Signal excellent, I'm just not talking to you!

[Fruss Tray Ted]

That's what my laptop is saying to my router :o

Background:
This pc was sold to me w/ XPpro installed and pcmcia card came with it working. No key code, could not do updates so I decided to wipe and install 98SE with possible dual-boot later (multi partitioned)

Toshiba 8200 850mhz 348megs pc100
Motorola WN825G pcmcia wireless card
D-Link DI-514 'b' wireless router
New WD 40 gig 2.5" 8meg HDD <---only new component

This setup worked fine as I said with Win XP and all components are 98SE compatible.

Put in new hard drive, installed Windows followed by drivers for modem, LAN, PCMCIA port drivers etc. Rebooted between each as instructed.

Dial-up connection works.
LAN connection works.

Installed Motorola drivers from disk prior to installing card per instructions. Tried both: Reboot and hot-connecting, also tried powering down, install card and booting. Configuring the card shows Excellent signal strength, power indicator light but no connectivity whatsoever!

Spent over 1 hour with Tech support from Motorolla and we could not establish a working connection.

Tried each: changing channel of router, rebooting modem, reboot router, pc, reinstalling wireless card. Looked for ghost drivers in Safe mode, removed wireless card from Device Manager and let reboot and rediscover.

I did see the Link LED flicker on 2 occasions but cannot get it to remain connected. Tech Support lady said to go to Wal-Mart and buy another XP disk :confused:

Help!

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Epilogue:

Sent 98SE to the bone yard, installed WinME, and all is well on the home front.

After ME was installed, I put in the Motorola disk and in 1 reboot it was working like a charm. Who says that OS is useless? :p

Please don't bombard me with the why... ;) I did this because the laptop is older and not the fastest kid around the block... I figured lightening up it's load would help some tired achy bones.

One thing I've noticed though,and wasn't expecting is, you'd expect this from your router but not from your access point in that, the Link LED blinks as data is transferred rather than representing a connection and remaining a solid green illumination as I was expecting.

After 5 installs (yes 5! :eek: ) of 98SE and 1.5 hours on the telephone with Tech support, seems 98 just isn't up to snuff anymore though supposedly supported. I have a 1 gig memory stick that is supposed to work with 98se as well but does not, and has never. 'Drivers' are either useless, or drunk... :rolleyes: