Wireless issues with Intel/Pro Wireless 2200BG

I dont think that there is a need to find a PCMCIA, The Intel wireless card i find is good. I my self havent had a problem with drop out but just the speed drops. But with the latest drivers i only find a speed drop when ideling. Also i'm not a big fan of the Linksys gear at all. My sister has a WPC54G PCMCIA card and using my wireless router (netgear) and the speed drop was worst. Also a friend of mine has some linksys gear and that was failing so i told him to go on Netgear and Problem fixed. So i've never been a huge fan of linksys.

Intel Wireless Pro 2200BG Driver vers. 9.0.2.1

 

When will this new driver be available to download?

 

Well I'm not 100% sure when its available to the public, but if someone is willing to donate some internetspace i'm willing to up load it for someone to download. Its a 45mb file...

Here's the link. Its only up for a few days only so get in quick and get it...
https://secure.filesanywhere.com/xE...%AC%BD%C2%B8%B1%8D%95%91%D0%96%BE%7E%9D%9D%A0

 

Hey guys, here is a link to the current intel drivers, they were released on 7/7/05.

Intel Wireless Drivers 9.0.2.* Series

Anubis

 

I'm just gonna jump into the conversation. I never knew of this problem with the 2200BG cards. I have an HP nx8220 with the 2200BG card and was connected to my B router without any problems. I later noticed that it only happened when connected to a G router. I finally got a G router and did my tests. I'm also getting the speed drop (from 54Mbits to 1Mbit), but only when I'm generally inactive. When downloading anything, the speed does jump back up to spec. I have not had any connection problems and have never dropped any connections yet after making a change to my NIC cards settings (changed from B+G to G only) an this seems to help with the dropped connections. It's now been 45mins without 1 connection drop (speed drops though).

Below is a link to my configuration of my NIC & router type:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1127921&postcount=10

I don't know if this will help anyone or not, but if these settings haven't been tried, I guess it'll be worth looking into. I'll report back after I've tested a bit longer.

-Vb-

 

I had the exact same problem for the last two weeks with my new Acer notebook, and tried downloading the new drivers and it didn't help. However, after reading some more here I decided to take a look at the version of the driver I was using. It said 9.0.1.9 , even though I had downloaded and ran the setup for the Intel new drivers for 9.0.2.25. Their setup installed their intel proset utility but not the driver, and I ran it two times. You would think a driver installation would actually install the driver, but I guess not. So instead I manually picked the driver in the update driver option in the device manager and my card now has the new driver. So far my connection has not gone down below 54mbps! Before it went down to 1 constantly. For those who thought you were installing the driver check that first and make sure it actually updated. This new driver seems like a marked improvement.

 

Wasn't this available a while ago? When I look at the driver version, it's the same as the one I already have installed when someone posted a link a while ago.

 

No this isn't the same driver that was posted awhile ago, I think that was the 9.0.1.21 that was posted, this one is 9.0.2.25. It works great for me, just make sure that the newest driver actually gets installed.

 

OK, well whatever link I followed earlier led me to d/l a package that included 9.0.2.25.

 

As I have mentioned before, I don't think the brand of router matters. I have a D-Link. I know people with other brands that have the same problem. It may seem like a problem with Linksys routers only because that is a popular brand and consequently because more people have Linksys routers, more people with Linksys routers have this problem. The issue definitely seems to be with the 2200 and or the Intel drivers.

 

I have a d-link as well, and had the same kind of drop off problems. The notebook is about a week old, so it actually came loaded with the 1.0.19 drivers. I downloaded and updated to the 2.0.25 this morning, and the speed still drops to 36 every once in a while, but not the 1 or 2 I was getting up until yesterday. Definitely, this seems to be working for me at this point. Hooray! This thread was a great resource!

 

I downloaded the drivers about a month ago and got 9.0.2.25 then. I just checked today and these seem to still be the latest version.

These drivers helped, but did not solve the problem. Still get drastic drops in speed, although now have very few total disconnects. (It still happens occasionally, though). Just now it dropped to 5.5 mbps. I imagine Intel will eventually get it fixed, but waiting for them to see it as a priority is hard. I think most people with the 2200BG just check email and use one browser window, so this problem is not high on Intel's list of things to fix.

 

Another thing about these new drivers and new task bar monitoring tool that I find strange.... Yes the number of dropped connections has improved, but this new monitoring tool appears to have been designed to show only certain connection speeds. On my computer the ONLY speeds it ever shows are 54, 22, 11 and 5.5mbps. And of course, dropped or disconnected!

