Make sure you update to the latest drivers for the truemobile 1400 and also make sure you have the access points latest firmware installed.

NY2A · Answer

Those were the first two things I tried.   Scott A. Blystone Rochester, NY

JL8 · Answer

Scott,
Sorry I haven't completed by first response before I accidentally sent it.

To continue, I have another Dell notebook equipped with a wireless B adapter card and it works perfectly with or without WEP enabled, but its running on Win2K while 8600 is running on WinXP.

Thanks, JL8

JL8 · Answer

Hi Scott,
I actually need some help here instead of trying to help, hope you don't mind.
Can I ask why you need the TrueMobile 1400 while Inspiron 8600 is Centrino enabled ?? Is it because you have to connect to a Wireless A ??
I bought a Inspiron 8600 few days ago and I struggled a lot to get it connected to my SMC2804WBR Barricade G wireless router. I finally got to a point where I can get it connected wirelessly when the WEP is not enabled. Once I enable the WEP at the router, there is no IP/Default Gateway address assigned for the 8600. I can wirelessly connected to the router but cannot use Internet as a result. I even forced the IP and Default Gateway address onto 8600, it just cannot get to internet even though I can see a proper IP/Gateway address using 'ipconfig' under DOS command. Any idea why ?? I certainly don't want to have an 'open' wireless network at home.

Networking, Internet, & Bluetooth

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