Netgear Rangemax and Intel wireless - eureka!!

I hope no one minds me starting a new thread and reposting this (I already put it in the lengthy Intel 2200 wireless thread) but since so many of us are having problems with the 2200 and the 2915 cards I thought a new thread would attract attention and after so much frustration I wanted to share:

Well, I do have something worthwhile (FINALLY) to share. My daughter's laptop has a 2915 card in it, works flawlessly at her school and was plagued by disconnects at home and in her apt., both of which have the D-link 624 router. Driver and firmware updates, the power polling changes, etc. made the school connection rock-solid but didn't help at home, with the connection sometimes disconnecting every couple of minutes, sometimes over longer periods. With her AIM open I could see a series of signing on/off from my computer (with a window for her screen name open). Other laptops on the network were fine even though hers got kicked off (interestingly, even one with a 2200 card).

Anyway, I decided to try switching routers. Since it seemed to me that the gamut of routers was tried by people here I did the atypical thing and went to Bestbuy and picked the salesman's brain. I was going to buy the Belkin wireless G plus MIMO router which was top-rated by Tomshardware, but the salesperson strongly recommended the Netgear rangemax. He had encountered this complaint before (no surprise) and told me this seemed to work for people and felt that this was the most stable router. The seven internal antennas transmit simultaneously and result in fewer lost packets and errors, increasing range and throughput. There is a newer Netgear out (the Rangemax 240) which uses the next generation chip, but that one has 3 external antennas rather than the internal switching that the original Netgear Rangemax has. While the potential is there for higher speeds with the newer model, neither will help increase the speed past 54 Mbs because that's the max of the Intel wireless cards anyway (for that you'd need an external card).

It has been over 13 hours and her laptop has not disconnected once, which is remarkable even if she had been using it but it has been on, AIM open, but unattended. It may be a little pricey, but the Netgear WPN824 RangeMax wireless router seems to be doing the trick. If I think about all the hours I have wasted trying to resolve this, the price of the router even starts to seem cheap if it continues to work so well.

 

It's so odd how bad this problem has been for Intel. Glad to see you have it working now though.

 

Yep Congrats and good luck with its future -

Pss, Netgear and Linksys work more better

 

Thanks...although there is always something to create aggravation- I am trying to find the newer version 2 of this router and can't seem to find it. It was released the beg. of December and makes sense to get the newer chip in the new version.

 

I just bought the Thinkpad Z60M with the Intel 2915 integrqated card. I am new to wireless and have not bought a router yet. Do you think this would work for my Thinlpad as well?

Also can you give us an update after a couple days on the performance?

Thanks in advance!

 

I sure will. She will be home through tomorrow, so we'll have another day to check it out. It is over 24 hours now without a single disconnect, both when used and when idle with AIM on. The signal strength has remained good and it has been carried to different rooms throughout the day.

While I am a huge fan of getting great deals on things, given the history of these cards and so many people having router issues, especially if you opt for a less expensive router, I would definitely buy it at a local store that gives a 30 day return without a restocking fee. The only negative about this router, as nickspohn pointed out in another thread, is that it is on the pricey side. Although, given the number of hours that so many of us have wasted with this stupid issue, the success we're having makes it seem cheap....

1/2/06 update:
well, it's almost 2 days now. There was a possible transient disconnect last night (the computer was unattended and AIM signed off and on quickly- happens with AIM even in desktop connections, so not sure if it was a wireless or AIM hiccup); otherwise rock-solid.

I also have been doing a lot of reading on this and discovered that ideally the unit should be horizonatal but elevated 3 inches (evidentally this is in Netgear's downloadable documentation). Mine was sitting on the floor next to my tower but I will put it on a cardboard box as recommended.

Just a point of info.-from all the reviews, this router is not as good as true MIMO IF you intend to use MIMO clients (get an external wireless card) BUT appears to be ideally suited to increase range and maintain connection through interference, which is what those of us having problems with the 2200/2915 Intel cards need. It seems to have totally solved our problem!

