US Robotics → New firmware for USR8054 (125M upgrade and WPA)

r2504

I also have experienced slow booting, windows starts up, loads a few things, but no network connections, USR icon stays red.
After a while, 2 or 3 minutes I guess, suddenly my network connections (USR) appear, and my virusscanner and other programs load.

I found out that when USR utility is scanning channels, my laptop's CPU utilization went up to 100%. No wonder your Virus scan software and other stuff load very slow. My mouse is also jumpy during that time.

Yes, it's scanning, but it takes only a few seconds to connect on my end, not too distracting.

A pain, however, is that it does not rescan when coming out of stand-by.

Funny how we all have the same hardware/software combo, but so few similar experiences

Are you using XP or Win2000? I have another laptop using an old 11b+ card with Win2000 and the card won't rescan after coming out of standby. The WinXP machine works just fine. BTW, I never keep the utility loaded.

Finally figured out why WPA won't work on my router. With the help of NetStumbler, it shows my router was generating nothing but garbage (it outputs something but NetStumbler can't understand what it is)when WPA is turned on. And it also reboots itself every so often. Back to WEP and it's stable as before.

I just installed the firmware on the PC and the router - Setting the WPA-PSK causes the router to reset several times a minute, ie continuously. Switch back to WEP and the problems gone. During this time, Im using a 2nd PC connected to the router to switch back to WEP and notice the configuration web pages are very slow - Is WPA-PSK that intensive, its causing the web pages to run so slowly, its causing the router to reset?

I use XP, the USR utility does not seem to rescan after standby. Small problem overall.

And WPA works - you guys want me to check something specific to find out why your equipment isn't working?

Regarding the slow startup... yes, I'm using XP professional, but I no longer have the issue when using the WZC instead of the USR utility.

WPA-PSK works fine as mentioned before, and I see no difference in speed on the setup pages, neither on anything else (file sharing, surfing, downloading mail, ...).

Related to NetStumbler... how do you see if it outputs garbage ? I don't know the program, but I only thought it could display the access points it finds (which XP does as well). NetStumbler also says "WEP" encryption while I'm using WPA-PSK.

I wonder if USR is reading these forums... would be valuable information for them.

When I use NetStumbler (first time user as well), if I set my router to WPA-PSK mode, the NetStumbler will display a growing list(grow every a few seconds) of peer-to-peer wireless networks. It seems that the firmware isn't stable on WPA implemenation that causes mine and dave888's router to enter into constant rebooting. I tried reset my router to factory default couple times and still the same. Not a big issue for me since I still have couple of legacy wi-fi devices that can't support WPA. Just want to see if it really works.

On top of that, when the PC card driver is installed, the setup automatically stopped the WZC service. That indicates USR knows its PC card driver is not working well with WZC (I still can't select WPA mode in WZC configuration). And the utility automatically installs itself to C:\USR ... folder. And the Dynamic channel mode keeps enable itself automatically on the router. All it means is that this release is rushed out of door before it is ready.

I noticed that growing list of peer-to-peer wireless networks as well, with a changing ID. I first thought this had something to do with the dynamic stuff... but it probably isn't. After checking the USR utility, I noticed it indicated Ad-hoc network instead of Infrastructure. Once I changed this back, everything was ok.

As far as WPA is concerned... it works fine, so what's the difference with your setup ? I use a pure USR setup (8054 + 5410)... maybe that's why it works fine ?

For WZC... I switched on the service again as someone else suggested, and can use WZC fine now. Even doing the config with it related to entering the WPA-PSK key worked flawlessly. It all works even better as the USR utility which slows down XP Pro after logon as others noticed.

Dynamic channels... is switched on as well, but NetStumbler always indicates channel 1. I haven't tried to switch it off yet, but I could test this for you as well.

Another issue I have is that my cable DHCP request only gets answered when the lease completely expires (and not after the first request as should be). Don't know who's guilty however... don't trust my ISP neither on such issues.