 

The reason you always see those speeds is because there are only certain accepted speeds. When using the proset utility open it and click on details. Under supported data rates it says on mine 1,2, 5.5, 6, 9, 12, 18 etc... So the speeds will always display one of those.

For me, upgrading to 9.0.2.25 made me go from dropping to 1mbps constantly, maybe every five minutes, to now never dropping below 54mbps and I have been running it constantly for two days in a row and not one disconnect in that entire time. Never dropped even to 36. I installed everything in the proset I could, and use their utility rather than windows. I had to manually install the driver since their setup didn't even running it twice. Even though wireless is on channel 1, I read that sometimes with the 2200BG 1 and 2 cause problems. Try changing to 11 or something and see if that helps too. One good way of troubleshooting is going into the advanced statistics in the proset and see if you are getting a lot of dropped packets etc. In mine it says 60 percent of non directed packets are at 54 mbps and 90 of directed are at 54, so very good connection. I think checking for sure that your drivers are at 9.0.2.25, changing your channel to something other than 1 or 2, using the proset utility, and setting your router to g only should cover most people. Should I provide some screenshots for people with my config in case there are questions?

 

Also, not to pound on the point to much, but shepard, are you sure it actually upgraded the drivers to 9.0.2.25? Like I said, I thought it did too, but it did not work with the downloaded setup. Just wanted to make sure you didn't make the same mistake I did. From now on I guess I need to check the actual driver tab after each install to verify the installation.

 

I just bought a Linksys WRV54G router which is advertised to be compatable with Centrino wireless adapters. So far this connection has been ROCK SOLID at 54 mbps with absolutly no disconnects. This new router along with the latest drivers seems to have solved my problems! I used to run a Netgear WGT634U which was constantly dropping both my wireless and wired ISP connection as well as just my wireless connection.

 

How do you view the "advanced statistics"?

My driver tab says "9.0.2.25"

If I can figure out how to do it, I will try changing to a channel other than 1 or 2 and setting to "g" only.

 

I think the advanced statistics was an optional thing to install with the proset utility. When it is installed it will be under the tools menu in the proset utility.

 

Thanks, it was there. I have had several drop outs listening to streaming music tonight. When I look at the advanced statistics, I have:

Non directed received is 100% at 1mbps
Transmitted is 21% 54mbps; 25% 11mbps; 21% 5.5mbps; 29% 2.0 mbps and 4% 1mbps.

Directed packets: Transmit is 99% 54mbps
Received is 72% 54mbps and 27% 48mbps

So my problem seems to be with the non directed packets, whatever on earth that means???!!!

Also interestingly, even after several disconnects, when I view the wireless event log, nothing is listed.

 

Looking at mine, when receiving non-directed packets I receive 100% at 1mbps too, so I don't think that is a problem. Time to just pull out all the possibilities. One thing I would recommend is rolling back the drivers on your wireless and then uninstalling it. Then scan for hardware changes and it will reinstall it with the old drivers. Then manually install the 9.0.2.25 driver from the package that you downloaded rather than letting the setup do it since you already have the proset utility. Now, here is my adaptor settings that might do something (who knows).

Roaming aggressiveness (middle) - you could try putting it all the way up
Transmit power - highest
Wireless mode (both b and g) - you can try just using g or using both

 

Just checked my driver version as TSM26 suggested and what do you know, it was 9.0.1.9 even though I upgraded the drivers running the EXE. Talk about a pain in the butt.

I upgraded the drivers manually and have maintained a locked speed of 54Mbps for over an hour. I did get a slight speed drop to 48Mbps but it's been there for the past few hours. I'm in the process of running an idle battery runtime test. I have the Wireless status box up and it's been hovering at 48Mbits for approx 3hrs now.

I'm running in a B + G environment and just bought myself a new SMC router for $10CDN after rebate. It seems to work great and seems stable. It's possibly a driver/router combo that is causing the disconnects. Even when I was getting the change in performance, I never lost connection.

-Vb-

 

I'm not sure I understand the rolling back the drivers and reinstalling since mine reports the latest drivers installed? If I do try this as a last resort, how do you install the drivers "manually" as opposed to running the downloaded exe. file?

I have tried all the different settings available from the proset utility tools menu with no improvement. Do you think I should try changing any of the router hardware settings?

 

D-Link now has ver. 2.70 posted on their website. maybe this will fix the lousy equipment they make. Go get it you mister falcons!!

