Stuart's Rant Page

Keywords :Acer TravelMate 4501LMi wifi 802.11b 802.11g Dlink DWL-520 "poor performance"

I have eventually got my Acer TravelMate 4501LMi laptop working satisfactorily with my house's wireless network. For the best part of a year getting it to work has been a difficult and long-winded process. It hasinvolved moving the machine from room to room and rotating it to try to get a better signal. In fact the gizmo on the toolbar reported a good signal strength but it took an age to connect to the wireless router, a Netgear DG834G. Neither of the 2 desktop PCs (with Dlink DWL-520 cards) nor my mini MAC with Airport, also on the network, had any problems.
I tried updating the machine's Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network connection but was told there was no newer on available. I desperation I changed the device's Wireless mode from '802.11b and 802.11g' to '802.11b only' and now it works a treat.
Select
Start > Control Panel > System > Hardware >Device Manager
then
Network Adapters > Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
select the 'Advanced' tab, 'Wireless mode' and then '802.11b only'

As I say, it now works a treat. I get fast and reliable connections and in fact I get faster transfer rates than ever before (480 kb/sec on a 512kb ADSL line).

I am posting this in the hope that it will help some other poor devil in my situation.

Stuart