 

Just wanted on how stable your connection is. I just recieved my Z60M and am ready ot buy a wireless router. An update would be greatly appreciated!

Any good prices on this router on the net? I know the Rangemax 240 is just coming out. Will it make any difference using the old rangemax vs. the new rangemax 240 if I am using the integrated Intel card? I don't mind spending the extra $$ if it will be worth it.


:buyIBM:

 

I decided to swap the Netgear WPN824 for the WPNT834 (the new rangemax 240 that you are referring to) because I know that Netgear had some problems with the 824's and just released a new version which none of the stores have in stock; also, couldn't resist the rave reviews on the rangemax 240. Also- I noticed on my desktop (which is wired to the router) that there was an occasional lag with the WPN824- it seemed that the router was recycling or something and it was annoying.

Well, my daughter hasn't been home yet (although she will be today) and hasn't set up the new one in her apt., so I can't tell you whether it is better with her 2915, BUT I can tell you that my husband's Axim (the Dell pda), which also was kinda funky connection-wise, is much happier with the rangemax 240 than with the WPN824 (and both were way better than our old router). He finds the connection absolutely solid and strong with the rangemax 240 over extended periods. He had disconnect problems with the old router with this pda and found the WPN824 to be much better, also with a solid connection, but the signal strength using it in the same location was much stronger and consistent with the newer model (the rangemax 240).

As for price- ouch- buy.com seems to be the best around at $140. I did get Bestbuy to match it (I preferred to buy it locally despite the tax because of easy returns there in case I wasn't happy).

I'll let you know tonight or tom. if we can tell any difference with my daughter's laptop, although she did get a consistent connection with the WPN824, so I don't know that she'll notice any difference.

 

Looking forward to hearing the results!!

 

sorry-didn't forget about answering you. She didn't bring the laptop home- came home for some quality shopping time . By this weekend she will set it up in her apt. which will be a good test, since that environement was a real problem for the 2915 card. However, at home we're very happy with the Netgear rangemax 240 (WPNT834)

I can give you an update- she set it up in her apt. and it has been over 20 hours. Unattended it has stayed connected (she has AIM open), which is prob. a record here, so it looks like the rangemax router is the solution for us (we landed up with the rangemax 240). My guess is that the Intel wireless cards are just more sensitive to interference and the Rangemax routers have a stronger signal strength, which would explain why her laptop was fine at school.

As others have suggested, it may be overkill, but I am happy not to have a problem anymore.

Oh- fyi- if you get it, when you are setting the security settings, after you apply them exit and re-enter and make sure they took. I had the problem when I set mine up and had to redo it. I had my daughter exit that screen and then re-enter the wireless setting screen and all seemed fine and then we wasted ten minutes trying to figure out why the laptop didn't see her connection. She re-entered the router url and the wireless security settings were not there even though she had entered them. After re-entering them all was fine. There may be some glitch in the software since it happened on 2 different set-ups.

 

Thanks for all your help with this!!!

I can't wait for your next update on the performance!

I am searching now trying to find a deal on the router

 

As an owner of the WPN824, I would not recommend anyone buy it. This router does improve signal and speed as advertised, but has continual disconnect problems. Just check the support forums at Netgear and you will see a decent amount of users complaining about the same problem. I am suspecting that the version 2 that they recently released might fix this problem, but Netgear is mum on any details.

 

Did you try updating your firmware/drivers?

 

Since you asked, the WPNT834 has been perfect- she connects immediately when she turns on her laptop and it doesn't disconnect until she shuts it off. It's been 10 days already and all is well...finally!

The best deal may be from buy.com (I think there is a coupon floating around on one of the deal sites too).

Hope you're as successful as we've been.

 

I have tried all types of the firmware including the latest firmware they have released. I have reset the settings to factory defaults before and after firmware migration. I have updated all the drivers and have also tried using the WZC utility and a utility specifically for my Atheros cardthat is built in.

Actually, what I believe is wrong with the router is that its NAT table gets overloaded if you use P2P software and causes it to hang requiring a power cycling of the router to get it functioning again.