D-Link → I'm hosting atheros drivers, check inside

Hey guys and gals

I'm hosting the Atheros drivers so you can safely find them on the net

Links are:
»www.bizmation.com/misc/a ··· 8-2k.exe (windows 2000 3.1.1.48)
»www.bizmation.com/misc/a ··· 8-xp.exe (windows xp 3.1.1.48)
»www.bizmation.com/misc/A ··· 1150.zip (zip file with 2 exe's)

Enjoy!

Thank you p0rtmonkey . This a great service you are providing. It is great to have 'one stop shopping' for the Atheros drivers.

Good idea! Now only if I can get those drivers to cooperate with my DWL-G520, it would be great. :P

Why would I use these drivers as opposed to the standard D-Link ones? (sorry for the newbie question)

-Arash

The md5 checksum checks out for me against the file windows xp 3.1.1.48 when I unpack it.

Thank you for for housting the files

MD5 - 9F0A0C9840FB7AC74F33B92E120EF111

Quite a few people (like me) have found out, that these drivers are better than the D-Link driver, in respect to stability of the wireless connection, features etc.
Just look at the various threads in this forum mentioning the Atheros drivers.
So in case, you are really happy with the D-Link ones, no need to change. But may be, you simply store them somewhere.
You never know.

Not to stretch your patience, but you might host driver version 3.3.0.145 as well. Looks even better !

Augustus just beat me to the punch - I was going to suggest the same. The driver seems to be excellent. If you haven't seen the links yet, they're in the the thread :
»new Atheros software?

Thanks!

Is there an Atheros substitute driver for the US DI-604? A B and C versions?

This will take a bit of searching...

Seems that the latest from D-Link is version 3.38 for rev E1. This was published on 6/17/04, and should be current.

D-Link hasn't published an upgrade for revs A, B or C in a while.

It appears that the HRI (Hardware Recycling Initiative) is busily at work comgin up with a Linux-based alternative to the software that d-link installs in the older versions of the DI-604. See:
»hri.sourceforge.net/

...and:
»hri.sourceforge.net/di_6 ··· dex.html

...and:
»sourceforge.net/search/ (enter "604" as the search argument to get a sense of what's being done regarding writing new firmware for the 604)

Can these drivers be used with the dwl-g630 as well? Thanks

jonazen,

The 3.3.0.145 drivers are good and all, but they install a "athgina.dll" that disables Windows fast user switching. Not that I'm "in love" with that, but I have grown accustomed to the login experience that XP gives. With the newer drivers, we get set back to Windows/2000 login.

lwgray -

We've actually been discussing that in a different thread. See:
»new Atheros software?

...and follow it down for a bit. Replacing the default "MSGINA.dll" is a documented procedure for software that must take control over the WinLogon process. It would seem that Atheros introduced this behavior to establish more control over WLAN connection and treat it as part of overall system logon.

If you have a few mins to review the other thread (link above), you'll also see references to white papers and a Microsoft paper discussion the use of "gina.dll's".

Also various ideas in the thread about ideas to try so you can revert back to the default "MSgina.dll" without having to give up the new Atheros driver (although as far as I know, nobody on the forum has yet verified that this will work).

I had this issue also with the 3.1.1.26 and then 3.1.1.50 drivers (which I now use) but I resolved it by re-installing just the utility of 3.1.1.50.

During the early part of the utility install, there will be a popup option of configuring a single logon for windows networking. I initially chose yes and then lost the "fast user switch options".

When I re-installed the utility, I chose the "no" option to this same pop-up.

I now am using the 3.1.1.50 Drivers and Utility as well as the old "fast user switch option" without any noticable differences or changes to my wireless card (DWL-G650) performance. I have repeated this on 3 different laptops, all with the same positive results.

T

I have just upgraded the drivers to v 3.3.0.145.

When doing this, the 3.3.0.145 utility will also be installed, which will automatically disable the fast user switching. Other than this, the information provided by the 3.3.0.145 utility is the same as that provided by the 3.1.1.50 utility.

I then have re-installed the 3.1.1.50 utility while keeping the 3.3.0.145 drivers.

This way I have the new drivers, an excellent utility, and fast user switching.

T

Sorry for not reading the other threads, but what exactly are these drivers for? What D-Link products can these be used with?

And I assume there's no Atheros firmware for the DI-624 eh? Because that would really help us all out quite a bit I think!

Cheers!

Hey p0rtmonkey - thanks for hosting these files. It may be good to also grab the newest 3.3.0.150 drivers and host them.

Link here: »www.star-os.com/download ··· 0150.zip

I posted elsewhere about these drivers (re-iterated below):

I have been using the 3.3.0.150 drivers for four days now with no instability.

DI-624 R.B f/w 1.28
2x DWL-G650 R.B2 drivers and utility Atheros 3.3.0.150

This driver version has not altered XP's switch user feature and has not altered the logon method.