The upgrade for the 8054 works fine... Really stable and instead of a soft-reset most of the time the router does a hard reset. Because of the use of use I suffered from a router that reboots regularly the solution for me was to email the log to an email adres and since then a more stable product...

But back to the upgrade... the router itself super workfine except from the dynamic channels....

But the driver for the pci/pcmcia card is still extremely bad. I was still using the 4.0q driver because this was the most stable one (and fast just downloading from a internal webserver up to 3mb/s, topspeed with performance monitor 36mbs......) but the last 6.0b14 driver is just really shit....
Connection finally ok (disable Wireless zero config in XP), but troughput is sad.... 120 - 200 kbs.....

Does Anyone have the same issue????????

Hi All

thought u might be interested in this i mailed usr re the fact that the speeds are no where near the claimed 125mbits this is their response

"With regards to the 125Mbps throughput these products use a technique
called Framebursting is a modification to the inter-frame spacing of
802.11 packets. Essentially
the space between data frames is reduced in order to "burst," or rapidly
send, packets
back to back in a shorter timeframe. Framebursting is a technological
improvement that has been introduced in various products to provide
enhanced speed, typically resulting in performance improvement of up to
25%. For the U.S. Robotics 802.11g Wireless Turbo family of products,
the addition of framebursting delivers that 25% speed boost on top of
the already accelerated 100Mbps products. This will result in a maximum
speed of 35-40Mbps (which is a 25% increase on the 100Mbps speed of
25Mbps-30Mbps). This is a standard specified and ratified by the IEEE
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). IEEE is an
organization composed of engineers, scientists, and students. The IEEE
is best known for developing standards for the computer and electronics
industry."

i have downloaded the IEEE documentation and am having a read to see if this is the cobblers it sounds like

cheers

If you expected to get 125 Mbps, or even something near to that I guess you will be disappointed. It's even so that USR gets by far the best actual speeds compared to other manufacturers, and for their 100 Mbps product range this should indeed be around 25 to 30 Mbps.

I did some additional tests in the garden yesterday (where I always sit, and got more or less steady 48 - 54 Mbps), I now get often 11 or 24 Mbps at 70% signal strength.

So it seems there are still some issues with the new firmware (I also switched of frame bursting and dynamic channels, but it doesn't seem to make lots of a difference).

I have just updated firmware from 1.21h to 1.44b12
Everything fine until WPA-PSK is activated. The AP/Router then starts resetting itself every 20 - 30 seconds. My PC card USR805410 (with 6.0b14 upgrade and WPA-PSK activated) cannot connect. Everything goes back to 'normal' using WEP. This is what I received (July 14) from USR tech support: (i) "We are awaiting a new firmware update to rectify this problem for you. I have escalated this case for you and we will contact you back as soon as we have satisfactory answer for you." (ii) "Your request is being dealt with by our Technical Support team, who are currently carrying out tests in an effort to re-create your issue."
In the meantime, anyone else who had this problem now got WPA working? foxbat121, dave888? Any other tips welcome.

I gave up on WPA on this router and the PC card.

tvmd - When the router was resetting, I had the dynamic channels enabled. Turned it off and the resetting seemed to stop - however my 805416 card still wouldnt connect to it. Im inclined to wait for the firmware update, as it cant be a co-incidence that more than one person is experiencing this.

Also what is this odyssey network services thing thats installed? I thought XP doesnt need any other WPA add ons?

Obviously, USR has trouble getting WPA to work with native XP WPA support. That's why the installation automatically disable the WZC service and installed Odyssey instead.

I also experience some weird networking issue. With old driver or other wireless card I used, I can wake up my server machine by open Quicken and open the shared file on my server. With this new PC card driver and router firmware, I can no longer wake up my server this way unless I manually ping the server first.