 

I bought a Toshiba M45-S355 in August through the Toshiba web site. At the same time they had a special on getting a Netgear WRG614v6 wireless router for free with a mail in rebate. I got the router in before I got the notebook and installed it in place of a Netgear RP614v2 on my home network. I connected my Windows XP Home edition desktop and an Apple iMac OS 10.2.8 directly to the router. I was able to connect to my service provider (Earthlink) without problem and the connection has been consistent.

When I finally got the Toshiba it was able to find and connect to the wireless router the first time. I then noticed that the connection speed would drop to 24.0 Mbps, then 5.5 Mbps, and then jump to 36Mbps. In addition, there were times the wireless connection showed 54Mbps and when I started Internet Explorer it would time out and show the server not found message. Some times I was able to turn off /on the wireless hardware switch on the front of the notebook and would be able re-establish the connection to the Internet, just to drop it again later.

The Wireless hardware is a PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection. The driver version as shipped was 9.0.1.9 with the date of 10-29-2004. After reading the posts I downloaded and installed driver version 9.0.2.25 with a driver date of 4-29-2005. The jury is still out but it appears the new driver may have corrected the problems. We’ll see...

I checked the date on the System folder and it showed a creation date of November 2004 . You would think that Toshiba would ship new PCs with software that is more current than nine months old.

 

These famous last words have been spoken by many, (myself included), here. If after a couple of weeks you are still getting a rock solid 54mbps all the time, let us know.

 

Alas, after working for about a the Internet connection started breaking again. I checked the drivers and the new ones are still active.

At this point I’m not sure if it is the PRO/Wireless 2200BG card or drivers, the Netgear WRG614v6 router or it’s configuration (right not it’s open with not WEP or access list), the ADSL modem (VisionNet 200ER) or the service provider (Earthlink). I’m going to bring the Toshiba M45-S355 to work and try it on the wireless LinkSYS router there. If it works (and it is stable) then it may be a problem on the home network. I also plan to pick up a Netgear WG511 54 Mbps Wireless PC card and see if that has any effect. Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

For some reaon it seems to work well for a short while after updating drivers, then drops off again. It also seems to work well for a while with a new setup. So if it works when bringing it to work, that still may not prove anything.

There has been much speculation here and else where about what the problem actually is. The common thread, though, is the 2200BG. There are problems on all sorts of routers, networks etc., not just one brand, model, or setup.

Sometimes, even with computers, old fashion common sense gives you the best clues. From what I have read here, read elsewhere, my own experience, and talking first hand to others with the problem, common sense points to the 2200BG and or Intel drivers.

 

Another update is available from Intel:

PROSet v9.0.2.1
Device Management v9.0.2.11
Device Driver v9.0.2.31

http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/cs-010623.htm

 

My connection is still rock solid weeks later, and nothing has changed. This is what I suggest to everyone, rollback the drivers on your wireless card, and then uninstall it and then MANUALLY install the drivers from intel. This is how you do all this if you don't know how.
Download the new driver and run the exe here

Remember to install everything and let the proset utility run your wireless. Take note of where the files were unzipped at, as the driver will be in that folder.

1. Go to device manager - Start Menu - Control panel - system - hardware tab - click on device manager
2. Click on the + sign on network adapters and it will have Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Wireless Network connection on it. Double click on it.
3. Click on driver tab
4. Click on roll back driver and keep rolling it back until you get to the first driver.
5. Close that window and go back to the device manager. Right click on the wireless connection and click on uninstall.
6. After it uninstalls, click on the Action menu and scan for hardware changes. It will install the wireless card again.
8. Now double click on the wireless adapter in the device manager again and click on the driver tab.
9. Click on update driver and choose install driver from a specific location and then don't search I will choose the driver to install, then click Have Disk.
10. Browse to the folder that the exe unzipped at and then go to the folder called drivers within that and select the driver, there will only be one you can select. Highlight that driver and click next and install it.
11. Restart your computer, make sure the proset utility is running the wireless, and go to the driver tab of the adapter again and make sure it has the newest downloaded driver installed.

This should work, and it doesn't matter what router you use. I have tested my connection now on five different routers without a problem.

 

I purchased and installed a Netgear WG511v2 54 Mbps Wireless PC card. I've disabled the Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG connection and rebooted the notebook several times and was able to connect to the Internet every time.

I took the Toshiba to work today and was able to connect to the Internet via a Linksys wireless router by both the Netgear wireless PC card and the Intel wireless card. It looks like the 2200BG card and some compatability issue with the Netgear WRG614v6 wireless router. I think I'll just stick with the WG511v2 PC card.

