D-Link DWA-130 erratic connection on XP

Hardware: Dell SX260, D-Link DWA-130 Rev B1. Router is D-Link DIR-655.
OS: WinXP SP3

Connection is mostly up and down. The D-Link utility says it's connected, but Network Magic says it's not. Most of the time it cannot be pinged by other computers on my network. Windows says it has "limited connectivity". I've uninstalled and reinstalled the driver, with no effect. Moving the computer from its normal place in a room across the hall from the router to right beside the router does not help. On the D-Link website the only driver offered is only for Mac.

Other computers on my network, both wired and wireless are fine. Rebooting the router does not help. I've been tinkering with this for several weeks, trying to get it to work consistently enough to be useful, but no joy, and I really don't want to run Cat5 across the hall. This DWA-130 was previously used on an IBM ThinkPad, in the same house, but a different room, and it worked fine.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Answering myself here....

After weeks of fooling with this off and on, I seem to have hit on an unexpected solution. I bypassed DHCP for that client only. Now that it has a fixed IP addres, it's solid, and has been for several hours. I'm keeping fingers and eyes crossed that it stays stable, but it's already exceeded the best of previous performance. That change shouldn't matter, since DHCP is working fine for other wireless clients in my network (3 of them), but there ya go.
 
Hmm; DHCP is only used when:
  1. the system accesses the router during a boot/reboot OR
  2. the user performs ipconfig /release or /renew
Windows says it has "limited connectivity".
dead give away that the systems attempt for a DHCP assignment (on port 67,68) failed.

Two causes: a) the firewall blocked UDP ports 67,68 or b) the ipconfig /all shows a Node Type other than Hybrid
Save the attachment, rename by removing the trailing .TXT, and then double click on the file name.


Fixed addresses works, but not good for any laptop as that messes up hotspot usage.
 

Attachments

  • TCP_NodeType.reg.txt
    170 bytes · Views: 5
Hmm; DHCP is only used when:
  1. the system accesses the router during a boot/reboot OR
  2. the user performs ipconfig /release or /renew
dead give away that the systems attempt for a DHCP assignment (on port 67,68) failed.

Two causes: a) the firewall blocked UDP ports 67,68 or b) the ipconfig /all shows a Node Type other than Hybrid
Save the attachment, rename by removing the trailing .TXT, and then double click on the file name.


Fixed addresses works, but not good for any laptop as that messes up hotspot usage.

Interesting. I think I need to supply more information than I did. Here goes:

Client end is running a firewall (Comodo). All other clients in my network are running the same, and I believe they are configured identically. On the router end the DIR-655 has a built-in firewall, but it has no reason to pick on this client and allow the other three wireless clients to work. It's always possible that something funky is going on in the Comodo firewall, but it's not obvious how. Note that the client was pulling an IP address SOMEtimes. There were basically three states: No IP address pulled, IP address pulled and showing properly on both ends but "limited connectivity", and IP address pulled and everything working properly. At any given moment it could be in any one of those.

Node type lists as "unknown".

What I'm calling a fixed IP isn't quite proper. I didn't set the IP at the client, which still thinks it's using DHCP. I set a reserved address in the DIR-655 router. The client (which is a desktop, not a notebook) could move to a hotspot just fine. I changed nothing at the client end, and now it works fine, which says to me that the problem was in the built-in DHCP server in the router.

As for the file you sent, I'm assuming that is intended to be run against the registry in the client. I'm very curious as to what it is intended to do. I haven't run it, since my current thinking is that the problem lies at the other end of the radio link, but I'd like to know whether it's beneficial anyway. I've have very little knowledge of the registry and am cautious about modifying it.

Thank you for the help.
 
did. Here goes:

Client end is running a firewall (Comodo). All other clients in my network are running the same, and I believe they are configured identically. On the router end the DIR-655 has a built-in firewall, but it has no reason to pick on this client and allow the other three wireless clients to work. It's always possible that something funky is going on in the Comodo firewall, but it's not obvious how. Note that the client was pulling an IP address SOMEtimes. There were basically three states: No IP address pulled, IP address pulled and showing properly on both ends but "limited connectivity", and IP address pulled and everything working properly. At any given moment it could be in any one of those.

Node type lists as "unknown".

What I'm calling a fixed IP isn't quite proper. I didn't set the IP at the client, which still thinks it's using DHCP. I set a reserved address in the DIR-655 router. The client (which is a desktop, not a notebook) could move to a hotspot just fine. I changed nothing at the client end, and now it works fine, which says to me that the problem was in the built-in DHCP server in the router.
MUCH BETTER :)
The attachment will correct the client to which is applied from being Node Type Unknow to Hybrid. That change will greatly improve DHCP assignments and usually avoids the 169.x.y.z address problems.

Your use of Address Reservation - - marvelous -- use it myself to create a pseudo-static ip address sett across my lan. My laptop then still responds to hotspot DHCP as needed. :)

Still recommend the attachment be applied wherever you see Node type lists as "unknown".

As for the file you sent, I'm assuming that is intended to be run against the registry in the client. I'm very curious as to what it is intended to do. I haven't run it, since my current thinking is that the problem lies at the other end of the radio link, but I'd like to know whether it's beneficial anyway. I've have very little knowledge of the registry and am cautious about modifying it.
If you save the attachment as-is, then you can see the contents via notepad and that will show the change
being performed - - save as w/o the txt extension to create a usable *.REG file and still preserve the *.txt file
 
MUCH BETTER :)
The attachment will correct the client to which is applied from being Node Type Unknow to Hybrid. That change will greatly improve DHCP assignments and usually avoids the 169.x.y.z address problems.

Ah. I've never messed with that, so don't understand how it accomplishes that, but the result = goodness.

Your use of Address Reservation - - marvelous -- use it myself to create a pseudo-static ip address sett across my lan. My laptop then still responds to hotspot DHCP as needed. :)

I'm still kicking myself that I didn't think to try that weeks ago. I still don't see how it helps, since the client is still pulling an IP address from the router, but it obviously avoids any code the router is using to figure out which address to assign. Why that code works with other wireless clients, and not this one, remains a mystery. Oddly, this is the only one of my four wireless clients to be running a D-Link wireless NIC to talk to my D-Link wireless router.

Still recommend the attachment be applied wherever you see Node type lists as "unknown".

If you save the attachment as-is, then you can see the contents via notepad and that will show the change
being performed - - save as w/o the txt extension to create a usable *.REG file and still preserve the *.txt file

I looked before (in vi, not Notepad, which I don't use). I just have far too poor understanding of the registry to recognize what effect that has. I'll run it the next time I have easy access to that machine, since it's in use this evening.

Again, thanks for all of the help. Hopefully this will help someone else who runs into the same thing with the DIR-655.
 
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