Hate to think how long the definitive firmware will take to come out ... I'm not going to hold my breath. IF in the meantime I get anything useful back from USR tech support, I shall post it. Cheers.

i have the lateste 8054 firmware installed and latest pcmcia driver installed and everything (including WPA) is working well!

none of the 2.4ghz portables in the house interfere with the internet connection anymore..

i just hope it stays this way!!

I noticet, that new firware for USR 8054 make it mutch sensitive to interference.

I installed the firmware on my Windoze 2000 machine, but couldn't get WPA to work. I then got a blue screen, and now my computer gets a blue screen each time I put in a wireless card. I have tried uninstalling and re-installing the old software, but to no avail. The machine even crashes now when I put in my Netgear WG511 card, even though that was the card I downloaded the USR software through minutes before the update. I have also tried uninstalling the new network controllers that appeared to have been installed when the USR stuff went on. Anyone else getting this, or has something just got corrupted on my machine?

nicdent,

I've experienced kinda the same problem as you when I installed my pcmcia us robotics card for the first time.
Every time when I logged into my pc, the us robotics tool crashed (wpa enabled).
I had to uninstall the pcmcia usr driver/firmware and afterwards reinstall it to get it working. But now I'm having some other problems like slow connection speeds if you move away from the router.

Seems like US Robotics has a lot of work before the final release of their firmware.

anyone install this f/w and also uses AIM, seems like ever since i installed it my aim disconnects and reconnects every 30 minutes or so.

Jamezzzz,

Looks like my issue isn't the same. I have uninstalled all drivers and reinstalled them all, including the newer and the older versions of the US Robotics software and the drivers for my other wireless cards. I have even tried installing just one piece of wireless software and driver, not from US Robotics, and that does the same thing. They all work fine, until the point where I get a link established with my router, and then I always get a blue screen and my machine restarts...

It appears to have affected the base network connections on my machine. Even plugging in an ethernet cable network connection now gives me the blue screen.

Any ideas from anyone how to get over this?

Nic

I am not having much luck with the upgrade to 1.44b12 either. I have upgraded both my router and my USR cards. Speed doesn't seem to have gotten any better. Usually stabalizes around 15mbit. Most I got was about 19mbit. Whenever I set my channel to channel 2 for some reason the dynamic channel function took over. Eventually just set the router to channel 9 and it stopped changing.

Also for the WPA-PSK, it worked fine for my computer which was 3 feet away from the router, but my second computer which is about 30 feet away would continually disconnect and half the time couldn't reconnect at all. Very disappointing.

Bingo ... I finally got WPA-PSK to work. I went back to the old firmware (1.21h) and then reloaded 1.44b12. This time, the first setting I changed was the WPA-PSK. Worked fine!! I then changed settings one by one, saving each one and making sure everything worked before changing the next. Surprise, surprise! When I put back my old SSID, which works fine with WEP, the router started resetting itself again... It SEEMS that over 7 characters has this effect. For example, 1234567 works, but 12345678 sends it haywire!

Yep, changing the SSID to 7 characters appears to have stablilized the router- good work tvmd!

said by daweeze02:

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anyone install this f/w and also uses AIM, seems like ever since i installed it my aim disconnects and reconnects every 30 minutes or so.

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If you're on a wired PC, that's a sign that your router reboots every so often, check the log. If you're on wireless, the connection could be dropping, but I'd still check the logs. AIM will usually report loss of connection about a minute after it actually occured. Yes, I have the same problem, I went back to 1.21

Anyone has any suggestions? my SSID is 7 chars, the router overall works well when I turn off wireless on 1.44.

Thanks, tvmd. It worked for me as well when I trimmed a few characters off my SSID:)

However, my Win2000 laptop with WSC freeware still can't detect my router using WAP-PSK. It lists it as WEP. I'm not sure if it is WSC's problem or USR Router's problem. Back to the old WEP again. Does anyone using other brands of wireless card have any trouble with WPA on this router?

boo, the router still resets every 2-3 times a day. this is with the dynamic channel on. back in the old firmware, i had the same problem. wpa is used and it's 7 characters. this router = pwns me.