This is to some extent a re-post although I am posting the OP at the end for
completeness:
Yesterday I got in a Latitude running Windows 2000 infested with spyware and
adware. I could only find lying around and installed a 3Com PC card and
installed the drivers and client manager. There is something curious but
probably irrelevant about this computer because with no NIC in it, it shows
a 2MBPS connection and some packets going out with usually virtually nothing
coming in. Sometimes a packet or so.
The card worked immediately although not all that well as it wouldn't
complete brining in an 18 Meg Windows Update file (it got 80% and then
effectively stopped)
But it did update NAV corporate edition, I installed Spybot and Adaware and
it updated both and ran both. It found hundreds of infestations, all of
which I removed without caring whether someone had installed some program
which needed ads or pop-ups to run. SUDDENLY the whole 3Com card stopped
working and started showing the WLAN screen with an X in the middle showing
that there is no connection between the card and any base station.
Diagnostics shows the presence of the card which still flashes pleasingly
but with no result.
So I updated the firmware on the card to an earlier version than before (see
below). Still nothing. So I updated the drivers to the more recent 204
version. Still nothing.
Anyone got any idea what could conceivably be causing this?
OP below which went out to alt internet wireless and various MS forums
(where no one had any idea what could be stopping this card from working)
I have about ten or twelve computers with a mixture of mostly PCs but a few
Macs, all supposedly connected on the network. Some of them even network
together! I Have a mixture of mainly notebooks but a few desktops (with
internal NICs or USB devices). Netgear, Buffalo, Linksys, D-Link, etc NICs.
All seem reasonably easily configurable or if not, the Technical Support
departments know their hardware's quirks and can tell you what is wrong.
(except possibly Netgear whose MA401 is very quirky and while it does work
with 98 or XP, it is only really happy with Linux: But their MA301 and MA111
work fine)
But I am having a problem with a 3com PC card, a 3crwe62092A with a curious
flat spring-out aerial. It has a gigantic 32 megabyte install exe file which
doesn't seem to comprise a configurable scanner. But the card installs, and
shows up in device manager without any exclamation marks. The card is
always properly recognised on boot and flashes pleasingly to show it is
working. It's extraordinarily limited utility usually even shows the
strength of the link and link quality. And you can even switch between
networks (though you cant see what they are or whether they are encrypted or
even whether they are your own or a neighbour's).
But it is the only card I have never managed to get to connect
to the Internet. And it has an internal diagnostic utility which doesn't
allow you to do much but which has never shown it working, even when it is
showing a good link quality and signal strength!
On any computer I have ever installed it on. (I need hardly add that
whenever I have had this problem, I have always connected some alternative
NIC and they have inevitably worked immediately and without either problems
or configuration issues)
There is also a 500 kb update to the file which device manager seems to
think it doesn't need. Obviously when I can't get the card to work, I update
the driver. On no computer has that ever made the slightest difference.
There is also a firmware update which does nothing.
3Com seems to be the only NIC company which couldn't care less about
supporting its products and has actively refused to assist. Has anyone else
had these problems with either this company or this card OR found that
uninstalling the whole shooting match and installing some generic scanner
does the job if you can get the 3com card drivers themselves installed?
Computer Security