 

The reason why it is good to try to get the centrino wireless to work is because you don't have to buy a new card that takes up the pmcia slot, and above all it takes up less power and the battery lasts longer. I think if everyone tries what I posted then there shouldn't be many more problems.

 

I never had to follow your instuctions but i still got a ROCK Solid Connection with My Netgear DG834g v2. Awsum...

 

I followed the instructions and installed that version of the driver but unfortunately it did not fix my problem, the disconnection did not go away. The funny thing is I am also using ubuntu linux on the same computer with open source 2200bg drivers which work flawlessly. I still can't believe that some volunteer programmers can write a decent driver for that chipset without any disclosed specifications but intel's paid programmers can not fix that problem even if it is their job. I gave up and ordered an atheros card, hopefully will solve the problem for good.

 

Hi everyone!
I've just found this site today and am soooo pleased! I've never seen a thread go for such a long period.
In March I bought a new LG LW70 and love it to pieces.
But...for the last month I've been going crazy with wireless dropouts and eventually realised it was the Intel 2200GB. At first I thought it was the router (DLink624+, had worked for +1 year, no probs), cos it was crashing, so bought a Netgear FWG114P, seemed to fix the prob, for about 1 day! changed settings, goes for a few hours, then all starts again.
After reading nearly everything in the 29 pages of this thread, I've just downloaded not one but 3 of the latest drivers, and will try the last first.
I'll let you know how I go. I can't believe such a bad card has been released into the wild!!
cheers,
D

 

I have updated the Intel Wireless 2200 drivers to 9.0.3.5 and my router driver (Dlink DI-624 with Atheros chipset) to 2.70.

I cannot get the laptop to connect at all when I try using WPA and WPA2. However if I get rid of encryption I can connect right away and the connection is rock solid, no matter what, every time a constant 2-2.2 Mbytes/sec.(by the way I seem to get the same even when rolling back to Intel 8.0.2.8 drivers), the only problem being a very quick connection time out that I solved by using a small software called Rasputin which keeps the connection alive by sending packets at each second.

So I guess at least with my gear the main trouble is with WPA protocols which might have not been thoroughly tested for interoperability.

Can anyone confirm the same results? I'm not willing to give up encryption anyway.

 

What 9.0.3.5 is out? What a jump!!!
where did you get these drivers? or did you mean 9.0.2.1.
???

 

The software set is 9.0.2.1 but the driver version is actually 9.0.3.5

 

After installing the new driver, I had more dropouts after about an hour.
So I decided to change the power management and preamble settings for the driver. Immediately my connection went from 24mbs to 54mbs and gave me excellent reception which hasn't dropped in an hour!
I will give an update in a day or two...

 

I am soooooooooooooooo hoping this works - have tried most everything - was toying with getting new router - but it is likely a card issue. Uisng 9.0.2.31 (I have 2915abg Card). With your changes I have been Rock Solid for minutes now hahahaha we'll see.

 

Rock Solid for less than two hours back to disconnect (started other thread directly related to other SSID;s comming on board)

 

daacon,
just for the sake of completeness, have you tried with WEP/WPA/WPA2 turned off? I'm getting perfect results without encryption

Diego

 

No - but I would rather not runn 'naked' like that - suppose I could use MAC filtering to help a bit.

I also moved the WAP to another place - dissconnect almost immediatley - (related to new SSID's comming on Board) so gave up on moving (although I only tried one new spot)

Based on another suggestion changing WAP to 'b' only now (still running WPA TKIP) so we will see.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try that later if the "B" only fails.

 

yeah i wouldn't like to broadcast my business around either, but it seems as if it's the only way to get the intel wireless crap working. Wish I could use AES

 

A quick update - looks like I managed to get a decent WEP connection using Intel's own connection manager instead of Windows'. WPA and WPA2 don't work, but as compensation WEP doesn't seem to hit appreciably on throughput. Now on to verifying connection drops...

 

Cool - I was able to maintain 3 hours of solid connection using WPA - TKIP and broadcasting B only. With other SSID's comming in and out of range (using Net Stumbler - rarely survived these before)

I think the issue is WPA - TKIP and ??? <some other component or combination there of >

I am now testig broadcasting 'mixed (G and B)' and using WPA - AES (not as secure as TKIP) still better than WEP.

Not sure I mentioned before

Using WZC for wireless connection control (now)
Linksys WRT54GS v1 Firmware HyperWrt 2.1b (Beta ) - Have tried latest Linksys and other stable Firmware from HyperWrt no difference.
Intel 2915abg Card using 9.0.2.31 driver

 

I live in a very rural setting so turning off encryption was one of the first things I tried. Off for weeks now. It's made absolutely no difference.

The problem is the 2200BG and the Intel software. As I did notice some slight improvement with the last update of drivers, I was going to try the new ones just released. I have some hesitation now as I exchanged e-mails with someone today that got the latest driver last night and it made the problem worse. He is rolling back to the previous version.

 

It is hard to isoalte the issue as there are so many variables (type of router / Firmware / OS / applcaitions running / Wireless Security used / Router settings / etc). Each user may have a slight variation of one of the above components. although the Intel 2200bg and 2915abg hardware is one constant.

For me I think I am narrrowing down the issue to
WPA-TKIP and broadcasting mixed (b and g) or just g. My latest attemp at WPA- AES died a few minutes ago so now it is back to broadcasting in B only with WPA-TKIP enabled.

Where the incomatibility lies in my case is anyone's guess - but so far running b only with my set up , seems to be stable so far - but over the next couple days will tell the real story.

 

My gear: Intel Wireless 2200 card, Dlink DI-624 router, Win XP SP2 with all the latest updates. Here's my facts and experience:

1) I used to be able to connect with WPA enabled for a few months to my D-link DI-624. This router is a notorious piece of cr*p and I was impressed at how smooth my WPA connection was: almost no connection drop (like once in a month or so).

2) Then after a while, with no plausible reason, my connection started to drop after one hour or so. Subsequently the connection uptime was reduced to a few minutes and often it was a matter of seconds before connection dropped.

3) All of the above was happening no matter what combination of fw/driver I used.

4) Due to malfunctioning, I didn't used WLAN at home for months. A few days ago I decided to give it a try. After updating to the latest Intel driver/Dlink fw, I could see no WPA/WPA2 connection was possible at all (dropped every 3 seconds).

5) Instead, unsecured connection was possible, and beside a timeout problem it didn't suffer any drop at all (I'm speaking multi gigs transfers over a couple of days of continuous connection)

6) Pissed off by the unsecured connection, I went through another set of experiments. Again no WPA/WPA2 (this can b related to my router), but this time around, using the Intel client I could set up a working WEP connection.

7) Even if in my case Intel softw. can't get along very well with Microsoft WZC , the connection has been up during the last few hours, and I could transfer several 100s of megabytes without a drop. I'm using a short 13-char ASCII WEP key. I can get roughly 2+ MB/sec. transfer rate.

How about u guys?
Diego

 

Stability for a little over 3 hours Cautiously Optimistic

My Gear : (I have other computers either no Wireless Stability issues or they are hard wired)

3COM Home Connect ADSL Modem
Linksys Befsx41 VPN 4 port Router (DHCP Server) fw 1.52.3
Linksys WRT54GS (v1.0) WAP fw 4.70.6
Acer 8104/2915abg/Windows XP Pro / SP2 / all Critical updates / Intel Driver 9.0.1.21
Running WPA2 Personal
Using WZC


Initialy: Pretty sure all connectivity was good (no Security) - then I enabled WEP - was pretty good but there were some disconnects. Then went to WPA and bought the Acer - my woes started - The desktop has a PCI Linksys GS card and seems much more stable.

What I have tried - the last few days
Various fw for routers stock and third party / various levels of WPA (TKIP / AES) / various driver versions for 2915abg card - disconnects occurred constantly and random - sometimes in minutes - sometimes an hour or so. Usually reconnected on it’s own. Used Intel Proset as well as WZC

Latest:
Updated WRT54GS with latest stock Linksys Firmware
De-installed Intel Pro Set software (with control panel)
This will also remove the Hardware 2915abg card
Manually picked driver


Then in Device Manager / Right Click / Add Hardware should find the network adapter when asks for driver navigate to where Intel Driver was downloaded (I picked the wrong directory - I meant to choose 9.0.2.31 - but will leave 9.0.2.21 until it dies)

So I think what TSM26 suggested holds allot of merit. The trick is to get rid of the drivers in the windows driver directory so that when “the detect new hardware” finds the 2915 or 2200 Network card it cannot find a driver. Then you can navigate to where you downloaded the drivers. Kudos to TSM26

I found the only way to get rid of all the drivers if you have the Intel Proset software installed is to remove the Intel Proset software. (or you could manually remove them)

 

I dont suffer from the disconnects, just the speed flucuations. I'm doing some troubleshooting and wanted to know this from someone with a solid connection. If you run a speed test and look at your advanced stats in the pro/wireless monitor do you see only 54 mbps incrementing and everything else clean? Could you please check non-directed and directed packets.