[dba-Tech] Network Issues with Win98SE

Right, let's see... The laptop *should* work with just the driver, unless
there are security issues - ie WEP encryption and stuff, or having to use a
different channel (although I think it should work that out for itself). I'm
kind of in the dark here as the cards and access point I use are all
Netgear.

I'd say the first thing to do would be to check on the cd that the drivers
are definitely compatible with Win98SE, and download the latest version from
their website (assuming they let you do that), copy the whole zip file to
the laptop, it should contain everything that you need.

Give that a go, and see what happens, let me know tomorrow (I'm off home
now!)


Jon

-----Original Message-----
From: Tina Norris Fields [mailto:tinanfields at torchlake.com]
Sent: 08 November 2004 15:23
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Network Issues with Win98SE


Hi Jon,
Thanks for the comeback.  My dad's Win98SE laptop is one of the boxes 
I'm struggling with.  It is second-hand and has no CD drive.  

First, I tried the D-Link wireless card  (DWL-G630 rev C) and fussed 
around to get the software for the card onto my Iomega Zip Drive, and 
plugged that into the USB port on his laptop (I set up that software 
long ago to get around the lack of a CD drive).  Installation appeared 
to go correctly.  But, when I rebooted the box, I consistently got two 
messages:  One told me a command was linked to the missing 
IPHLPAPI.dll:GetPerAdapterInfo, the other told me a device attached to 
the system was not functioning.  These messages were tied to the attempt 
to run the AirPlus utility file for configuring the card.  

I learned from the codeproject website that GetPerAdapterInfo was not 
supported in Windows prior to Win2K.  So, it seemed to me that the 
D-Link software was making a function call that Win98SE did not 
recognize.  I contacted D-Link's e-mail tech support, at that time not 
sure whether the Win98 we had was first edition or second edition (later 
established it is second edition).  The only response I got from them 
was that wireless was not supported for Win98FE.  I called their 
telephone support and went down the road again, this time assuring them 
that it was Win98SE.  They couldn't find anyone in their support team 
who understood what was wrong - several times they just said many of 
them had installed what I was trying to install on Win98SE boxes with no 
difficulty at all.  I went back to the e-mail tech support and let them 
know I was dealing with Win98SE - they replied it would be better for me 
to talk to a live tech support person and gave me the toll-free number. 
 I talked with some local guys at the ISP, who were pretty well 
convinced that the wireless technology was the problem.

So I uninstalled all the DWL-G630 software and bought an appropriate 
D-Link ethernet card and some CAT-5 cable.  I put the software from the 
new card (DFE-690TXD) onto my Iomega Zip Drive, and plugged that into 
the USB port on his laptop I tried to install the drivers from there.  I 
got a message box saying it had installed the drivers, but it didn't 
install any utilities that I can make out.  I have no handle on the 
supposedly installed drivers.  I have no way to ask the card to 
acknowledge the network it is now plugged into.  Supposedly, the New 
Hardware Wizard would recognize the card, after I first install the 
drivers, then shut down, insert the card and reboot.  It sort of did - 
it said it did, but I can't get hold of anything to configure it.  Maybe 
some part of the installation software didn't get copied onto my Zip 
drive.  There's a lot of software on the CD that I am sure I don't need, 
but perhaps I missed something I did need.  I will go back at that.

However, if I have the correct drivers in place, shouldn't I be able to 
use Win98SE's own networking stuff to get the job done?  Since I am such 
a newbie when it comes to networking, I thought I'd better call for 
help.  I've already spent lots of hours learnig a gazillion things that 
don't work!

Tina

Jon Tydda wrote:

>Hi Tina
>
>I had no problems with a wireless network on my win98se pc... stuck the
card
>in, loaded the drivers and we're away. My dad's laptop runs 98 on wireless
>too. It was when I upgraded to 2k that I had lots of problems, but that was
>due to poor IRQ assignments in 2k.
>
>What have you done so far?
>
>
>Jon


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