I am using WPA-PSK with static DHCP assigned IP addressing with MAC filtering in Super G (non Turbo mode).

I can switch users and go in and out of standby and still maintain a connection without problem.

I can honestly say I cannot find fault at all with these drivers. Additionally my link speed and throughput have not been at all adversely affected. In fact they have improved only through now being able to use WPA, I have been able to reduce the Microsoft signing and encryption mechanisms that I was using when all I could use was WEP. So all in all, I have a faster and more secure wireless network - Thanks Atheros !!

cones, p0rtmonkey, et al -

I've got to second that. I've been running with the 3.3.0.150 driver for the last couple of days and results have been excellent. The only change from 3.3.0.145 that is immediately obvious is, as cones noted, that the install doesn't replace your default "msgina.dll" with "athgina.dll". As a matter of fact, having installed 3.3.0.150, I cannot even FIND athgina.dll on my machine. This seems to be an idea that Atheros played with and then backed away from.

This latest driver is highly recommended!

Well that answered my question from another thread that I started as to how to get back to the MS Windows Logon/Switch with 3.3.0.145. I hope this helps my PC freezing problem....I'm going to give 150 a try right now.

hi jonazen

having read... i tear my hair out because I got rid of my dwl-g650+ because my laptop just kept crashing and hanging. I tried all sorts of things and I sent it back. AT first i thought i had a problem with the 16-bit pcmcia to 32-bit cardbus conflict but no i think it is the driver! Mann I might get another one because i have a DI-624+ !!! I'll order one now i think.. Hope it works!!

Cya

mini Me7 ,

Be careful. From what I understand the + models do not use the Atheros chipset so these drivers may not do you any good. I think they use a TI chipset.

hi mini Me -

WNSmith is right - the "+" series do NOT use the Atheros chipset. If you want to use the Atheros driver, you'll need the di-624 (without the +).

I could not read the dialog boxes (non-ascii 128 characters - I don't know why). However, the Atheros drivers that I downloaded from a link further down(up?) in this thread, found here:

»www.star-os.com/download ··· 0150.zip

worked wonderfully.

Now why can't D-Link produce good quality drivers like that?

I have been fighting for the about 8 hours now, trying to get drivers from DLink support site to work. I would find myself with one of two problems.

1. If I used the driver CD that came with my DWL-G650, the DLink configuration utility would "forget" my WEP key and I would have to re-enter it each time I booted the computer.

2. If I tried to install the latest drivers that I downloaded from the support site, it would tell me that no wireless networks exist and double clicking on the icon in the tray would bring up the standard windows networking dialog (not the DLink config utility). There was no way for me to tell windows that I did not want to use the "Zero configuration" utility since the middle tab has gone missing completely from my wireless networking dialog.

Anyway, installing the Atheros driver from the link above has no restored my middle tab but at least I don't need to enter the WEP key each time a reboot - what a pain!!!

D-Link hardware may be good but driver sux.

Any of you guys using Win98 SE? My 520 looses sight of the 624 every few hours and after every reboot. I have to click on rescan to get it to reconnect.

Should I try forcing the hardware to use the Atheros drivers ver 150?

check here for win98/me/nt/xp/2000 atheros 5001x, 5002g driver ....

if possible , could anyone rehost the drivers ?

»ayonaero.dyndns.org/atheros.zip

Hi - The G650+ does not seem to work with the Atheros drivers.

I feel really badly let down by D-Link, there level of support is rubbish. I purchased 6 of those for work and we (experienced in wireless tech) have never got them to work. We use Dell Laptops and the cards freeze and BSOD the laptops at will.

It's just not good.

However on a brighter note, I advise a number of organizations on technology selection and I reckon I've cost D-Link £100,000s in revenue. I'm about to make recommendations where we are talking big numbers - guess who will not get a sniff!

No, as far as I rememeber '+' products use Texas Instruments chipset and therfore won't work with Atheros drivers.

I went out and got the cheapest Sitecom card in the shop - a decent take-away would cost more.

Works far better than the d-link....

Mind you I'm still stuck with those 6 G-650s....

Oh well.

Since I know how frustrating it may be for some to download drivers that work for the G650:

I personally think Atheros should start providing drivers to the general public. D-Link is making them look bad with their bad drivers.

Since they aren't providing drivers, I'm hosting the drivers too, if anyone has problems with p0rtmonkey's site, or if you want a possibly faster download:

»www.tomscomputers.com/at ··· 8-2k.exe (Windows 2000 3.1.1.48)
»www.tomscomputers.com/at ··· 8-xp.exe (Windows XP 3.1.1.48)
»www.tomscomputers.com/at ··· 1150.zip (zip file with 2 exe's, WinXP and 2000?)
»www.tomscomputers.com/at ··· eros.zip (3.1.1.26 driver, with Linkmon utility)
»www.tomscomputers.com/at ··· 0150.zip (3.3.0.150 Bleeding edge BETA driver)