I currently have a Netgear MA401 wireless adapter installed on my Windows XP Home Edition laptop. For several years I have been using it to link to a wireless transmitter on my desktop PC so that I could access the internet via the stationary machine and its USB one-port ADSL modem.
This week, I have received a D-Link DSL 2640-B Wireless G Modem Router from my ISP and I would like to use it wirelessly with my laptop.
I have a new BT 1055 USB adapter that promises better compatability and security than the elderly Netgear card.
Will I need to uninstall the Netgear card before I add the BT hardware ?
Will I also need to erase information from the laptop about the former Ad-hoc network?
In the portable computer's "Network Connections" there is a section called "Network Bridge" which includes an icon for a "Network Bridge Enabled MAC Bridge Miniport".
I don't really know what this is, whether or not I should remove it and how I should go
about that deletion if it is a necessary action.
Any tips would be hugely helpful.....
Hi
I moved my Network items away from the "Network Bridge" and they are now logically labelled by type.
I had been trying to get the old Netgear MA401 card to work with WPA by following some flashing instructions posted at wifi-forum.com.
Eventually, I gave up with that and installed the BT product.....without having to uninstall the (modified ?) Netgear. I just "disabled" it before running the drivers for its replacement.
That replacement is *absolutely brilliant*. I can get a strong signal from the bottom of the garden (YAY !!!!) and the freedom and efficiency I am now experiencing is amazing compared to the shabby system I had before when I was using a (very, VERY noisy) Desktop PC as an internet gateway with a USB-cable daisy-chaining a wireless transmitter so that it could send its 6 metre range signal and get me to the dining room table !
I really didn't know what I was missing.
The Router lets me swap quickly between wired and non-wired connections (whicj I had imagined would be a pain. It isn't and I no longer have to "Dial Up" to access my ADSL. Great stuff !